4 posts tagged "Veronique Branquinho"
The Belges Of The Ball
For a country roughly the size of Maryland, Belgium has had an outsize influence on fashion over the past two decades. Dries Van Noten, Veronique Branquinho, Ann Demeulemeester, Olivier Theyskens, and Raf Simons are among the many who hail from there and who studied at the famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. And it appears that Belgium is the fashion gift that keeps on giving: This season, Showroom Antwerp is exporting seven emerging Belgian designers (and their collections) to New York fashion week. Anke Loh, Anna Heylen, Idriz Jossa, Lenny Leleu, Marc-Phillipe Coudeyre, Peter Ceursters, and Stephan Schneider will be taking up residence at Flanders House in midtown today; of these, Schneider is the locally familiar name, selling his clean, detail-driven menswear (pictured) at stores such Project No. 8 and Opening Ceremony. Schneider presents his collections in Paris but says that increasing interest from the U.S. media and retailers compelled him to bring his Fall ’10 wares to New York for a look-see. “This season seemed the right moment for us to join New York fashion week,” he explains.
A British Invasion, Tom Brady’s Dogs, And More…
Prince Harry’s in town, New Yorkers, and he and super-hunk Nacho Figueras are set to go head-to-head in a polo match tomorrow on Governors Island. Go on and show them a warm American welcome. [The Washington Post]
News of Veronique Branquinho shuttering yesterday means an adjustment to the schedule at Paris men’s fashion week in June. Here’s a list of who’s in and who’s out for the boys. [WWD]
Tom Brady quashed pregnancy rumors surrounding new bride Gisele, claiming, “I have dogs and that’s all I need.” How sweet. [NY Daily News]
Recession 1, Veronique Branquinho 0
The news that Veronique Branquinho is liquidating really got to me. I’ve been reviewing her collections in Paris for several years now, and season after season, sitting at her gritty Garage Turenne shows in the third surrounded by European stylists and Japanese buyers, I’m amazed all over again that she’s as underappreciated here as she is. Branquinho is based in Antwerp, but there’s always been a realistic edge to her Belgian romanticism that jibes with my no-nonsense approach to dressing. It’s doubly frustrating considering that her Fall collection was one of her strongest in a while, showcasing as it did her signature tailoring—the sexy smoking jacket in look 37 particularly speaks to me—in an optimistic palette of white and ivory. I have a black silk camisole with a smocked waistband that I bought at Corso Como on my first trip to Milan in 2000 that I think I’ll be putting back into rotation this summer. When my fashion friends compliment me on it, like they always did back when I wore it with my Earl Jeans and Jutta Neumann sandals—we can be sad together.
Linda Farrow Goes Behind The Archives. Way Beyond.
Nirvana, for sunglasses fanatics, is to be found in a converted schoolhouse in the Clerkenwell area of London. That’s where the Linda Farrow archives are housed—a few filing cabinets’ worth of specs dating from the origins of the Linda Farrow brand in the late 1960′s. Aviators of all shapes and sizes and superbly wacky ’80′s frames in iridescent metal and candy-colored plastic number among the styles that Simon Jablon found in his mother’s warehouse several years ago. The trove inspired him to launch the Linda Farrow Vintage brand in 2003. Initially, Jablon and partner Tracy Sedino were selling off the archive; these days, they’re working to augment it. The brand is already a profligate collaborator, working with Raf Simons, Luella Bartley, Veronique Branquinho, and Jeremy Scott, to name a few, and with the launch of the new Projects range this summer, Linda Farrow Vintage will
be bringing yet more designers into its fold. “We’ve always loved working with young, creative designers,” explains Jablon, “because every time we do, we learn something. They’re constantly bringing us ideas that seem impossible to execute.” Projects comprise styles from designers such as Giles, Tim Hamilton, Antonio Berardi, Charles Anastase, and Preen. As Jablon notes, additional designers may be added to the Projects roster in seasons to come. And in the meantime, he and Sedino have combined the very new and the very, very, very, very old in the latest Linda Farrow Vintage frame—the Mammoth. This limited-edition addition to the archive features—seriously—woolly mammoth tusk. “We’re only doing 100 pieces,” says Jablon. “The melting of the polar ice caps has exposed quite a lot of mammoth tusk, enough that a bit of it has found its way to market, but the bottom line,” he adds, “is that you can only produce so many sunglasses that are over a million years old.”