shoe mille feuille : prada ss11

While the clothes from the the Prada SS11 mens collection did not quite match up to what the raw industrial runway set (together with the opening lighting sequence and the soundtrack by Frédéric Sanchez) had promised, the shoes yielded one of my favorite shoe concept from the Milan round of menswear shows. Dress shoe uppers were fused onto a rope soles which in turn were attached to an athletic rubber sole, forming a clunky footwear mille feuille with multiple identities conflated into one.

sejima wears comme

Sejima wears a comme des garcons piece made for her by Rei, attending the Pritzker Prize ceremony, along with Ryue Nishisawa, at Ellis Island in New York last Monday. Long known to be an avid Comme fan and personal friend of Rei,the choice is no surprise, if not expected. Though the pair had collaborated on the Comme des Garcons exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo last year, I eagerly await the eventuality of these two visionary minds putting their hands together to create a more permanent Comme space in the future.

l'officiel alexander mcqueen tribute

L'Officiel just published a special Alexander Mcqueen tribute issue. A collection of archival articles from the magazine in French and English and 1000 photos from past magazine editorials and runway shows, it offers a quick run-through of his work, beginning with his first collection at Givenchy. Condensed into 153 pages, it barely skims the surface of his achievements and influence, and the exclusion of his pre-Givenchy collections somewhat disappointing (his 1995 Highland Rape collection is probably one of his most well known). Nevertheless, with the absence any authoritative literature on him on the market currently, this tribute issue is perhaps the best summary of his work that one can find in print.

Bless n°40 Whatwasitagain

layered stefano pilati

Stefano Pilati must be one of the most stylish male fashion designer in recent times. He has always embodied the idea of the YSL man that he himself has crafted, relaxed tailoring with a pinch of razor sharp edge thrown in and worn with ineffable ease. I'm particularly enamoured by this picture of him taken with Melanie Ward on the streets of Paris, layered in a curious but harmonious ensemble of a grey chalk stripe blazer with white capri pants over leggings, a grey scarf a twirled around the neck and a piece of thin jersey fabric wrapped around the waist. The components when considered individually are menswear staples that can easily be found in a good wardrobe or in shops, but when put together, a game of juxtaposing and decontextualizing is played, everything tied together with subtle shifts of grey accented with accessories in warm and cool tones. What I find so attractive about his style is its ungraspability, it brushes at the edges of so many established styles in the vast continuum of fashion but itself yet to be named.

patrick ervell fw10

Inspired by the uniform of the Chinese army, Patrick Ervell's fw10 collection is a continuation of his cerebral take on sportswear, a study on silhouette, function and materiality. In this collection, the lines are hard and militaristic, many a times obscuring the lines of the body. The palette of solid neutrals is stark interspersed with splashes of deep red and gentle hues of yellow. The use of latex and rubber gave his signature tech garments a slight twist, juxtaposing the solidity of the fabrics with the soft translucency of the latex and rubber outerwear, floating ethereally around the body. The effect is almost magical in this set of photos taken by Tommy Ton of jakandjil blog.

alexander mcqueen no more

"British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead after taking his own life.

The 40-year-old committed suicide just days after the death of his beloved mother, Joyce, last Tuesday.

It is also just three years since his close friend, Isabella Blow - who plucked him from obscurity and helped him become a star - killed herself.

McQueen, who was christened Lee but used his middle name for his label, was found at his luxury flat in Mayfair, central London. It is believed he hanged himself." dailymail

Revisiting some of my favorite moments of Alexander Mcqueen.

SS99


SS01


SS03, especially, 9:01 onwards and more in part 2


and the wonderful he-outdid-himself-again SS10 collection

yohji yamamoto gansevoort : junya ishigami

We bid farewell to the Yohji Yamamoto Gansevoortstore as the company, plagued with financial troubles, begin to wind down its North American operations, ceasing all distribution on the continent.

The short lived Gansevoort store which opened with great fanfare in 2008 is designed by Junya Ishigami, a protege of Kazuyo Sejima. It is a remodeled wedge shape single storey building at the corner of a street junction. The exisitng brickwork was exposed giving the facade of the building a raw tactile quality. The brickwork is also rendered with a certain lightness, looking as if it is a thin skin folded with precision, forming razor sharp corners and soft subtle curves. The brickwork, punctuated with generous openings of clear frameless glass, provides a clear vista into and through the interior space.

The building volume is spliced into two portions with an oblique cut in the centre. The triangular volume housed the retail space while the other volume contained the stockroom and private areas. The urbanistic quality of this move is undeniable, it also gives the store it's quirk. which is the need for sales staff to go out of the building and go into the other wing to have access to stock and sizes not displayed on the sales floor.

According to ny.racked.com, the store closed last Tuesday with a flash 90% sale before the shutters went down for good. And apparently, Yohji's fanancial troubles are in great part caused by the recent spurt of lavish store openings, which besides the Gansevoort store, includes the Rue Cambon store in Paris and Antwerp store in the MOMU building. And as the mens fashion weeks begin for the fall winter 2010 season with Yohji Yamamoto Pour Homme missing on the schedule for the second season, we hear murmurs that the company is planning to close down the Antwerp and Rue Cambon stores. The company is now going through a great structural change, that will have a lasting impact on its future as a viable label. We can only hope that Yohji's creative integrity will not be further compromised.