RTW—Spring/Summer 2018

Plastic Makeover

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Burberry SS 2018 Pic 1

The forecast for spring/summer 2018 at Burberry appears to be inclement weather. We don’t remember seeing so many pieces of rain wear in a Burberry show before. Or is this just a statement about the notorious English showers? Or, the hurricane season in the Caribbeans? It sure isn’t quite the reflection of the climate of Asia. In fact, the clothes looked a bit un-summer like, with so many outers—even a coat that looks like shearling —and rather chunky knits. Or, has Christopher Bailey chosen to remain largely in calm, bearable spring? But this isn’t a spring showing; this is The September Show!

Anything that can be made out of water-repellent “soft-touch” plastic, they were out there: raincoats, dusters, ponchos, anoraks, hoodies, and even skirts! It is not entirely opaque plastic, which means there’s quite a bit of flesh to flash and the only-fashion-types-get-it interplay of translucency (softly coloured!) and textures. It’s as if to deliberately blur the more interesting bits underneath—lovely knitwear, for example. Or, staying with the weather, is that saying something about London’s fog?

Burberry SS 2018 G 1

The shower curtain material must have disappointed animal rights activists, reported to have made a spectacle of themselves, shouting outside the show venue—Old Sessions House, a former London court—and causing delay to the start of the presentation. Will it be eco-warriors next to be up in arms in demanding that the plastic be bio-degradable?! Mr Bailey, a win is hard.

But for many fans, the media included, this is a winning collection, if not for its protection against precipitation, at least the revival of the Burberry heritage check, which, at one time, was considered unfashionable when it was associated with British bengs known as ‘chavs’. But it’s all very British—this part of the brand’s history and Mr Bailey isn’t afraid to confront it head on. He has, of course, made it all a lot more current, even when wearing baseball caps of the said check or the knitted sweater-vest (worn alone) that hinted at past chav style, by not being terribly serious about how things are paired and worn.

Burberry SS 2018 G 2

It is, therefore, likely that the collection is aimed primarily at the young, as chavs tend to be. The proportions of the clothes—including details such as large collars and lapels— parallel sizes popular in the ’70s and ’80s. This may be in keeping with the prevalent shape of things, but it’s not immediately discernible that the anti-fashion, working-class silhouette and mix of things (cocktail waitress on the way home after work?) will win the love of those of a certain age.

Targetting the young is also augmented by the clear nod to streetwear, a move few designers can afford to avoid these days—“a little street, sophisticated” the designer told Vogue Hommes. Although there’s something to be said of a 46-year-old Christopher Bailey designing for kids less than half his age (“it’s their world”, he conceded to Edward Ennful in a video interview for British Vogue), the sighting of Mino and Hoony of the Korean boy band Winner in the front row attests not only to Burberry’s intended audience/shopper, it bolsters the brand’s youth-oriented image and keeps up their strive for relevance in an age of the young and restless.

Photos: (top) Burberry and WWD

Just Kors

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Michael Kors

Now that Michael Kors has a “Southeast Asian flagship” on our shores, we’re told that he’s an important player in the fashion retail scene here—important enough that he has a local hybrid orchid named after him. So we thought we should have a look at his catwalk presentation—something we don’t do. The last time we took occasional notice of what Mr Kors did was during his 6-year tenure at Céline, the 72-year-old French house that dressed Rene Russo for her role as the stylish Catherine Banning in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, a film, at that time, considered to be “a fashion orgy”.

Presently, Michael Kors is, of course, not only a fashion designer, he’s also a multi-brand business owner, having just added Jimmy Choo to his bulking-up company, that, according to Forbes, has a market cap of USD20 billion. The label, however, isn’t roaring like it used to, with planned closure of stores in the US, up to 125 of them by the end of this year, according to Fortune.

Michael Kors P1

Still, Mr Kors is a buzz-maker during New York Fashion Week, and we suspect it’s to do with the front row than the catwalk. The show opened with Carolyn Murphy in a tie-dye sweatshirt-dress, something so shockingly underwhelming that knowing it’s made of cashmere won’t save it from blandness. Even Ms Murphy couldn’t make it look less Kuta and more Capri. Is that really fashion? Or is that the hailed wearable ease that has firmly placed the brand in the “casual luxury” category?

To show you how informal and laid-back things can be, Mr Kors offered a light-as-a-sea-breeze collection that’s heavy on the suggestion of “somewhere on the beach”, as pal and fan Anna Wintour told vogue.com. That means styling a white shirt with same-tone lei! Or, offering prints that are tropical fronds, such as those you see on the sand and don’t bother picking up. There are more dresses for a romantic seaside dinner than we bothered to count and the obligatory flip-flops that are best left to the likes of Havaianas.

Michael Kors G1

We wondered, therefore, if the collection would have been more appropriate for the Cruise season. But for the brand’s core customers, it probably does not matter. Despite the collection’s usual lack of fashion elements that can put it on par with, say, Céline—Mr Kor’s former employer, the luxury basics, as fans prefer to call the merchandise, that he churns out are the wardrobe fillers that can satisfy those willing to pay for a pricier but just-as-accessible Banana Republic.

Michael Kors dresses a very specific woman: she’s successful; visibly feminine; not girlish; married (or wants to be); glad to always talk about her beau or husband; considers strolling on beaches most romantic; spends a small fortune on aromatherapy candles for her home and office (where she wants her dress to just about stand out); and declares she loves fashion, but, really adores Lululemon more. If this, to you, sounds like Blake Lively or, gasp, Sumiko Tan, you’re not off the mark.

Screen grab and photos: YouTube and indigital.tv

What? The Cold Hip Is Next?

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Tom Ford spring/summer 2018

The cold shoulder, still a stubborn trend, seems to be moving southwards. And it could be cold hips, going by the looks of two high-profile, no-stranger-to-provocation collections.

First Tom Ford and then Rihanna for her full-fledged Fenty by Puma were proposing that you wear your trousers low enough and your inner wear high enough to show hips. It’s the new sweet spot that looks set to provide fast fashion retailers with a cold shoulder replacement.

Both brands showed leotards cut so high at the leg that when worn with low-slung pants revealed substantial skin of what gym instructors will know as gluteus medius. Is this the new erogenous zone, the triangular patch to show the skinny side of the panty, just as the cold shoulder is inevitably a window for the stray bra strap?

Fenty by Puma spring/summer 2018

The one-piece top has been pointed out by many in the media as the French-cut swimwear. The French actually do have a name for it: maillot (de bain). It is doubtful Mr Ford intended his for the beach or pool since they are styled to look destined for a bar (pool bar?) or anywhere such attire might be appreciated. But we may not really know as beach wear often appears in the city centre.

The hip for specific exposure is only a matter of time. It’s as if some designers are putting thumb and index finger of one hand to the corresponding two of the other and through the opening, scanning the body to see what other areas should be marked out next for fabric subtraction and eye-catching display.

The cold knee has had a long exposure, so too, staying on the limb, the cold heel—again (thanks to mules, especially Gucci’s fur-trimmed Princeton “slipper”). The cold breast has been in the spotlight, but the take-up rate appears to be a bit slow. The cold buttocks have had had their time in the sun, not to mention what’s between them cheeks (at one time underscored by the thong). What part of the body next can be framed for attention? We don’t know, we’re not Tom Ford.

Photo: indigital.tv

Marc Shots

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Marc Jacobs SS 2018 P1

Is Marc Jacobs waking up to the potential of the modest fashion market, one that the upcoming Singapore Fashion Week will be dedicating space to?

For his spring/summer 2018 show, Mr Jacobs and co-conspirator, the milliner Stephen Jones, had the head of every model on the runway—Gigi Hadid’s too!—swaddled. They’ve been described as turbans but some could easily be gift wraps, except for Ms Hadid’s, one of two that looked like how you may fashion a towel on your head after washing your hair. Nor are they anything like Rosie the Riveter’s. And definitely not the staggering towers of Erykah Badu’s.

The wearing of the turban is, of course, not necessarily connected with modesty. Hollywood of yore saw many actresses wearing turbans as fashion wear unrelated to proclivity for concealing their hair, among them Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. Is Mr Jacobs trying to revive past glamour? What cultural appropriation would he be accused of this time?

Marc Jacobs SS 2018 G1Marc Jacobs SS 2018 G2

Watching his music-free, joyless show (no matter how colourful, it just felt glum), it is not easy to reconcile the hint at bygone head-wear glamour with the clothes. Mr Jacobs seemed to be trying to capture the Zeitgeist. He offered the volume of the moment, the cross-cultural hybrid of the day, the iridescence prevalent in the pop/social media sphere of the generation. There was a bit of Hollywood, a dash of Harlem, and whole lot of street (wear).

It is all fine (and dandy?) to reflect the taste of times, but does it adequately say anything about Mr Jacobs as a leader of the pack? The oversized suits, which really looked like they were the wrong size, came seasons too many after Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga (alright, somewhere among them is a zoot suit!). Those big sweaters and cardigans, they are, by now, too associated with Raf Simons. And the retro prints: Pucci and Prada bedded?

Marc Jacobs SS 2018 G3

As we were writing this, a WhatsApp message from a reader appeared, interrupting our pondering: “What would Marc Jacobs do if he didn’t have YSL and Rei (Kawakubo) to be ‘inspired’ by?” What indeed? But Mr Jacobs has become so adept at iterating his obsessions that he has become a parody of his own parody, obliterating possible inspirations. When we looked at those boiler suits (worn with flashy jewellery) and the fanny packs that already had their day at Chanel, we can’t help but think of the grunge collection of so many years ago that nearly destroyed him.

Marc Jacobs is in many ways like the garish pairing of accessories of the collection—for example, dangling and sparkly earrings with those bum bags (worn in front! If we were to wear it similarly, we’d look like the kopi tiam’s kopi soh!): a chronic contradiction who succeeds when he is able to swing between YSL and Rei, or straddle the two. In his world, still coloured by the excesses of Studio 54 and informed by the flashiness of hip-hop-era-on African-American dress, Marc Jacobs is phoney flamboyance and calculated irreverence. All at once.

Photos: Marc Jacobs

Yankee Oodles Of Luxe

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Coach 1941 SS 2018 P1

Are Europeans lured to American brands to make American fashion great? Let’s, for now, put aside “again”.

Over at Coach 1941, the English designer Stuart Vevers opened their spring/summer 2018 season with a Western shirt. This isn’t the same as the one that Raf Simons also sent out first at Calvin Klein, but they have a common genesis: American West. Nostalgic Americana is what Mr Vevers built the Coach 1941 aesthetic on from day one, and he’s not, as it appears, letting up. The hip New York crowd, it seems, likes a little bit of Roy Rogers in their wardrobes, minus kippy belts. Or, as crazy as this may sound, making up for the relative rarity of westerns coming out Hollywood? If only this was launched during Madonna’s Music rhinestone cowgirl phase.

Mr Vevers has what the industry, especially in America, looks out for: pedigree. His first job after graduation at the University of Westminster was with Calvin Klein. He has worked with Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton. Just these two American names are possibly quite enough to let his American employer know that he has what it takes to give Americans what they want.

Coach 1941 SS 2018 G1Coach 1941 SS 2018 G2

What does he think the Americans desire? What Michael Kors knows all along: nothing that requires figuring out. Coach is not Loewe, where Mr Vevers worked before joining the former. Loewe took the route of Louis Vuitton—which acquired it in 1996—when the latter launched a ready-to-wear line in 1997, designed by Marc Jacobs. Coach, like general stores of the past, retails practical goods that people need—fashion as a selling point only a recent consideration, when it launched its own clothing collection with Mr Vevers just 4 years ago. They’re somehow all connected there. Take some time to join the dots.

So it is articles of clothing that the Americans are familiar with that Mr Vevers is giving “the world’s largest market for personal luxury goods”, according to a June report by Bain and Company. That inevitably means souvenir and trucker jackets, the varsity variety and the biker cousin; sweatshirts; over-sized sweaters/cardigans; sundresses; Hawaiian shirts, and everything in between that New York’s downtown types would love to wear.

As with Raf Simon for Calvin Klein’s salute to Andy Warhol, there was also homage to another still-popular-after-death American pop artist. This time, it’s Keith Harring—even the artist’s face appeared on a T-shirt. Elsewhere, on dresses and denim tops, Mr Harring’s famous graphic, almost naïve shapes of animals and people in motion make their visible appearance. It’ll be fascinating to see if these images will catch on when Uniqlo has already beaten Coach to using them.

Coach 1941 SS 2018 G3Coach 1941 SS 2018 G4

Sometimes one wonders if what these non-Americans are really doing is to indulge in the ‘optics’ that to them must be rather exotic: cowboy country. Or is this dalliance with what are considered to be American “icons” to boost America’s—or, perhaps New York’s—fragile self-esteem when it comes to their true contribution to the world of fashion. We sure know that the three letters U, S, and A now do not have the same allure they once had, ironically less when there’s the call by Donald Trump to get things made in the States again. Does American fashion need a makeover, such as business-y belt worn above exposed zips?

Stuart Vevers brings along with him a wealth of experience that covers a rather big swath of the European continent. He has learned the trade at English, (Mulberry), French (Givenchy and Louis Vuitton), Italian (Bottega Venetta), and Spanish (Loewe) houses. Yet, it is American western culture, rather than that of cities of glamour, that has captured Mr Vevers’s (and, hitherto, Raf Simons’s) attention. Does it mean the same for us Asian as it does for them? Picture this: a Coach 1941 cowboy shirt over an Ong Shunmugam cheongsam!

Photos: Edward James/style.com

Raf’s Americana For Calvin

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Calvin Klein SS 2018 finale

The Western shirts with the texture of satin that opened the spring/summer 2018 show was, to us, a little ominous, and an indication that Raf Simons isn’t moving on from where he started—the autumn/winter 2017 season, when he showed his first collection for one of the biggest American labels, Calvin Klein. Mr Simons is now in America, and he’s showing Americans the America that Donald Trump is desperately trying to bring back.

The colour blocking of these shirts for boys and girls (only boys and girls will wear them, no?)—five of them, with contrast collars, yokes, and pockets; in colours that would not be out of place among participants of the Rose Parade, hinted at something brash that we have not really seen from Mr Simons, clownish even, if we were to ride on the current box-office hit that is It. Does America change European designers when they arrive on her shores just as she did to Hedi Slimane, who would go on to wreck Saint Laurent with West Coast rock-trash aesthetic? What does it say about the still-complicated Euro-American sartorial relationship?

Calvin Klein SS 2018 G1

The near-kitsch, colour explosion shouldn’t be surprising. Back in July, the new Calvin Klein flagship on Madison Avenue, conceived by Mr Simons and his serial partner-in-crime, the artist Ruby Sterling, opened to shoppers with a bang of yellow—walls, ceiling, scaffolding, fixtures—under which other blotches of colours punctuate the space like spilled paint. This is a Calvin Klein we have never seen before. The neutrals that Mr Calvin Klein himself was known for have stepped aside for the colours of Guanajuato, the Mexican city that’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Mr Simons is, of course, not alien to colours. We saw how good he was with them at Jil Sander, but back then he was still considered a minimalist designer. Now, he appears to have gone a little Willy Wonka, with the American customers his many Charlies. Watching the live stream on calvinklein.com, the collection felt to us like a costume designer’s first presentation to Gus Van Sant for an upcoming film.

Calvin Klein SS 2018 G2Calvin Klein SS 2018 G3

Our bad; we had not read the show notes. As widely reported later, the collection is homage to American cinema, particularly those films that shock and scare. “American horror, American dreams,” Mr Simons told the besotted press. Here’s a Belgian showing Americans, tongue possibly in cheek, how to dress American, with B-grade dash. What can be more charming than that?

To be sure, there’s elegance to the clothes, even if there is, at least to most Calvin Klein Jeans and cK One consumers, an alt touch. Mr Simons re-imagines an America that few now recognise without excoriating the flashiness that has always attracted those who still take cheer-leading very seriously. Look beyond the gory movie references, the high-school pom-poms (that, in some cases, shroud bucket bags, or hang as tiered dresses), and the nod towards America that’s not along the coasts, and you may just find hints of ’50s couture and a way with transparency that is today’s nightie-for-day.

Calvin Klein SS 2018 G5

But Mr Simons also seems to be repeating himself. There’s the Andy Warhol photo-prints, which, undeniably reminds us of Mr Simons’s own collection of this past spring/summer season, which saw Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos applied onto shirts and outers at unexpected places. So which is more disturbing: Mapplethorpe’s male genitalia or Warhol’s car crash?

Reminiscent of his work at Dior (but in the colours that reprise those he did for Jil Sander) are the skirts—full and circular, only now, Marion and Joanie Cunningham’s present-day avatars might wear them. If we look at them from a filmic standpoint, as Mr Simons likely prefers, these are skirts the Stepford Wives (set in Silicon Valley?) would gladly and dutifully wear. How’s that for horror?

Photos: Imaxtree