I våras gav vi ut fjärde upplagan av Jeans Helt Enkelt, ett magasin som visar hur vi på JC tolkar säsongens trender. Nu kan du läsa magasinet. Fast som film? Låter kanske rörigt, kolla...
The Fashion Weeks blog follows the fashion weeks around the world's fashion cities. Here you can look forward to a full coverage with exclusive material from the season's most important fashion events. View photos from shows and collections, join us backstage and get inspired by street style-fashion. The Fashion Weeks blog also shows exciting interviews and clips of people in the fashion industry.
On the third and last day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Stockholm 2012 our tv-hostess Emilia de Poret talkes to Tiger, Jonas Hallberg, Axwell and many more of Swedens trendsetters
Max Factor TV, Jan 2012, Episode 2
Episode 2 of Max Factor TV brings you the autumn/winter news from Lexington, Dagmar, Cheap Monday and Busnel to name a few.
Max Factor TV, Jan 2012, Episode 1
The Max Factor Award opens Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Stockholm Autumn/Winter 2012.
With all due respect, New York, London and Milan have got nothing on Paris. Even though all the international fashion weeks bring something interesting and unique to the table, Paris fashion week is considered the fashion week, and rightly so. Unlike Milan (another city with a remarkable fashion ancenstry), Paris somehow manages to maintain its fashion heritage yet never fails to nurture new talent. This time was no different. To me, Paris fashion week is about so much more than just what’s shown on the runway. There is a certain energy and sense of excitement permeating not only the show locations but basically the whole city; going to Paris for fashion week simply makes me remember why I fell in love with fashion in the first place.
So what about the shows then? Well, as always some were a mere disappointment (yes, Karl Lagerfeld/Chanel, I’m talking about you), some were ok (Isabel Marant, Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh), and some were kind of brilliant. Nicolas Ghesquière’s f/w collection for Balenciaga, inspired by offices and the powerdressing of the 80′s, definitely belongs to the latter category, and so does the Givenchy show, where Riccardo Tisci presented a beautiful collection for fall.
Another highlight of the week was Stefano Pilati’s last collection for YSL, which was fetisch-inspired, crazy sexy and beautifully tailored. Rick Owens (a personal favorite of mine) presented a quite moving show inspired by the architectual movement referred to as ‘brutalism’, which was kind of funny since this (like Tim Blanks stated in his review on Style.com) might be Owens least brutal collection ever. The fashion industry’s darling, Phoebe Philo, succeded to create yet another great collection (especially the coats and jackets) for Céline, this season funnily enough also inspired by brutalist architecture.
Last but not least, I’d like to mention Dries van Noten, who, to the tones of Bon Iver’s beautiful song “Woods” undoubtely presented one of the absolute strongest collections of the season, inspired by Asian iconography.
In theory, Clare Waight Keller’s fall collection for 2012 sounds like a winner, since the inspiration was said to be a fusion of traditional British outerwear, and the sophistication and ease that’s so significant for the way French people dress. It could’ve gotten pretty interesting, but unfortunately it felt somewhat overthought, almost like a sort of parody of what Chloé is all about.
There certainly were some good pieces though, like a few powdery coats and bombers, and the colour palette was beautiful; mostly pastels and neutrals with elements of deep blue and burgundy. With this collection it’s proven that Claire Waight Keller really gets the feminine and relaxed sophistication that is the trademark of Chloé, but for next season I would wish for her to take the brand a bit further and incorporate more of her own vision into her design.
Having been a very dark fashion week in Milan so far, Raf Simons last collection for Jil Sander really was a much-needed ray of light and pastelly optimism. Beautiful powdery shades of pink, white and nude were mixed with black and bold scarlet in a collection that felt elegant in an aristocratic, Grace Kelly-ish way. As always with Simons design, the choice and use of materials were excellent, and the silhouettes were classical yet fresh and innovative.
Calf-lenght dresses and skirts paired with minimalistic oversized coats could have created a somewhat overly conservative impression, but the exposure of neck, shoulders and back makes it a lot younger and more interesting, since it adds a certain fragility to the pieces that makes the Jil Sander woman more vulnerable, and therefore more human.
Even though the thought of Jil Sander actually returning to Jil Sander (haha) is very exciting, I can’t help but feeling a little sad that Raf Simons is leaving since his last collections have been so appreciated, but hopefully he’ll create some more magic at Dior. Fingers crossed!
Whether or not you’re a fan of her design, it’s hard not to like Donatella Versace. Like Anna Kopito mentioned in her post about the spirit of Milan fashion week, italian design is all about tradition, craftmanship and (exaggerated) glamour, and Donatella Versace is almost like a parody of italian over-the- top glamour, which I personally love about her.
The collection for fall 2012 was, just like Donatella herself, a little too much at times. Bright yellow and orange dresses with the Versace logo printed on them, byzantine crosses and body-conscious leather dresses altogether created a collection that captured the very essence of Versace; sexy, rock n’roll and a firm belief in the expression “more is more”.
There is undeniably something very intriguing about the woman Frida Giannini had in mind for Gucci f/w 2012. According to a review on style.com Giannini was inspired by “nineteenth century decadents” which showed in her use of materials; dark feathers, leather, crocodile, tulle and crushed velvet created a dramatic, yet sophisticated, impression. The colour palette may have been utterly traditional for fall – black and dark shades of green, plum and burgundy – but came off interesting when combined with the choice of make up and hair, that had a quite intellectual feel to it.
It wouldn’t be an understatement suggesting that Gucci is mainly about excessive luxury, but for this season I feel like if something happened to the usually so carefree and extravagant Gucci woman. There is this new tone of melancholy, almost sorrow, that adds something to her appearance that makes me want to get to know her better, to figure her out. The fact that the inspiration from this collection was taken from the Decadent Movement and also the Dark Romanticism subgenre is very obivous, but the inspiration was luckily not too literally interpreted.
I think it’s fair to say that this is Giannini’s best collection yet, not only because it’s slightly unexpected and because the garments are – in my opinion – really beautiful, but because she managed to make the Gucci woman appear almost haunting, which hasn’t exactly been the case the last couple of seasons. If this collection would be a perfume, its top note would be the sickly sweet scent of flagging, almost rottening flowers, like the floral prints that were used in the collection.
Stine Riis, who recently graduated from London College of Fashion, was the winner of H&M Design Award; a newly founded award created to encourage and bring together students from Europe’s most prominent design schools. Not only does the winner get to sell parts of her graduate collection in selected H&M stores, she also got to show her collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Stine Riis stays, despite her English education, true to her Danish heritage and shows some amazing color blocked pieces that actually feels interesting and new (which is probably neccessary since “colorblocking” almost has become a bad word after the Jil Sander-overdosis). The collection is both fun, tailored and elegant, with a few truly beautiful pieces that really stands out for me, like a beautiful deconstructed white coat and a blue/brown fur jacket.
The company was founded by the two designers Rikke Baumgarten and Helle Hestehave in January 1999. Now ten years later the brand is available in more than 20 countries worldwide and leading boutiques and department stores offer the collections to women in metropolitans as Copenhagen, London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.
The creative manifest of Baum und Pferdgarten is to differ from the masses both in design and in process. The designer duo is known for not compromising on quality or esthetics – the high quality is reflected in both the fabrics as well as in the attention to detail and craftsmanship in the manufacturing.
Runway Collection F/W 2012
Silhouette: Tailored
Colour palette: Bourdeaux, Cream, Black and Blue
Key pieces: Flare skirts knee length
Photographer: Copenhagen Fashion Week®
Makeup by Max Factor and Mina Ingerslev & Hair styling by WELLA and Marta Spizewska.
Ana Hernández, the designer behind Hernández Cornet, chose to show her Spring/Summer 2012-colletion at Riche the last day of Stockholm fashion week. Not exactly having been blown away by the collections that had been shown during the week, I was rather excited to see what Hernández Cornet would bring to the table. The inspiration for this collection was the restrained nature – the conflict between the wild, unpredictable nature and the human need to control it. In times of natural disasters and pollution I personally think this is an important yet beautiful inspiration.
The collision between nature and the modern human is shown through the mix of both natural (like linen and silk) and artificial materials. Recurrent colors are faded shades of neon (mostly blue ones), black and white, and the silhouette is slim and sort of angular, which I think goes really well with the theme. One thing I particularly liked was the two different patterns, one that had been hand painted, and one that was made digitally. What impresses me with the Hernández Cornet S/S -collection is how everything (materials, cuts, shapes) actually makes sense and is cohesive to an extent that I don’t think has been that common in the other collections that was shown at Stockholm fashion week.
Altogether, I think this collection is clean, sharp and interesting in its unobtrusiveness. The only things I’m having an actual problem with is the McQueen-inspired make up (boring) and the awful white caps.
Since tomorrow’s the first day of Stockholm Fashion Week and everyone’s talking about what shows to look forward to, I wanted to write something about the fact that the Swedish brand Nakkna went bakrupt earlier this summer. Nakkna, which is one of my personal favorites when it comes to Swedish fashion, was founded in 2003 by designers Ella Soccorsi, Claes Berkes and Camilla Sundin, who all had graduated from Beckman’s school of design two years earlier. During the years 2003-2004 they won no less than three awards, (Elle Magazine Best Newcomer Award, Designer of the year from Nöjesguiden Magazine, and the Hero Award from Dagens Nyheter) and were also nominated for the Future Design Award. The reason why I’ve loved (and still love, of course) Nakkna is their geometric aesthetics, and liking of dark assymetrical cuts. Over the years, Nakkna’s silhouette has oscillated between being very structural in the A/W-seasons, whilst the S/S-silhouette has been far more organic and billowing.
However, when I heard about Nakkna’s bankruptcy, I was devastated (well, as devastated as fashion can make you feel) but to be honest, I wasn’t that surprised. I discussed this subject earlier today with one of my best friends, (and fellow Nakkna-lover) Victor Langer, whose perspective on Nakkna’s decay I’ve decided to post below;
“Looking at Nakkna as a brand, we find two main reasons against high sales figures: a relatively narrow design vocabulary, and an equally narrow clientele. By extension, this results in less purchasing power from the consumers for a brand in the mid-price range. Reasonably, such a consumer group becomes more sensitive to economic changes in terms of higher prices, which Nakkna implemented during the last seasons before the requested bankruptcy. Nakkna also decided to close the ironly physical store a couple of years ago, which before the establishment of the brand’s web shop meant that the consumers only could consume through retailers of various kinds. As the retailers’ supply of garments became smaller and more mainstream, we can assume that the consumption from the loyal and narrower customers decreased, which could have resulted in that the consumption of the foundation of Nakkna’s clientele, and thus main source of revenues, decreased.
Thus, the problem is not necessarily about Nakkna being an unsuccessful brand, but maybe rather about a problem regarding the mindset of retailers with a broader consumer focus than the original brand. Nakkna could therefore, as a result of higher prices and a smaller, more mainstream supply from the retailers, have lost purchasing power from the loyal customers – and in a situation where the loyal customers presumably contributed more to Nakkna’s revenues than the more mainstream, as a result of their continuity, the negative development continued.”
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Eftersom imorgon är första dagen på Stockholms modevecka och ungefär alla pratar om vilka visningar de ser mest framemot, kände jag att jag ville skriva någonting om det faktum att Nakkna gick i konkurs tidigare i sommar. Nakkna, som tveklöst är en av mina personliga favoriter när det kommer till svenskt mode, grundades 2003 av Ella Soccorsi, Claes Berkes och Camilla Sundin, som alla tre hade tagit examen från Beckmans två år tidigare. Under åren 2004-2004 vann Nakkna inte mindre än tre olika priser (Elle’s pris för Bästa Nykomling, Årets designer av Nöjesguiden och the Hero Award av DN) samt blev nominerade för the Future Design Award. Anledningen till att jag älskat (och fortfarande älskar, givetvis) Nakkna är deras geometriska formspråk och förkärlek för mörka, assymetriska skärningar. Under åren har Nakkna’s silhuett pendlat mellan att vara struktural och svart i A/W-kollektionerna och mer organiskt böljande i S/S-kollektionerna.
Hursomhelst, när jag hörde om Nakkna’s konkurs tyckte jag att det var synd, men jag blev i ärlighetens namn inte särskilt förvånad. Jag diskuterade detta tidigare idag med en av mina bästa vänner, Victor Langer, som också älskar Nakkna. Jag har valt att posta hans perspektiv på det hela nedan;
“Ser man till Nakkna som varumärke har vi två huvudsakliga anledningar som talar emot höga försäljningssiffror: ett relativt smalt formspråk, samt en lika relativt smal kundkrets. I förlängningen innebär det en mindre köpkraftig konsumentgrupp för ett varumärke i mellanprisklassen. En sådan kundkrets blir rimligtvis även mer känslig för ekonomiska förändringar ifråga om höjda priser, något som Nakkna genomförde de sista säsongerna innan den begärda konkursen. Nakkna valde även att stänga ned sin enda fysiska butik för ett par år sedan, vilket innan upprättandet av webbutiken innebar att kundkretsen enbart kunde konsumera genom återförsäljare av olika slag. Då utbudet hos återförsäljarna blev mindre och mer mainstream, kan vi anta att konsumtionen från trogna och mer nischade kunder minskade, vilket kan ha resulterat i att konsumtionen hos basen av Nakknas konsumentgrupp, och därigenom intäktskälla, avtog.
Problemet handlar alltså nödvändigtvis inte om att Nakkna skulle vara ett misslyckat varumärke, utan kanske snarare om en problematik som bottnar i den mer mainstream inställningen hos återförsäljare med bredare kundfokus än det ursprungliga varumärket. Nakkna kan alltså möjligen i och med höjda priser och ett mindre och mer mainstream utbud hos återförsäljarna förlorat köpkraft från de trognare kunderna – och i en situation där de trogna kunderna troligtvis bidrog mer till Nakknas intäkter än de mer mainstream, till följd av sin kontinuitet, fortsatte utvecklingen negativt.”
