During Paris Fashion Week, Marc Jacobs took a completely different approach to designing Louis Vuitton’s fall/winter 2011 ready-to-wear collection. The sexiness of the LV clothing identity remains but Jacobs went to a darker place taking an agent provocateur approach with leather bodices in blouses, sculpted jacket accentuating the shoulders and cage-like corsets.
The play on bondage and fetish obsessions is well incorporated into the collection without overshadowing the couture component of the clothing.
Chinese New Year is just around the corner – exactly one day away – marking February 3rd as the year of the rabbit. Over the next few days I’ll be publishing a mini tribute to herald in the new lunar year.
Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer’s 2011 RTW collection
Cultures from around the world often serve as the source of inspiration for a designer’s collection and oriental inspired designs and colours resurface from time-to-time every few seasons. Considering that Chinese New Year and Louis Vuitton’s ready-to-wear collection for spring/summer 2011 coincides around the same time and uses the Orient as its inspiration is a happy coincidence.
How long as it been since I’ve written a Fashion in the Newsentry? Too long!
Fashion in the News is a collection of articles and blog posts found online that catches my attention, and is in my humble opinion worth reading. Enjoy!
Inside Brazil’s booming fashion industry (Business of Fashion) – Brazil is a very dynamic country, its “rise as an important fashion market results from a complex set of interconnected conditions, many of which have been a long time in the making.”
Liz Claiborne revamp drives upbeat outlook(Reuters) – Liz Claiborne Inc. hasn’t turned a profit in around three years and now the company is restructuring by “closing underperforming stores and hiking marketing spend.”
Fashion in Film is a series of blog entries that looks at elements of fashion in some of my favourite movies.
A short while ago, I went on an online shopping splurge and bought several fashion movies on DVD. One of them was Loïc Prigent’s documentary called, Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton which follows designer, Marc Jacobs around the globe from America to Paris and Tokyo.
Coincidentally, the Fashionist and I Want- I Got blogged about this movie recently which in turn gave me a kick in the butt to put aside my procrastinating ways and post my insights into one of my favourite movies on fashion.
Released in 2007, Prigent’s film offers a humorous yet pressure-driven, behind-the-scenes look as Jacobs sources new inspirations for his designs as the Creative Director of fashion conglomerate Louis Vuitton and his namesake label Marc Jacobs. We are also shown the dynamic personal and professional relationships he has with various people such as his employees, friends (Sofia Coppola and Elizabeth Peyton), artistic partners (Takashi Murakami) and Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH Group.
Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (part one)
What struck me about the film is Jacobs’ creative process; its beginnings which can be as simple as pictures from an old magazine to the absurd, such as a plate of desserts. He typifies the North American work ethic pushing himself physically and mentally to the brink each season developing collections which captivates the fashion press and consumers all over the world.
Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (part two)
** I only posted part one and two of Loïc Prigent’sdocumentary in this blog entry due to length, but if you have time double click the YouTube videos which will then direct you to subsequent sections of the movie to watch in full.
For the fall/winter 2010 season many designers are opting to focus more on the clothes when showing their collections; Erdem and Mark Fast, just to name a few. There is less emphasis to create an elaborate backdrop to present new designs and this season Louis Vuitton took part in this movement holding its latest collection in a sun-filled atrium with a lone water fountain as its central feature.
In an interview with Hilary Alexander of the Telegraph UK, Marc Jacobs was adamant on casting models that represent a variety of looks and body types, particularly with curves such as Lara Stone and supermodel Elle Macpherson for Louis Vuitton’s fall/winter 2010 collection; it was a breath of fresh air seeing real women on the catwalk.
Marc Jacobs’ designs for Louis Vuitton this season is beautifully classic and lady-like in every single way; from the pulled back hair and clean make-up on the models, to the footwear, plethora of A-line skirts and fabric choices for the clothing. The collection gears itself toward the adult woman with sensibilities, life experiences and sophistication.
Fashion in the News is a collection of articles/blog posts online that catches my attention and (is in my humble opinion) worth reading. Enjoy!
Karl Lagerfeld Shot a Big Girl for V’s Size (The Cut) – Despite his distaste for curvaceous women, Karl Lagerfeld shot burlesque dancer Miss Dirty Martini on the mirrored steps of Coco Chanel’s 31 Rue Cambon salon for this month’s V magazine (zot alors!). The magazine’s issue focuses on body size and appears on newsstands January 14.
In India, Luxury Brands Need Localised Strategies (Business of Fashion) – Forbes magazine reports India has the fastest growing population of millionaires in the world and luxury retailers are eager to get in on this piece of the pie. To penetrate the Indian market, companies such as Montblanc and Louis Vuitton are using localized marketing tactics to engage customers and drive sales.
Holt Renfrew replaces president with Canadian Tire exec(Toronto Life) – This past week luxury retailer, Holt Renfrewannounced Mark Derbyshire will be replacing outgoing President, Caryn Lerner who held the position for five years. Some media reports speculate the changing of the guard is a result of the economic downturn but let’s just wait and see how the New Year progresses, we’re only 11 days into 2010.
Year in Fashion: Real life overtook the runway (Toronto Star) – Fashion Reporter, Derick Chetty provides a fashion year-in-review for 2009: the rise in popularity of fashion bloggers, Hollywood’s fascination with fashion in film (as a subject), the use of social media by designers to showcase their collections and the style invasion of Michelle Obama.
The big bum theory (Toronto Star) – For years the stick-figure look has dominated fashion magazines and catwalks. However, now the attention to the body has gone to the rear. Designers have made the butt the body part of focus for spring 2010, over exaggerating the posterior and hips by using panniers or you can use the 20th century technique called plastic surgery.
