S'09: Couture Valentino

Valentino

PARIS, January 28, 2009

By Sarah Mower

Following the not entirely elegant dismissal of Alessandra Facchinetti after two short seasons and the promotion of the accessory team as her replacements, the house of Valentino needs to regain its sense of equilibrium. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli had backup on their first outing as haute couturiers. The retired Valentino Garavani and his entourage descended into the arena (a grand domed lecture theater in the Sorbonne) to endorse the debut, taking their ringside seats amid the kind of applause that might have once been accorded to a Roman emperor.

It is rather sad that Valentino was not able to thwart this problem pre-retirement. But I found a lot of the new clothes to be classic Valentino:?
Love it! And, true to form, most of the clothes are totally wearable just like V would have made them. They're couture because of how they are made and the material that composes them.

See? Righteous.
There is one Valentino-esque thing I find lacking: sexism. I don't know what it was about the old orange man but his clothes always evoked a tinge of a cringe in me. It had something to do with a certain tone he used to cast, something about a way women were supposed to look, had to look in order to be feminine? I'm not sure quite how to explain it but I don't find that element here.

Yeah, I think I get what you're talking about...and I think that element is called youth.

Because this?

Was not exactly the most youthful Valentino show I've ever seen. That said, I thought this show was fine. Beautiful bead work, but overall it was a little simple for my taste I think. I realize that this is a transition period for Chez Valentino (and as much as I didn't like their most recent Spring RTW collection, I'm kind of sad about Alessandra Facchinetti getting the boot, seeing as I did quite like her last couture show) and I hope these new people find their footing soon...but as is, I'm not super thrilled.

Still, if no one wears this to the Oscars

I will!
STATUS: Sounds like you liked it a little more than I did, but overall a good showing.

S'09: Couture E - G

Elie Saab's is pretty, and employs a lot of fine detailing and interesting techniques. My only real issue is with the styling.

I mean, damn can't a girl get some chap stick? For the most part, haggardly was the word on faces. I understand the desire to keep it toned down and nude since the clothes are muted in color, but Elie kind of took it a little too far.

Can't a girl get some chap stick for REALS. Y'know, as the years go by, my good will towards Elie Saab has transformed into apathy, and with this show, antipathy. Halle Berry's Oscar dress isn't going to live in our hearts forever, Elie, and it would be nice if you would do something more than just evening wear some time. You know? I don't necessarily mean that every designer should be working out a specific concept whenever they have a showing, but I do think that never having any concept or reference point beyond "Gowns!" makes the designer's work much less memorable. In the future, this is how reminiscent conversations about Elie Saab will go:
Person 1: Hey, remember that one Elie Saab collection?
Person 2: Which one?
Person 1: You know, the one with...the gowns.
Person 2: ...

And, I mean, it goes without saying that there are a lot of gorgeous dresses this time around:

But, beautiful as all this is, I'm not exactly wowed. It's not just a coincidence that the dominant color motif here is beige.
STATUS: Lovely stuff but, as usual, not exactly one for the ages.

Jean Paul Gaultier is brilliant. Check this out:

C'est supercool, non? And the hair is pretty bangin' too! There's a fan-like look on Chanel Iman you're going to ADORE. And, let yourself gander at this:
So much for the eye to see! I loved Chanel for different reasons, but this is probably best of couture when you consider it as a whole, complete package. It's quite rare for me to truly adore a show that lacks color, but in this case the effect is marvelous and appropriate.
Thus, it has been written.You are definitely right - this is couture at its best, from concept through execution. As reference points, you can't really go wrong with the 80s and Spirographs.

But that doesn't really even begin to describe everything that's going on here. Oh, the places you'll go!

I usually am not a fan of lots of sheer fabric, but JPG is fuckin' working it here. Brava.
STATUS: Totally agree, this is pretty genius - I much prefer this exploration of geometry in fashion to his previous one.


Givenchy was not the best nor the worst. Again, we see this weird makeup choice: now turned a whiter shade of pale and resembling death almost. Death isn't becoming in this show:
If the look or tone or motif had anything to do with Día de los Muertos, perhaps I'd understand. But it really doesn't.

As far as clothes are concerned, you'll find some marvelous, diaphanous materials, some fabulous cowl-veils, and gorgeously delicate embellishments.

I could NOT agree with you more about Givenchy's undead make up; it made looking at the deet shots kind of a trying experience. I have not been a tremendous Givenchy fan of late; I am not smelling what Ricardo Tisci is cooking. This collection is so much lighter (in tone and in the garments themselves - diaphonous is a good word for it) than his previous ones, though, and I feel like we might be able to take some steps toward reconciliating. I didn't love everything about this show...

...but I finally feel like I might be starting to understand the language that Tisci is speaking.

STATUS: This show expresses Tisci's X factor to me in a way I was previously unaware of.

S'09: Couture Christians

Christian Dior: So his ready-to-wear show was pretty lackluster. We can accept this and move forward.

Let me start by asking you, isn't this the type of life you wished you lived?Just insane hair, toast munching, phone chattering life? That was backstage at Christian Dior.
Okay now what, for the love of succulent baby Jesus, is going on here?????? Trussed up-furry-hair-croissant is the best English approximation I can come up with. It's- just- wow. And there's no way to prepare you for the next image. I'm just going to fling it yon-ward ho!:OQIehOEFHHE;HG???? OIHDOeihgqheog.

Yeah.
And that is merely the beginning. The color palette is exquisite. The silhouettes are classic Dior insan-itude (which is like attitude plus insane).


After some of the fug that was ready-to-wear, you'll feel like you were trying to fight a war in Russia. Your men were outnumbered, the Russians had better weapons, and most of all, the fashion landscape was unforgiving, not cut out for real people.
The cold was seeping into your bones and very heart.


Cut your losses and give that up baby. Step into the light. This is couture. This is art. This is the reason you care about fashion.

First of all, yes. That is the exact life I want to be living. And I'm going to claw it out of her pale, undernourished hands. Maybe I'll let her keep the toast.

Also, wouldn't that make us fashion Nazis in that Russian scenario?

In other news, I loved this show. This was probably my favorite Dior since their Spring 08 couture show (which might be my favorite couture show ever). Galliano pretty much always has inventive silhouettes, but this is one of his most successful marriages of New Look Dior and outside influences:

And I'm also delighted and surprised that he held back on the detailing, letting them function more as graceful accents than as statements of their own (and as much as I love Galliano's embellishments, they're never really what you might call delicate).

The one lamentable thing about the subtlety of the detailing is that it resulted in not-great detail shots. Maybe then the trussed-up kielbasa hair thing would fit in more with the looks as a whole than as a period detail. But that shit's just lip service, baby. When the final gowns came out, I was all eyes.

STATUS: You're my number one guy, Galliano. Dolly, don't ever go away again!

Christian Lacroix All the girls wear these humongous door-knocker earrings encrusted with jewels. Other than that, I pretty much was not into this show tatall. Maybe I'm not sophisticated or something, but I think it's just ugly.

I'll grant you, Lacroix's first few looks did nothing for me.

What in the hell are you doing to our Chanel? She's not some toy for you to splash your Starlight Express fantasies on! And this

looks like Reebok by Lacroix. But I didn't hate this collection. Granted, some of it is kind of hideous...

...and some more of it is also pretty hideous...

...the show (brief interruption: I love the facial expressions of the woman on the left. What a roller coaster ride this must be for her) still had its fair share of pearls.

Do you remember when the costume designer from Marie-Antoinette won the Oscar and she totally looked like Oscar Wilde and it was totally delightful? I loved that look then and I love it still.

If you don't find these charming, maybe you're in the wrong business, toots. And THESE?

STATUS: Maybe you were never sophisticated, Lush. Maybe that was all just a fever dream. The cream always rises to the top, but you stuck down there with the curds. And they stank.