Miu Miu Fall 2016

The trend of today seems quirkly playful and all out eccentric, which is certainly what Miuccia Prada brought to the table with this season's Miu Miu collection. 
With the current grannified eccentricity vibe we are seeing at Gucci, it is no wonder that more and more designers are becoming intrigued by this movement and eager to explore the niche hype of 'heirloom dressing'.
Today, Miuccia toyed with the ideas of eclectic V modern- factoring in the old and the new. We saw the revival of the late 70s, early 80s with of course a generous dose of 50s Hollywood glamour. Think carpet tapestry maxi skirts, velour evening wear and wide array of taffeta dresses. There were also hints of the more dandy, gentrified look- waxy parkas with furred up forearms, (seen on Kendall) tweed suits + jodhpurs and lastly topped off with sartorially shaped military proportions.

Tapestry maxi

Adriana Lima

Kendall Jenner

Tweed jodhpur suits

A contributing early historical element also came into play. More a melange of the romantic and medieval era than anything. Hence the highfalutin silk velvet brocades coated in subdued pinks and turquoises, transposed onto 50's opera coats or on the full-skirts.
Although extremely romanticized, we still had a lot masculinity. Pinstripe shirts, boxer shorts, (seen on Taylor Hill) and utility jackets all worked well with the feminine pieces to mitigate the formality and at the same time up the luxuriousness.

Silk velvet brocades

Masculinized proportions

Taylor Hill

I adored those small touches that radiated this sheer sense of opulence; from the Baroque upholstered fabrics and the jewel-toned bags, to those divine ballerina dresses with asymmetrical hem-lines. Those little motifs completed the heirloom way of dressing. It is almost as if the woman has picked up what she has found at her Grandparents' house: a string of pearls, fluffy slippers, family jewels, pocket squares and copious amounts of fur.

Baroque upholstered fabrics

Ballerina Dresses

Miu Miu, being the last fashion show of Paris Fashion Week, gave us a good indication to what's in store for the future state of the house. Diversity seems to be the most accentuated trend of them all this season and it was so good to see that Miu Miu casted more models of colour. Especially models of much more resplendent, fuller shapes as well.
This was by far my favourite Miu Miu collection to date.

Please Note: I do not own any of these images, courtesy of vogue.co.uk

DKNY FW16

After Donna Karan stepped down from her eponymous diffusion line DKNY, the fashion world was introduced to a new designing duo- Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osbourne (ex-designers for Public School). For their September debut at the house, they delivered a collection - of course - solely inspired by New York. However, they seemed to avoid the free-spirited eclectic nature of the city’s youth and approached from a different angle, a more corporate slant. The collection was full of modernity, minimalism and sophistication: sartorialized suits, crisp white shirts and over-sized proportions. There is no doubt that they had e-commerce in their minds when creating that collection.

Their second collection, on the other hand, was a tribute to New York’s streetwear culture. 90s’ motifs fluctuated throughout the collection, combined with Japanese cuts and silhouettes. I love how they are revitalizing the house by deconstructing all the wardrobe basics and re-working them into more wearable hybrids of the versions before. Take the DKNY signature, the pinstripe suit, for example. They totally lacerated it, creating a cropped blazer with baggy trousers being held up by giant buckled suspenders.
  

 

Tomboy is a word I would associate with this collection. We had chunky combat boots, the masculinized proportions of a re-shaped shirt dress with asymmetrical lines and a pair of striped tracksuit dungarees held up with huge plastic clips; what more could you wish for?

 

Re-worked shirt dress

90-esque sartorially striped dungarees

I took a particular liking to the velvet blazer which sat loosely above a high-neck lace bodice and also the white shirts with laser-cut details were just sumptuous.  

 

For the finale we were presented to a vast array of neoprene sweatshirts emblazoned with fresh new anagrams of ‘DKNY’ like ‘Designers know nothing yet’ and ‘Don’t knock New York’, definitely a clever way to show us that their legacy has just begun.

Evidently, being their second collection, Chow and Osbourne are still figuring out who their DKNY girl is – however, I think they are certainly heading on the right road for success!
  

 Please Note: I do not own any of these images, courtesy of Vogue.co.uk and theimpression.com
 

Yeezy Season 3 NYFW

Earlier this month, to my dismay, I fell prey to the music of Kanye West. Not only have I found myself downloading his album entitled 'Yeezy' off ITunes, I have also found this man to be egotistically challenging to the point that he still baffles me.

I think it would be fair to say that his tweets are enough to give you a brief overlook at his 20 year life plan. From the rekindled feud with dear Mama Swift, to announcing that he's $53 million in debt, it's all very Britney circa 2007.
 

I was surprised to see that Mr West has actually thought about the fact that he is creating clothes and not producing attire that the future slaves will be wearing in his dysfunctional Star Wars-esque kingdom he so desperately wishes would turn out to be real.
Also I'm glad to announce to you small proportion of Kanye lovers that he's finally reducing the prices of his, and I'll say it lightly, monstrous shoe calamities. Putting a £4000 price tag was one of the best things he did because no one in their right mind would spend that amount on something that unattractive. 

 

Yeezy Season 3 (FW16) did entangle me, however not for the right reasons. Yes, the clothes were far more wearable in comparison to other seasons- shown with a greater array of colour; less conforming nude, black and khaki and more sandy hues of taupe and ochre, not forgetting the chocolate browns and ivory. Elements of colour-blocking also came into play, featured through the athletic lurex sweaters and leg warmer socks. However, of course being a Yeezy show, there was a genuine lack of taste and character. We had all the same odd combinations: bodycon morph suits with sports bras layered over the top, ripped oversized hoodies and ludicrously layered proportions that I simple cannot comprehend. Unfortunately it seems that the nude legging will eternally remain a Yeezy staple. 

 

 

The clothes, shocking to some, were not the focal point of the evening. Oh no, it was the people in attendance.. the Kardashians of course! I was mostly excited about seeing Kim Kardashian as she had not made a public appearance since the birth of Saint West. The entire Kardashian clan came out on full form, including attention hungry momager, Kris Jenner. They all wore these marvellously glamplified garments created by Yeezy and Olivier Rousteing at Balmain consisting of: white furs, pearl embellished swing dresses and ripped ribbed knits. Kim also debuted her peroxide blonde hair that we could've sworn was a wig. 

 

 

I was very glad to see a very strong diverse model casting, made up of industry icons like Naomi Campbell, (who closed) Alek Wek and Liya Kebede. In fact, one of the main trends sited at New York Fashion Week Fall 2016 has been model diversity and that is a monumental breakthrough!

As the show closes, West riffs on his future. Telling the audience that he informed Anna Wintour of American Vogue that he dreams to be creative director at Hermes. Hmmm I wonder what she thought about that imposition?


Please note: I do not own any of these images, courtesy of Getty, celebuzz.com