A Brief History of Space & Time, part 1.

As I've heard again and again, advertising isn't necessarily about selling you a product, but a lifestyle and a mindset. Apple commercials sell you on the idea that the Mac is the 'cool kid' computer, that it's a style choice that says so much more  about you than that you just prefer a white laptop. Dorito's ads don't just tell you about the new flavour, the new packaging, but it reminds you that it's there, to be bought and enjoyed. Same thing goes for luxe advertising campaigns. They may be larger, glossier and more expensive-looking than most, but similarly, it's all about keeping a firm presence in the mind of the consumer, present and potential. Some campaigns feature models that aren't even wearing the product; the clothing isn't even there on the ads- nudity, for some companies, makes a stronger statement about the brand image than their own clothing does.

So I've been amassing a collection of past ad campaigns (with help from The Style Registry) that have made an impact on me and have really stuck in my mind in the years since they were used. I looked at these ads and fully connected with the themes that they promoted, and I still appreciate them today.

LOUIS VUITTON:
Not only is LV a huge advertising presence in Hong Kong, they just do it well. Luxurious, textured...LV ads look fantastic in both glossy magazines and on huge billboards.

 

Louis Vuitton S/S 2004 (Mert & Marcus)

Louis Vuitton S/S 2006 (Mert & Marcus)

Louis Vuitton S/S 2007 (Mert & Marcus)

Louis Vuitton F/W 2007 (Mert & Marcus)

NARCISCO RODRIGUEZ:
What women out there doesn't want to look like Carmen Kass in this ad? They haven't altered the campaign in years, so they must know how effective it is.

DOLCE & GABBANA, D&G
I don't think anyone does an ensemble photoshoot like the crew behind D&G advertising. There's always a strong historical or cultural narrative, and such creativity! I used to put these ads up on my closet doors before I was even truely interested in fashion.

D&G, S/S 2005, (Steven Meisel)

Dolce & Gabbana, F/W 2006 (Steven Meisel)

Dolce & Gabbana, F/W 2006 (Steven Meisel)

Dolce & Gabbana F/W 2007 (Steven Klein)

Dolce & Gabbana S/S 2006 (Steven Meisel)

Dolce & Gabbana S/S 2004 (Steven Meisel)

 

Thanks to http://community.livejournal.com/styleregistry/ for their work in uploading all of these high quality images.

A No to Lanvin

I'm not going to lineup for the H&M x Lanvin release on November 21st. Too stressful- in Hong Kong, designer collaborations are regarded as serious business, and I know that every H&M in town will be a complete and utter mess. Don't get me wrong, I heart Alber Elbaz...but I'm not sure how keen I am on luxe-mass collections. I think that a lot of the allure of buying luxury brands is in the fact that few others will be wearing it (clearly this theory doesn't stand with regards to leather goods and accessories; every other woman in the CBD carries an LV bag). Expensive, mid-range, cheap, it's always exciting when you're wearing something unique, and for the next 6 months after the release, the Lanvin dresses are going to be EVERYWHERE.

3 years from now? I'd probably wear this stuff. When everyone's forgotten it ever existed.

I guess that makes me an elitist.

A Cutesy Pair

Plushy freaking sneakers! A Reebok x Hello Kitty collaboration. Not available outside of Japan :<

 

I can't even deal with the cute factor.

A Memory of a Dress

In March 2004, Karolina Kurkova attended the Met's Costume Institute Ball wearing Azzedine Alaia

 

This is not a great photo, and you can't even come close to seeing all of the details, but this dress is so lovely. I tried to find photos of Karolina climbing the Met stairs, as that's when the complexities of the bustle and train can best be seen...but the Internet isn't really holding on to photos from 6 years ago!

I'm posting this because I find it fascinating that I would hold on to a romantic attachment to something for years, and I wonder why I haven't really done it with other pieces of clothing. I think it's mainly because owning it is much less possible than perhaps, a silk blouse or a peacoat. I will NEVER have this dress *wails*

A Start on the Chaos that is S/S 11

I always find Fashion Week overwhelming because there are so many shows to see and that is really hard when you can only see them on a computer screen (it TIRES the eyes, yeah). You end up making the decision to look at ones that are the personal faves (Bottega, 3.1, Dries, Vera Wang, Lanvin, Erdem, Celine) and the big names (YSL, Marc Jacobs, D&G etc.).....so when do you take a look at the up and comers? I usually take 3 or 4 weeks to sift through everything and make sure to evaluate collections that I generally don't think about......like Rochas.....Les Copains.......Christopher Kane......others....

At the moment I'm in Capetown and my Internet is not great, but I really felt like making a start on blogging S/S- this post will definitely be limited in scope and aesthetic value......BUT FASHION WEEK WAS PRETTY GRAND THIS SEASON! I'm not sure whether designers tend to take themselves too seriously for their fall/winter collections or whether inspiration for S/S was unusually rampant, and beautiful, and glorious . There were some truely KNOCKOUT collections and a whole bunch of interesting ones.

It pleases me so much to see collections continue their achievements from the most recent Resort collections- as you can remember, I was pretty blown away by them.


Proenza Schouler



Proenza Schouler

Proenza Schouler

This is the kind of excitement I remember feeling when Proenza first came out as a label- exuberant colour (used appropriately!), intriguing underwear/outerwear, sick styling, bold patterning.....a return to all that was good about the duo's first few seasons. I didn't want to support the hype around this collection but I couldn't not.

Zero + Maria Cornejo

Erdem

Erdem



Erdem

My little Canadian dumpling, you slay me with your ability to create beautiful, ethereal clothing.

Bottega Veneta

  

Bottega Veneta

I think that Tomas Maier dreams in intense colour. I think that his dreams are lush and detailed and vivid. His collections are largely monochromatic but his use of texture, of voids and visible skin in contrast is so strong. I feel he truely investigates what is new and what can be done with materials.

A Remark

I was kind of waiting for someone to call Alexander Wang out. I loved his football-and-sweats collection from S/S 2010 but I think his mentality is definitely more suited to his diffusion line. I think  that he has style and a great eye towards trend forecasting but no real depth or technical knowledge. A lot of people on nymag.com are commenting that he should stick to designing accessories- I wholeheartedly agree (those leopard wedges?!).

I think it's great when there is honest critique of popular designers because it challenges their right to maintain such high price points. The bubble's leaking, Mr. Wang, are you going to let it burst?

A Skeleton Bag

I was in Gastown's Rubi & Kino the other day and came upon this gorgeous excuse for a shoulder bag:

The lovely sales associate told me that it's by Montreal designer Denis Gagnon (in collaboration with Fullum & Holt- a century+ old Montreal company that specialises in handcrafted leather goods). With M0851, Roots and now Fullum & Holt it appears as though Canada produces some quality leather products! Exciting!

You may not be able to tell but the front section of the bag is a small, detachable wristlet clutch! I deeply appreciate all efforts of creators to increase the functionality of a product- instead of one bag, you're purchasing three different options (all eerily structured doctor bag/skeletal/ribbed/body-con fierce sacs). I think it's worth paying attention to designers that put more thought into how their products are going to be interacted with after taking it home- the journey has only just started upon purchase! 

** Important Note**  Canadian First Nation communities have been producing beautiful, entirely handmade, raw and treated leather goods for a very long time....usually at better price points too! I forgot to mention that earlier, an annoying mishap.

An Opinion: Celebrities vs. Insiders

I used to only see photos of this beautiful woman on Jak & Jil Blog, until I really started looking at the faces snapped by Garance Doré, her bf et al. and noticed that Giovanna is everywhere in the fashion world. She has quite the group of devoted fans, from bloggers on the Fashion Spot to Japan, who pay verrry close attention to her sartorial choices- even if she didn’t have a day job/established connections/a foot in the media already, her popularity greatly increases the value of her stock.

I think I’ll expand upon this idea of having ‘stock’ in the fashion world.

The fact is that women like Giovanna- industry women that ‘regular’ women want to dress like, are extremely useful to the fashion industry at large. Women who are interested in luxury fashion consume a great deal of media related to the industry, whether they can afford to purchase or not. Young women who initially do not have a great deal of luxury ‘awareness’ become exposed to new brands through industry professionals like Giovanna. Because industry professionals cast their nets over a wide range of styles and trends, consumers are made more aware. Editors/Publicists/Stylists are not accessible. If anything, they are encouraged to take risks and get personal with their personal style (genius). Through these women, newer ‘indie’ brands are brought from the fringe into the aspirational realm while older, entrenched fashion houses get to show off the fact that they are still current and progressive.

In my opinion the fashion media should embrace women in the industry as the greatest source of positive publicity. They encourage fledgling fashion fiends to be knowledgeable and more savvy in what they choose to buy and what they choose to wear.

This kind of mentality has a similar rhetoric to that which emerged when celebrities began to become more popular fashion icons; use a beautiful, enviable woman who has heavy media coverage to sell your brand. The key elements remain the same. What changes however is a)the level of knowledge and the experience that you are delivering to your potential customer and b)the strength of the bond that you can potentially establish between the reader and the luxury industry. Dressing a celebrity that is not in the fashion industry brings a mix of intense publicity and creative constraints. Forming a relationship with someone like Lauren Conrad (as the article continues, feel free to insert any current popular celebrity instead) will give your brand a boost in popularity however the average consumer you attract will be less knowledgeable, more fickle and less discerning. Why? Because Lauren Conrad is accessible to most women through virtually all mainstream media outlets.

In order to be exposed to coverage of [Kate Lanphear, Anna dello Russo, Carine Roitfeld, Giovanna Battaglia, Katie Grand etc.] you must already be looking for something more ‘industry-pure’ and industry driven in the first place. That, or you’re already part of the very small group that is able to attend shows and purchase off the runway. I know this because I went through a similar evolution myself (in the former group clearly). I was an informed consumer who wanted to become more informed, directly from the source. The beauty of creating celebrities within the fashion industry is that their culture, the image that they project and their own consumer behaviours work in synergy with the needs of the brand. It is beneficial for a brand to establish a relationship with an industry professional because they are knowledgeable and more likely to take creative risks with the products. In turn, the consumer they attract will emulate this behaviour and adopt a similar mindset.


In her career, Lauren Conrad has a brand to sell and that is *herself*. In the end, her brand will always trump your own (in this case I am not just referring to the brand she embodies in her physical self- her eponymous clothing line too will take priority). Fans of Lauren Conrad will almost always come away with a stronger memory and a stronger attachment to the celebrity than the accompanying brand. It is in fact the ‘brand relationship’ and not the brand itself that is the most clearly established; ie. people know that Lauren Conrad wears Chanel but have no real attachment to the brand image and culture. Case in point: I have actually heard people say that they want to buy “the Lauren bag from The Hills”. The Lauren Conrad brand has trumped both the 55 years of the Classic Caviar Jumbo Flap handbag and nearly a century of work towards establishing the Chanel name brand.

In case anyone is wondering…….I’m not being dramatic about this because I’m sad for the Classic Caviar or Chanel for that matter (they’ll survive); I’m being dramatic because I believe that the aforementioned case study (ha!) is significant in what it says about mass consumer culture. Because of the Internet and the ability to replay streaming videos, people don’t need to work very hard to search for images anymore and can establish a relationship with multiple products very quickly. The mass amount of emotional attachments are formed with specific products that demonstrate a strong relationship between themselves and the celebrity. In this group the most important thing for most consumers is that the product can be identified with that specific celebrity and the lifestyle they represent

Ideally an attachment would form between a consumer and a brand culture, fostering an emotional, intimate, long term buying relationship. Ideally, the informed consumer would buy from a wide range of brands and shop at a wide range of sources (flagship/e-boutique/archives/department store). At the very least, the informed consumer in a lower income bracket (much preferred to the uninformed, wealthy consumer) would be encouraged to think of making an aspirational purchase, even if this only happens once or twice in their lifetime. Such a thing can only happen when consumers are inspired to take a more intellectual approach to fashion, inspired by the women existing within the fashion industry.

*A quick introduction to aspirational branding:

A Changed Woman

Alessandra Ambrosio has been reinvented, and I like it. In fact, quite a few of the Victoria's Secret Angels have changed their careers around as of late and have been very successful in doing so. I'd always felt a bit sorry for the VS Angels because they never seemed to get any notable editorial or campaign work outside of the lingerie sector. Victoria's Secret pays really well but it's a bit cheesy, no? You just can't quite imagine Marisa Miller or Selita Ebanks taking on Vogue or i-D.....

I'd always thought it was because their looks did not translate well into high fashion, but after taking a look at the following images I'm starting to wonder. Maybe their agencies consciously groomed them into 'Angel' material in order to grab the most lucrative contracts? Whatever's best for business, I guess. Maybe we all could get modelling work with a bit of eyebrow bleach and straightened hair. Just remove all of your cosmetics, ladies, a bare face is high fashion. Or not.

Whatever the case is, I'm not hating. Check out the new sophisticates, Alessandra, Adriana and Miranda:

Couture editorial from Vogue Russia, May 2010 (Alasdair McLellan)

Moschino F/W 10 Campaign (Inez & Vinoodh)

One of the six covers subjects for Love issue #4 (Mert & Marcus)

Givenchy F/W 09 Campaign (Mert & Marcus)

Loewe F/W 10 Campaign (Nigel Shafran)

Jil Sander F/W 10 Campaign (Willy Vanderperre)

Cover of i-D, Summer 2010 (Willy Vanderperre)

Thanks to Fashion Copious, trendhunter, stylefrizz, Andrey's World, sassisamblog and Fashion Gone Rogue for their copies of the images.

A Magazine I Actually Enjoy

When something in the fashion world really excites me I get this combined feeling of complete happiness and intense self-awareness . I can feel my ears prick and my shoulders scrunch up in the direction of my ears- I smile and sigh and repeat to myself 'this is so. interesting!'. I want to absorb like a high quality sponge. Past events that have evoked this type of reaction include American Women: Fashioning a National Identity, Coco Avant Chanel and FIT's Eco-Fashion: Going Green exhibit.

My current joy of joys is a large, beautifully bound new magazine called Industrie, which I have enjoyed in increments over the last 3 weeks. Released, very sadly I might add, only twice a year Industrie enjoys its status as the only magazine dedicated to the culture of fashion. What I see cover-to-cover is a celebration of the people, ideas and business savvy behind the whole industry (to VERY CLEVERLY borrow from the magazine title). I love that it`s readable and doesn`t include anything about love and romance or how to dress for your body type or how jean leggings are the summer`s biggest fashion hit! It may not being the Economist but it`s informative and deeply in tune with what I was looking for in a magazine: industry-focused, varied content and elegant editorial.

http://www.magnation.com/Industrie-2952.php

A Study of Resort 2011. part 1

I think that as society's attention span decreases as a whole, the 'powers that be' have decided to make Resort similar to a third Fashion Week in order to remain ahead of the curve. What I don't understand is how the design teams even have time for this amount of production; Marc Jacobs had 38 looks, Gucci showed 42 and Oscar de la Renta had a whopping 53 looks for Resort this year. In some ways I agree with those who say that these kind of displays are decreasing the quality of fashion that is being generated- how can you possibly find fresh ideas/maintain quality standards/employ hand-generated techniques when so much is expected from the house every year? However...I found so much to like in Resort 2011. I found the collections to be much more engaging and thoughtful than that of S/S 2010, as if designers had found a kind of freedom within the title of 'Resort' (which is neither here nor there- Burberry & Helmut Lang featured trenches and peacoats while Chanel showed clothes fit for the South of France)

Bottega Veneta
Tomas Maier and his team did a really wonderful job because they've created a collection you don't ever need to veer outside from. Bottega customers theoretically could purchase the entire collection (clearly I'm not talking about someone within my financial bracket) and have an entire wardrobe to mix and match for the next couple of years! While the palette is limited, the cutting gives the impression of timelessness and creativity- classic good taste and something different, too. Rarely does a collection achieve this tricky mix.

The collection has a crisp slouchiness to it (if that even makes sense) that I aspire to incorporate into my wardrobe. I'm really not feeling the brown, ruched boots, but other than that it's pretty damn enjoyable.

Zero + Maria Cornejo
 Similarly to Bottega, Maria Cornejo's Resort was geared towards summer-living in the city, with a lot of darker colours, fitted leather jackets and looks that you can move from the flea market to the theatre to. I really liked these looks because again, I can imagine them melding seamlessly with the wardobe I have already. Each look has a distinct personality- the thing is, I'm not sure if it expresses me......more like the more polished version of me that I wish I did look like most of the time?

As tiny as Hyoni Kang is, I can imagine these looks flattering a wider range of women than just sample size (perhaps the blue jumpsuit would pose a small challenge, though).

Stella McCartney 
I want to take these outfits and eat them all up. Stella is so good at boxy silhouettes and shoulder details. These outfits are extremely feminine, in contrast to some of the more streamlined looks I'm posting here, but noone uses rose/dusky pink like she does. It's such a garden party kind of mood set by the clothes- I would greatly enjoy sipping on a lime soda in the white blazer/shift combo.

3.1 Phillip Lim
I have to say that this collection bored me a little bit....but I always seem to fall for a couple pieces of 3.1 . I am a big fan of the continued use of shades in the 'nude' family.
Phillip Lim is a strong designer who really seems to have tapped into the feminine sensibility ('what women want'/www), he has to be careful however not to get written off solely as a designer for NY society girls and celebrity offspring. I was in Holt Renfrew recently, and almost everything I fawned over was in fact 3.1- I just think he needs to lay off the frilly dresses and continue to design beautiful outerwear and pants.

Helmut Lang


These are the kind of chic basics that I can imagine myself reaching for pretty much every day, and still looking fantastic/enviable. I love the harem pants and am a tad obsessed with the dark denim button up






























































































Lanvin
I always, always, always enjoy the magical world of Mr. Elbaz (mwome). I think that the presentation of his collection this year was of particular merit, as he really followed the creation of the clothing from start to finish- explaining each piece is to be worn and how it can be used to maximise wearability. Extremely classy (forget how this word often sounds) and really, how I think presentations should be. Elbaz appears to be one of the 'old guard' designers that hasn't forgotten the heart of his business and his art- women deserve to know a little more about the clothing before they drop Lanvin-level prices on it.
[even though I am decidedly NOT a Michael Kors fan, I've read before about his multiple-city, personalised trunk shows and I greatly respect that level of effort]

 

All images courtesy of nymag and Style.com.

Copyright of 3.1 Phillip Lim, Bottega Veneta, Helmut Lang, Lanvin, Stella McCartney & Zero+Maria Cornejo.