Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2016

I do not know if you can recall my dear readers, the monstrosity that was the Dolce & Gabbana show last season. Remember? It was the most disappointing clothing collection we had ever witnessed.
Well, one would have hoped that there had been even the slightest improvement, however to our dismay, nothing at all has changed. I believe this collection was more dire than Kanye West's Adidas one, now that is saying something!

Firstly, please let me put out a disclaimer to all you budding D&G fans out there, I do hope I don't offend thee, but I just want to stress to you that this collection was simply unacceptable.

Let me take a logical guess at what the main inspiration was this season... oh yes,'Italia is Love', Talk about major yawn. Season after season we see the same Italian inspiration and motifs- red roses plastered on a meagre laced top.

Can we also just address the fact that the Dolce boys ordered their innocent models to stop halfway down the runway and just take a selfie. It was cringe inducing.

In terms of the clothes, cataclysmic to say the least. We were introduced to a new pattern. To me it resembled tyre marks, it looked like the poor Dolce girl had been run down by the bus while taking a selfie at the fruit market. Now don't get me wrong but I know clothes should tell a story but I believe the Dolce boys have really killed their worldwide ecommerce with this one.

Tyre marks + 50s Riviera chic 

Following that, we had an array of potentially great looking caban coats. However they were of course wrecked by some pretty horrendous embroidery and colour combinations. Also paired up with those tiaras, the epitome of vulgarity.

What I gave up on was seeing the multi-coloured pom-poms they just threw onto everything. Onto the tiaras (Yes tiaras with pom-poms and fruit on them) and even on the shoes!! Probably the most grotesque shoes ANYONE could lay their eyes on.

              The product of ruining a perfectly pleasant Mary-Jane


They even dared to bring back the tiara headphone monstrosity, now that is something I just cannot comprehend.

This collection was Dolce & Gabbana at its very worst. Re-visiting every inch of its DNA and re-producing something so OTT it was virtually unbearable. The only touch which was vaguely 'new' was the feature of social media.

                                    Just NO!!!


        Note: I do not own any of these images- courtesy of Vogue.com

Gucci Spring/Summer 2016

From the deconstructed images of dated maps that plastered an iridescent skirt to the kaleidoscope trompe d'oeil ruffles and pussy bows that sat loosely around the neck. Yes, this season's Gucci collection was, without a doubt, the most beautiful art installation I've ever seen.

 

As you probably all know, I was apprehensive about Alessandro Michele taking the Gucci reigns from Frida Giannini. Their difference in styles and aesthetics are huge. Giannini was one to create an illusive, dark yet romantic Gucci woman, however Michele's vision for the house is far more experimental- 70s, androgynous, eclectic and nerdy.

Now, I have to say, I absolutely adored this collection. Talk about going big or going home. 

It was definitely a spectacle, we saw practically every piece seen last season, reimagined and reworked- taking on a new form of Michele's modern techniques. For example the invoking of the trompe l'oeil was certainly one of the main focus points in the collection. Now for any of you wondering, trompe l'oeil literally means 'deceives the eye', with this in mind Michele uses this as a technique, simply by taking a normal cut transparent piece of fabric and putting this special print over the top of it, appearing to us will be an object in three dimensions, however this is just an optical illusion. Quite clever I think.
Take the pink sequined skirt with the trompe l'oeil ruffles imprinted on it, anyone would have thought that was just a chiffon skirt, however we are wrong.

 

The clothes also felt more historical than ever. Perhaps it was those 70s bejeweled glasses, those boxy crocodile handbags which reeked 50s glamour or even the opulence from the graphic images which slathered onto a whimsical column dress.

 

 

As always the styling was unusually executed. You could tell that Michele was more bothered about the pieces individually and the fabrics and textures, more so than anything else. Lace, lurex, silk, chiffon, organza and eel skin, believe it or not- the list was endless.

my favourite pieces included the leather biker jacket with embroidered serpentine and oriental motifs, the python A-line midi-skirt with the red panel which sat on the hem, those garish primary studded strappy sandals that accented the geek-chic idea and lastly those psychedelic 70s wallpaper prints that gave a brand new definition to the word nostalgia.

 

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