One of my favourite songs off his newest album, A$AP references countless designers and it's really just a nice mellow song for chilling. I was lucky enough to see him perform live in London and this was my performance of the night (three days before my exams started by whatever) and he is so cute, even in person! So fine!
Today was a great day for couture: Gaultier, Elie Saab and Valentino in one day. I was so overwhelmed.
Normally I restrict posts to one designer, but f*ck it - lemme just run down all three collections in one.
First: Jean Paul Gaultier. Okay so while I've always had a healthy appreciation of Gaultier, I'm ashamed to say I've never really paid much attention to the brand despite knowing how its name is pretty much synonymous with haute couture. But this collection made me sit up and take notice. So the show opened with a leopard print shearling jacket paired with black culotte trousers. So I love leopard print - it is so sexy and fun! What followed was a series of black and leopard print outfits, including a sheer leopard print gown that was so reminiscent of a dress Olivia Palermo wore recently. Exaggerated pockets that emphasised a womans hips were a firm fixture in terms of design elements..mm the jury is still out for me on them but I can kind of see the angle. A really subtle take on the leopard print I think were the printed tights, which worked especially well in the look consisting of a stunning black structured coat with a bright red underlayer (immediate connection with Louboutins no?) paired with red sheer printed tights. This look was repeated with a black velvet dress which was equally as hot.
So about the evening dresses that are the bread and butter for essentially every couture collection. The silhouettes were very dramatic, as one would expect, consisting mainly of 3D curving fabric pieces that created undulating forms around the body. I wasn't really sure about this kind of aesthetic, it had a futuristic vibe but it did help to highlight the contours of the body beautifully, bringing attention to the female figure as Gaultier always does. There were a few red carpet worthy sequinned numbers, in particular the bronze sequinned cocktail dress with the fur trim. There's something about the colour that is so seductive, dark without be black yet still so enchanting. The model literally glowed. The headpiece was a little over the top but that's what couture is about I guess. My personal picks, not that I'll ever be able to afford them:
I can so imagine Florence Welch in the green flowing dress, and someone like Sarah Jessica Parker in the last dress pictured above, the nude sequinned short dress with the pink fur trim.
Next up Elie Saab: okay, so while I find Saab dresses undeniably beautiful with the sheer details and intricate beating and embellishment, I think there's very little difference from collection to collection and this was no different. He tends to present his collection according to colour which I think is a bit tired, but even if you can't applaud Saab on his ability to bring something new to collection, you have to praise him for his constant attention to detail and the fact that he is always able to bring about a beautiful collection. My picks of the collection are all pretty much the same dress in different colours and lengths, but hey I know what I like:
Like I said, they all resemble pretty much the same aesthetic but the feminine side of me cries out for a dress like this, and the finale dress was especially beautiful...what springs to mind when I think couture!So finally my favourite collection of today: VALENTINO. God I love Valentino, and had a new found respect for the brand since visiting the exhibition held at Somerset House this year.
So there was a definitive Dolce and Gabbana AW12 feel to this collection, with its Baroque references but the designers at Valentino juxtaposed this with decidedly British Heritage looking fabrics such as tweed, creating a brand new aesthetic which I think worked really well in some places, where baroque prints were directly applied to simple sheath dresses, coats and separates crafted in bland neutral tones. One of my personal faves was the sheer grey sweatshirt with the golden embroidery all over - I thought it was so beautiful and would work equally well in a casual/formal sense. Another fave was the simple grey sheath dress with strategic cutouts at the shoulders - I thought it was a perfect balance of smart yet sexy There were a few all black outfits (which of course I love) with Baroque cutouts that resembled crochet dresses, bringing a relaxed yet sexy vibe to the collection.
The collection seems to have global inspiration, seeing as there were oriental influences of the Japenese kimono with its oriental embroiderey, loose billowing sleeves, luxurious silk and swathes of material, as seen in a few pieces of this collection (my favourite was the nude dress with the oriental style embroidery and high - low hem, loved the printwork!):
As for the showstopper look of the show, without a doubt:
Sheer black with all over gold embroidery - need I say more? This was always going to win my heart, and the shoulder detailing was a real nice touch too!
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