Information Security & US & Life & Love & Fashion & Hacking & Passion

the models who made it big this season

"Diversity" was the buzzword for Spring, and we're happy to report that our top ten list is a multiculti mix—with just two new faces hailing from modeling's most prolific breeding ground, Russia. The girls who caught our attention come from Senegal, China, India, and West Philly. As they say in Paris, vive la difference!

PARIS, October 4, 2008

By Sarah Mower

It was only a matter of time before all the fringe we've seen this season went West. Sure enough, it was down to Jean Paul Gaultier to rustle it up in full buckskin glory, across the cacti-strewn desert sands of the Hermès runway. Naturally, this cowgirl is quite the chicest, classiest example of her kind ever to don a Stetson, and her fringe-swishing posse was led out by none other than Stephanie Seymour and Naomi Campbell.

Only a branded thoroughbred as sure-footed as an Hermès filly could possibly tread this trail with such a sense of fun. The kitsch risk was high, but Gaultier made it look natural: Hermès = equestrian heritage + sophisticated world traveler, after all. His quick mind for the crossover pun also found a way to twist the classic house scarf as a bandanna, and even to tame a poncho to supreme elegance, rendering it in square-cut cashmere knits and slinky jersey day dresses. And the accessories were all-out amazing: soft suede riding boots, mirrored aviators, driving/riding gloves, slim crocodile envelope clutches, handheld canvas-and-leather suitcases, and (whoa, ladies!) even a fringed Birkin.

If the Mexican striped-serape section (with cigars) went a bit too far, Gaultier reined in the references in good time to ensure that the after-dark etiquette of the Elysée Palace wasn't thrown into disarray. Take off the hat and strip away a bit of bandolier leather-work, et voilà: long, sinuous deep purple or green gowns with Madame Sarkozy's name stamped all over them. Result: Even if the luxury-goods gold rush is tailing off elsewhere, there's no sign of an end to the stampede for Hermès classics (fringe-wear or no) on the horizon.

Collette Dinnigan

PARIS, October 4, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

There was a little black dress midway through Collette Dinnigan's show that reminded people who've followed her career of the early days. The frock's peekaboo-lace back echoed the lingerie-inspired dresses with which she made her name in the nineties. It would've been a good look upon which to build her Spring collection. As it was, it was just a (welcome) blip among many other pleasant but less distinctive dresses, some densely embroidered in metallic paillettes or studs, others cut in a filmy white chiffon with a violet butterfly print. Military touches on jackets struck a timely note, but there wasn't enough here to distinguish the clothes from those found in the contemporary collections seen on the runways of New York. In fact, that might be a good venue for this commercially oriented designer.

MILAN, September 23, 2008

By Sarah Mower

What is it about the twenties that is playing on so many designers' minds? For Raf Simons at Jil Sander, it was the moment the Parisian avant-garde discovered African art and gave birth to modernism: Simons referenced this by projecting a Man Ray photograph of Kiki de Montparnasse cradling an African head sculpture onto the backdrop of the runway as the audience assembled. Simons said it was just a matter of spontaneous instinct that made him take flapper fringing as a central device in the show. "But it was more about the aesthetics of that time. I didn't want to do a 'Charleston' collection," he said. "Jil Sander must always be pure, and I'm aware of making any reference minimal, but I also want to show my freedom to be inspired by the moment."

The opening of the show was a powerfully graphic series of one-color silhouettes in which silken skeins of fringing were draped over stretch bodysuits. It began a sequence of precision-cut experiments in form that abstracted tailoring into unexpected elements—shorts suits sliced into sharp, asymmetric angles at the front; hemlines constructed from rectangular panels; jackets made with a swooping drape in the back; leather shifts with incisions left open at the hip.

To be sure, Simons' exhaustive demonstrations of a million new ways to loop, drape, and fly a fringe (they even dangled to floor level on bags) did eventually tip over into tedium. He could have dispensed with a lot of that, but the development of his overriding vision of a clean, even glacial modernism is a powerful thing to watch.

MILAN, September 23, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

Cristina Ortiz took a second stab at establishing a new identity for Salvatore Ferragamo today. Unfortunately, it didn't fare much better than her bumpy first effort. You could see that she was trying to manipulate elements of the house's accessories into the clothing: D-ring closures on suits, leather shoulder straps complete with buckles for dresses. She played a bit with classics such as the trench and the crisp men's shirt as well, turning the former into a strapless dress and the latter into a bustier with a wide leather belt below the bust. As ideas they were interesting, but in execution they looked tricky. As for her eveningwear, mostly plissé halter dresses with deep bunches of fabric at the waist and hips, the fit was not only unflattering but often poor; nipple slippage is one thing on the runway, quite another in real life.

It's not clear whom Ortiz is targeting with these clothes. They're far too racy for Ferragamo's classic customer, and yet not on-trend enough to woo new ones. If there was a glimmer of hope to be found, it was in her suits. There's still too much going on around the waist—and no one wants to add bulk there—but color choices like a pale lilac or the soft drape of a lapel betray an appreciation of the feminine that seems otherwise curiously lacking in this female designer.

MILAN, September 23, 2008

By Sarah Mower

Miuccia Prada had a sound bite for her Spring collection. "It's primitive," she said, "going back to what counts." And what counts most in a back-to-basics time, when most of us will need truly visceral temptation to get us out and shopping? Why, glamour and eroticism, of course. When the chips are down, there is no one who can turn up the thermostat of subversive sexual provocation quite as high as Mrs. Prada. Her girls, their skin glistening as if on a fevered summer's night, might have been passing through on their way to or from lovers' assignations, their clothes disarranged in various states of falling-off, or looking as if they might do so at any moment. Rumpled and crinkled fabrics have been appearing all over this season, but never with such sly intent. One pull of a trailing drawstring tape and, whoops! A person could find herself half naked. Not that this collection is, of course, at all brassy. From some angles, it can all look like a perfectly innocent summery dishevelment—that is, until there's a glimpse into an open-sided dress, or a cashmere sweater turns to display hospital-tape ties holding the back together (or just about).

There was something fabulously Italian about all this shameless reveling in femininity. The fifties overtones, with the high chignons, the ruched bras, and swishing rear-action in the below-knee pencil skirts managed to channel the heyday of Cinecitta without cliché. Best of all, this is a collection destined to look even better on a woman with a real body than it does on a teen model. And that, Mrs. Prada surely knows, really is "what counts."