PARIS AW12: THE HAIDER ACKERMANN EFFECT

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Its been a funny old weekend. While I am out in Paris my other half is getting written about in the press,  then by extension my personal life has been dragged into the tabloids too. Surreal to say the least. At this stage of Paris (i.e the very last leg of the month long fashion show caravan that began in mid February in New York - it all ends Wednesday), everything is getting surreal anyway.

Haider Ackermann's show this weekend (via style.com)

In fact it has got to the stage where I don't say hello to all the people I know anymore because, well, we see each other every few hours at shows, so a nod will do. Even with work colleagues I'm at the stage of necessary conversation only, and companionable silence is preferable. This is how it is for all of us doing this job right now.

Need I say more: Haider Ackermann kills it for Fall/Winter 2012

There were some truly magical fashion shows in Paris over the weekend. On Friday night Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz celebrated his 10th anniversary at the house with a raucous show and party, well covered by mainstream online media. Then, on Saturday morning, came Haider Ackermann. Regular readers of Fashion Editor at Large will know this is one of the few labels in the world that make me come over all fan girl. I profiled Haider a year or so ago for POP, (scroll down to the second page of the link to read the full profile) just before his current fashion fame, and knowing so much about him, gives me even more delight in his aesthetic and his success.

Over 15 years, I've seen a lot of fashion. Not as much as the true veterans of the runway circuit, but long enough to know when something is not just good, or great, but truly awesome in a shivers-up-the-spine and an emotional reaction in the pit of the stomach kind of way.

(via catwalking.com)

This happens at every Haider show; its a lot to do with the music he chooses, often a very moving classical piece; he loves a bit of Schubert... Here's an excerpt from my piece that explains:

What is happening with the cult of Haider now is that the American press and store buyer corps are obsessed with him. They love him; they sing his praises by releasing a torrent of lyrical prose to explain how they feel about his idiosyncratic clothes with their elongated silhouette, that music, those intense colours. Haider's is an aesthetic that splices North Africa and Belgium, but its the emotion they are reacting to as much as anything. Here is a little more background to explain.. 

Last night I was eating dinner in my hotel restaurant when I got chatting to a fellow solo diner, who happens to be a prominent American department store fashion director with an eye-watering budget to spend on clothes for her  all-American woman. She told me, "It is all about Haider. We believe he is the man setting the fashion agenda for the way American women want to dress. The nipped jackets, long tube skirts, opulent fabrications and his vivid colours - the pumpkin, dark purple, russet - are pretty much the template for how we will move forward. Plus he is influencing a swathe of designers who are following his every move.." 

We talked on, I was enthralled by the power a buyer and director of a large store group such as hers has, and with the simplicity of how such a seemingly complex and multi-layered vision like Haider's could be rendered so simple and commercial.

Haider Ackermann (via The Daily) 

Until now Haider Ackermann has been the insiders secret; but if the current spike in interest follows through beyond the current hype come Autumn 2012, he could begin to reach the critical mass of his potential audience. That I would very much like to see. 

What do you think of Haider Ackermann's work?

FASHION WILL EAT ITSELF: PARIS GOES MENTAL

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

See all these people? They are outside one of Paris Fashion Week's most famous catwalk show venues in Paris, in the Tuileries Gardens. I've just come from watching the Sonia Rykiel show there.

Check out all the people with cameras in the bottom left of the image - in order to get from the gate of the Tuileries Gardens to the tent the show is in, show-goers, mostly industry professionals going about their daily work and minding their own business, have to dodge past these photographers. I reckon there are at now least 150 to 200 of them in total, and 90% of them are likely to be chancers who have set up a blog and want to be "in fashion" (if they actually know what that means) or worse still, they are weirdos who like taking pictures of young pretty women and models.

In the past the street-style photography scene has been a wonderful addition to the proceedings, but it is now out of control.

(image from http://concretemagazine.sjmc.umn.edu)

At the end of each show the "weirdos" as I have come to call them in my head; mainly sweaty, overweight late middle-aged men with multi-pocketed flak waistcoats on, aggressively heckle models and elbow each other to get closest to them and then attack them with flashbulbs. All these girls are doing is trying to leave the show, find their next appointment, have a cigarette, take a breather, whatever. They are off duty, they can do what they want. Today a photographer elbowed a model in the back so hard she winced in pain; I saw another one make a girl cry because he would not leave her alone.

Now imagine a crowd bigger than this shoe-horned into a tiny side street. On the way into the Dior show today at the Rodin Museum, the slender street the entrance of the museum is on was utterly mobbed with above crowd of "street-style photographers" - in reality there are no more than 15-20 very good and reputable ones - and hangers on. The atmosphere outside that show was scary. Police were trying to control the crowd; there were crash barriers, traffic was at a standstill, people shouted, cars beeped. It was not only chaos, but dangerous. 

This is not what Paris Fashion Week should be about. Sure there are a few women who play the street-style game and further their careers by being photographed - fair play to them, they are consenting adults. But those of us who would like to get on with their jobs without this hassle have no choice but to face a picket line for each show. Why can't there be an area for street-style pictures to be taken? A sign saying  "if you want to be photographed, please go this way". 

When I lifted a copy of T magazine to cover my face as yet another lens was shoved into it this afternoon, the photographer called me a "fucking bitch" and told me I looked better with my face covered. When it comes to being attacked for being attacked by a camera, don't you think something is seriously wrong here? We are talking about fashion shows and people who go to fashion shows. 

The people who organise Paris Fashion Week need to sort something out. 

WHAT I DID IN PARIS

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

I was sitting behind Suzy Menkes and Hamish Bowles at Uniqueness by Alessandra Faccinetti (and Pinko). Their silhouettes could make a great fashion print.

Suzy & Hamish

Some of my favourite looks at Valli. 

I've been posting every day over at Sportsgirl so I though I'd pop the links up here so you can see everything I got up to in Paris- Enjoy!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Oh, and apparently we're not the only ones who've been imagining what K-Mid might wear from the latest round of shows, hmmm

THE HAT YOU NEED

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

One of the many highlights of my trip to Paris last week was discovering Bernstock Speirs and their super cute hats. The FashEd is already a big fan and I'm not surprised as their Bunny hat seems to me like a Summer version of the much admired Marie Mercie hat which she is so in love with. We're noticing a playful, childish mood come through for next Summer so we're tipping this as the accessory you never knew you needed. And the perfect model is Thelma Speirs herself who began the business in 1982 with partner Paul Bernstock and has been having a great time doing it ever since! Drop by their store on Brick Lane on buy online.

Trust us when we say yellow is the colour to go for...

The Bunny hat is £45 and come in all sorts of colours

 If you're partial to something a little more classic, then Bernstock Speirs also have the most darling boater hats for next Summer. Just add a prom skirt for flirty, feminine, Mary Poppins-y charm.

Boater at Emporio Armani

John Galliano SS12

Catwalk images- catwalking.com. All other pictures Fashion Junior at Large

SS12: UNDER THE SEA

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

JW Waterhouse's The Mermaid. This season's collections are moving the image on

As one might expect from Spring/Summer collections, we have seen a myriad of references to all things seaside related during this fashion season; Mulberry took us on a seventies day out at the British beach, Daks (amongst others) was all fifties riviera, Craig Lawrence used sand as his starting point and Jonathan Saunders was all about Miami. But in Milan and Paris, some of the key collections have left the familiarity of the waterside and plunged to the mythical depths of the ocean to draw inspiration from sea creatures, shells and mermaids. 

Givenchy SS12

At Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci served up a streetwise version of mermaid-ness. There was the irridescence of a pearl scattered seabed and a scaled effect which echoed a translucent ocean dweller but the addition of a blazer and flash of leg meant these did not descend into being unwearable back on dry land.

Givenchy SS12

At Versace, Donatella referenced her brother's signature baroque prints and presented a sexed up modern mermaid,who looks like she might be off to the Marine Bar to sit on a shell and scout out the sea horse talent.

Versace SS12

Versace SS12

Versace SS12

At Alexander McQueen, it was all about drawing comparison to the textures of coral and pearl for Sarah Burton. Padded hips and fishtails, not unfamiliar features of a McQueen collection, leant themselves to the creation of  a mermaid silhoutte. The lace caps, called fetishistic by some, emphasise the other worldly, sea bed effect.

Alexander McQueen SS12

Alexander McQueen SS12

Alexander McQueen SS12- This looks like it's slicked in sea water

Finally, at Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld drew on one of the house's most important symbols, the pearl, and paid homage to its oceanic origins not only in the clothes but also on the pure white, ocean floor set. The pièce de résistance was Florence Welch, singing from inside a giant clam shell, 2012's incarnation of the Mermaid fantasy. 

Chanel SS12

Chanel's ocean floor set at the Grand Palais

Florence serenades the audience from her shell stage as the models encircle the set, spines encrusted with pearls.

All images, aside from The Mermaid (from JWWaterhouse.com), from Catwalking.com

PARIS FASHION WEEK: ALL ABOUT MCQUEEN

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

The Alexander McQueen show this evening was a spectacle of demi-couture as fine as any Parisian maison could create, though this finery is all pretty much handmade in London, England. Sarah Burton, fresh from the most unpredictably brilliant, fame-making 18 months of her life was in typically low-key form backstage, while onstage her work was breathtaking in its scope of technique and the clothes were extraordinarily beautiful and haunting. This served to remind us that McQueen is dead, but that someone lighter and easier in her skin than Lee, holds the key to unlocking the brands future.

It gave me cause for thought, though, that Burton and the Alexander McQueen business is putting out a message of pure high fashion drama, with not an easy-to-wear piece, or new season fashion message in sight. This collection was all dresses. I'm not complaining, because I know full well that the selling-collection and the McQ line lookbooks will slip into my in-box soon, and that there will be clothes for everyday life in there. But where does this leave normal folk interested in seeing what the McQueen fashion message is to be for Spring Summer 2012? I say enjoy the beauty, there is not enough beauty in the world. See for yourself.  It worked on us. We arrived at the McQueen show tired, we left on a high.

Furthering my attempts at photography with the new zoom lens, I give you the McQueen show, Fashion Editor At Large style.

Sarah sandwiched between Francois Henri Pinault (majority shareholder of Alexander McQueen) with his wife, the actress Salma Hayek. Salma said to her post the show "you have made me very happy"

Two tired but very happy Sarahs: Burton of McQueen, Mower of US Vogue, who is due to recieve her MBE next week.