A.F. Vandevorst
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REVIEW
COMPLETE COLLECTION
PARIS, March 3, 2011
By Meenal Mistry
Designer inspirations. At times they seem pulled out of thin air at the eleventh hour, at others so arcane as to be irrelevant, and sometimes just plain irrelevant. So it was with hesitation that one looked upon An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx's creative source material for Fall, set up backstage like a mascot in a small glass case. The work of Dutch artists Maarten Kolk and Guus Kusters, it looked like a piece of brown felt formed into the body of a bird, with actual avian legs and claws. Into its tail, a bit of newspaper had been stuffed. "They give the skeleton a new skin," said Vandevorst. "We use almost all the elements that you see here."They did, and it all sort of made sense. The designers had turned Spring's Joan of Arc into a sharper, more modern girl in shiny-buttoned woolen admiral's coats, twisted and cinched at the waist with harnessed and buckled knee boots. As each model walked out she stopped midway and took a slow turn to reveal some sort of bustle-cum-tail feather, whether it was pleated shirting jutting out of a jacket vent, a leather crinoline frame, or even a bit of newspaper. You could spy cotton shirting printed with newspaper, visible from pushed-up sleeves, and the designers also used the real McCoy to stuff into pleated skirts for a kind of padded-out effect.
By the end the contrivance in all its various forms grew a bit old, but the clothes didn't, particularly all that terrific tailoring and a few bias-cut silk gowns worn with cutaway jackets or tumbling, rough knits. And is it so big a leap? Giving birds a new set of feathers is what designers do every season.
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Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear
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3.1 Phillip Lim -
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Edun Elie Saab Elie Tahari Elise Øverland Emanuel Ungaro Emilio de la Morena Emilio Pucci Emporio Armani Erdem Erin Fetherston Etro -
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Farah Angsana Fashion East Felder Felder Felipe Oliveira Baptista Fendi Francesco Scognamiglio Frank Tell -
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Gabriele Colangelo Gap Gareth Pugh Gary Graham Giambattista Valli Gianfranco Ferré Giles Giorgio Armani Givenchy Graeme Armour Gregory Parkinson G-Star Gucci -
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Haider Ackermann Hakaan Halston Helmut Lang Hermès Hervé Léger by Max Azria Holly Fulton House of Holland -
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Iceberg Imitation of Christ Isaac Mizrahi Isabel Marant Issa Issey Miyake -
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Karen Walker Kelly Wearstler Kenzo Kevork Kiledjian Kimberly Ovitz Kinder Aggugini -
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L.A.M.B. L'Wren Scott Lanvin Lela Rose Libertine Limi Feu Loewe Louise Gray Louis Vuitton Luca Luca Luisa Beccaria Lyn Devon -
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Naeem Khan NAHM Nanette Lepore Narciso Rodriguez Neil Barrett Nicholas K Nicolas Andreas Taralis Nicole Farhi Nicole Miller Nina Ricci No. 21 Norma Kamali -
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Ohne Titel Organic by John Patrick Oscar de la Renta Osman -
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Paul & Joe Paul Smith Pedro Lourenço Peter Jensen Peter Pilotto Peter Som Philosophy Piazza Sempione Ports 1961 PPQ Prabal Gurung Prada Preen Pringle of Scotland Proenza Schouler -
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Sacai Sachin + Babi Salvatore Ferragamo Sass & Bide Sharon Wauchob Sonia Rykiel Sophie Theallet Sportmax St. John Stella McCartney Stephen Burrows Steven Alan Suno -
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Undercover United Bamboo -
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Valentino Vanessa Bruno Vena Cava Vera Wang Véronique Leroy Versace Versus Victoria Beckham Viktor & Rolf Vionnet Vivienne Tam Vivienne Westwood Vivienne Westwood Red Label VPL -
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Wayne Wes Gordon Willow -
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Y-3 Yigal Azrouël Yohji Yamamoto Yves Saint Laurent -
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Zac Posen Zero + Maria Cornejo Z Spoke by Zac Posen
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