steppin' out of these restless days of disappointed haze

i really wanted to start talking about all of the new collections that are coming out of nyfw, but then i realized that i might have blogger's remorse (bear with me and pretend that's a thing)  if i don't first talk ab out my favorite couture collections (that entire sentence was only half a joke). it sounds a bit like i wasn't amazed enough by the collections to be able to talk about them as soon as they came out, but i was-- i just was kind of unable to even put together thoughts on all of this. i tried though: 

giambattista valli

frills + jacquard + layers upon layers = *swoon* 

chanel

flowers. everywhere. at first glance it’s tiresome, but a closer look reveals a dystopian world where this animatronic, weary beauty is the closest we get to the real thing. anyways i thought the flowers were actually some of the most beautiful parts (in addition to the hats and veils), i didn’t love the silhouettes and the shoes, and while the individual garments were painstakingly crafted, the whole show just felt like it lacked that couture feeling.

christian dior

 

bodysuits, plastic raincoats, and a-line skirts were the beginnings of dior’s bowie-inspired exploration of reinventing the self with a look at the past and the future. those pieces were morphed and printed and sparkled, transversing decades and personas. there were carefully placed stripes and cut-outs, latex boots, and sequined shift dresses.  it felt like reading a carefully written novel. definitely my favorite, everything is just so dreamy and out-of-this-world.

armani prive

this collection was an ode to 20s glamour and elegance and to the "delicate strength of bamboo". it made sense then, that it was full of contradictory boxy shirts and flowing pants, and fluff and sparkles that were almost as  common as emblazoned bamboo sprouts.

ulyana sergeenko

the choice to show the collection in a hotel salon instead of on a runway ended up being for the better for clothing this meticulously detailed. some of the looks were embroidered to the point where you might confuse them with an entirely different fabric without looking close enough. a review written by nicole phelps says, “Why make tiny white stitches by the thousand when selecting a piece of white silk might do? Why not?” it’s undeniable that the beauty of this collection was in the detail.

valentino

this collection was about romance. there were high necklines, flowing and dramatic sheer with detailed floral appliques that danced on the edge between reality and fairytale, and lines from love poems running across faded dresses. the models looked as if they leapt straight off the pages of romeo and juliet’s “star-crossed love” (in part made possible by the elegant hair and makeup, and the almost floating way in which the models seemed to carry themselves). an interesting moment was a cut-out velvet dress with wings that (at least for me,) said something about the transformative nature of love.

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in general, the collections were overwhelmingly wearable, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, maybe this is just art imitating life as our culture shifts around our definition of dressing well, and maybe this leaves more room for strict craftsmanship and tailoring (the things that can't be scaled down for the mainstream market), which is arguably the beauty of couture clothing in itself. what did you guys think of these collections and the evolution of couture, and what were your favorites in couture?

-=-

kanyinsola