Fashion is On

Sarah Mower, the British Fashion Council’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent (and revered fashion writer), Emma Watson, and US Vogue hosted a party here in NYC last week to introduce the UK’s next wave of fashion stars. The party, at Keith McNally’s new restaurant Pulino’s, rounded up three days of Stateside schmoozing for Britain’s up-and-coming fashion designers.

The Council showcased 23 designers; the idea being to introduce them to stylists, editors, writers and buyers in the all-important American market. The chosen few included: Atalanta Weller, Christopher Raeburn, Craig Lawrence, David Koma, Eun Jeong, Fannie Schiavoni, Hannah Marshall, Heikki Salonen, Holly Fulton, James Long, Jean Pierre Braganza, KTZ, Louise Gray, MFP-Maria Francesca Pepe, Mark Fast, Mary Katrantzou, Meadham Kirchhoff, Michael Lewis, Michael Van Der Ham, Natascha Stolle, Peter Pilotto, Tim Soar and Todd Lynn.

Five of these designers recently received the prestigious Council’s NEWGEN award and were sponsored by Topshop
to exhibit at London Fashion Week for the first time in February. They were Christopher Raeburn (signature sustainable parachute fabric), Natascha Stolle (soft tailoring), MFP-Maria Francesca Pepe (avant-garde ready-to-wear), David Koma (sculpted, body-conscious dresses) and Fannie Schiavoni’s (hand-made chain jewellery).

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Watching an Isabel Marant show isn’t so much about exercising professional judgement as making a new season shopping list. That would explain why so many fashion editors have been wearing her autumn/winter 2009 leopard or python print dress on the front row.

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HANNAH MACGIBBON’S third collection for Chloe this afternoon was a gratifying manoeuvre that proved she has found her feet and is enjoying herself there.

The Chloe girl, she said, “is a romantic traveller at heart, her trans-seasonal wardrobe reflects her nomadic spirit, with chic enduring pieces that emphasise craftsmanship and detail”.

It was good to see a Chloe girl back whom we recognised, but whose worldly travels had given her a new infectious confidence.

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At some shows in Paris, the seating arrangements are so cramped that you can physically feel the audience reaction in the body language running along a bench. At Givenchy, there was no possible doubt about what it was. From the very first look out—a geometrically striped black and white jersey jacket over a graphic, lozenge-fronted top and draped pants—everyone was on high alert, jostling and craning for the best possible view.

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Anyone who thinks tough chic was an Eighties invention, all high glitz and déclassé, needs a brush-up on film noir, examples of which typically feature a strong-shouldered, holds-her-own kind of woman of sharp tongue and sharper mind who extracts herself from countless perilous, shadowy situations — while looking incredibly chic. John Galliano devoted his spring show to the queen bee of such gals, Lauren Bacall, and her trench-wearing other half, Humphrey Bogart.

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CLEVER, unique, shocking, beautiful, ground-breaking and trend setting are the words most often used to describe Miuccia Prada’s collections each season – but downright pretty isn’t standard.

Tonight she gave us all of the above. “It was as if she let girls loose in a really grown-up place, with really grown-up clothes and they ripped them all apart and put them all back on again their own way,” said Vogue fashion director Kate Phelan.

Which meant that dresses were fashioned from chandelier crystals and couture fabrics – silk gabardine, washed chiffon, gauze and satin were tied around the body, their edges frayed and their seams allowing cotton lining to flood out behind as the models walked

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tribal rave party at Missoni? You bet. Proving to be quite the show woman, Angela Missoni chose as her venue a tranquil 15th-century courtyard at the Università degli Studi di Milano, with choral music and warm breezes wafting through the Renaissance porticoes as her guests took their seats.

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Seven designers are vying for the opportunity to have his or her original evening gown worn at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

The designers’ looks were showcased at a Feb. 10 fashion show at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters in Beverly Hills. The “Oscars Designer Challenge” was created as an opportunity for an up-and-coming designer to have his or her design worn by one of the Academy Awards escorts on Hollywood’s biggest night. And for the first time, the Academy is inviting the public to vote on an element of its Oscar telecast. Oscar fashion coordinator Patty Fox, along with Oscar telecast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, selected the contestants from sketches submitted by 50 designers. Finalists include Los Angeles–based Alan Del Rosario, Robert Rodriguez and Marianne Kooimans; New York–based Moire Conroy and Nicolas Putvinski; and Chicago-based Sam Kori George and Maria Pinto—Michelle Obama’s go-to designer. Fox hosted the show and introduced each designer, who walked the runway with his or her gown. “We were looking for talent. We were looking for someone that could manufacture the gown that they had sketched. But we were looking for names that had not been well-known,” explained Fox. She also added that the winner’s dress will likely be seen on Oscar night more than any other gown on the red carpet.

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