One Is Better Than Two
The Fall ’13 shows wrapped in Paris yesterday, and one of the many trends that stuck out this season was the single earring. Models at Dries Van Noten donned fractured crystals on their right ears, which lent a retro-futuristic glamour to the designer’s smart, feminine wares. Over at Thakoon, we spotted leafy, silver, pearl-embellished ear cuffs. Naturally, Versace offered a punk play on the trend, piercing models’ lobes with a giant spike, and chez Kenzo, it was all about structured, squiggly, dangling versions. At Chloé, Clare Waight Keller kept it simple, showing small gold pieces at the top of the ear. And the look has even taken to the street, as model Aymeline Valade was seen backstage at quite a few shows wearing a sole silver piercing. Needless to say, when it comes to earrings, one is no longer the loneliest number.
Mohawked Top to Toe
Ever since Fendi debuted its multicolored fur Mohawks in Milan, the punked-up coifs have been fanning out all over the Fall runways. But they’re not appearing as you might expect; rather, designers have appropriated the motif and completely turned it on its head. For starters, Fendi’s pastel quiffs got so much attention that one might have missed Lagerfeld’s punchy Mohawked boots and bags. Haider Ackermann put his own spin on the look, sending his models out with white matted hair fashioned into “death hawks” (a style favored by goths). Not surprisingly, the same rebellious tresses popped up in black at Vivienne Westwood, but the Dame of Punk placed her death dos on black platform booties rather than her catwalkers’ noggins. Jean Paul Gaultier experimented with aubergine and bubblegum-highlighted faux-hawk-mullet hybrids at his Fall show, and over at Loewe, Stuart Vevers garnished the heels of his single-soled sandals with exaggerated, razor-sharp black or blonde fringe. Loewe’s shoes were a particularly “uptown” take on the antiestablishment-rooted style (what would the punks of the seventies have said about that?) and reminded us of YSL’s much-snapped suede Mohawk pumps from Fall 2010. Now, don’t shave and dye your hair just yet (or, actually, maybe do), but we’d have to say that the Mohawk, in its many incarnations, is one of Fall’s most prominent (and playful) punk trends so far.
Three’s A Trend: Dead Girls Walking
Perhaps all those vampire films and zombie shows (The Walking Dead, anyone?) are finally taking their sartorial toll, because things are getting downright ghoulish on the Fall ’13 runways. It all started in London when Giles Deacon sent out models with white hair and morbid makeup in his Pre-Raphaelite gowns. Kristen McMenamy (above, center), who bookended the show in fluid black and white frocks, was particularly spectral as she glided down the catwalk, and Deacon’s location—the seventeenth-century Stationers’ Hall, which is just down the road from Saint Paul’s Cathedral—seemed ripe for haunting.
Set in a nineteenth-century hôtel particulier, Damir Doma’s Fall show (above, left) also had an underworld air. The models who donned his minimal black, gray and moss looks had powdered faces and eerie gold-shadowed eyes. Not surprisingly, however, the most macabre of them all was Gareth Pugh (above, right). The designer presented his architectural, largely black and white collection in Paris’ nineteenth-century Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild last night. (For an extra-creepy kick, he boarded up the windows to make the grand space look like some kind of decadent haunted house.) Pugh’s models, who had deathly pale faces and blackened eyes, roamed the runway with a disheveled unease. Was it spooky? Definitely. But the undead never looked so good.
Oscar Night For The Other 50 Percent
It’s been a long day (following a long night) of frantic Oscar fashion dissecting. We picked our favorite eighty-plus dresses from the red carpet, and went behind the scenes with Hollywood’s top stylists to get a look at the ladies getting ready. As one of the site’s resident menswear critics, it pains me a little to see the guys get such short shrift. Sure, the main function of men at black-tie events is to look like presentable foils for their dates, and not much more. But there’s plenty of effort that goes into those tuxes, too. Which is why I was glad to hear from Wendi and Nicole Ferreira, the power stylists who work with the likes of Channing Tatum and Chris Pine. Tatum stood out in particular last night—a custom-made Gucci tux will do that for a guy. The Ferreiras sent a few photos of the man getting ready. “As if dressing Channing Tatum in custom Gucci for the red carpet wasn’t enough,” they told me, “having the opportunity to collaborate with him on his vintage-inspired performance look took our experience to another level.”
Versace Nails It
Versace’s Fall 2013 collection walked down the Milan runway just hours ago. The looks—some of which were in plaid or PVC—definitely had hints of the punk sensibility that’s been gaining steam this season. But what really jumped out at us was Ms. Versace’s use of metal nails in a few of her sexed-up wares. One purple dress, in particular (above, left), recalled that famed Versace safety-pin gown that Liz Hurley wore in 1994 (above, right). (Side note: Hurley’s gown will appear in the Met’s upcoming Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibition.) We’re also reminded of Christopher Kane’s ultra-feminine Spring ’13 collection, which was literally held together with plastic nuts and bolts. So, we have to ask: Could Kane’s Spring fastenings have ignited a sartorial hardware movement? Or perhaps more pressing: Is Donatella doing for the nail what Gianni did for the safety pin? We may need to wait until the end of fashion month (and until the Fall ’13 collections start popping up on the red carpet) to find out.