Face Beauty Girl

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Emanuel Ungaro Spring 2010 RTW.

Yulia Lobova (MAJOR)

The wall of cameras at the end of the runway was double the size it was last season, and there was an impressive turnout of industry professionals and curious onlookers at Ungaro today.

Siri Tollerød (MARILYN)

In a bid for easy headlines, CEO Mounir Moufarrige recently replaced Esteban Cortazar with an unusual team: the little-known Spanish designer Estrella Archs and, as "artistic adviser," the actress turned self-bronzer entrepreneur Lindsay Lohan.

Thana Kuhnen (NATHALIE)

Would the move turn out to be a bit of counterintuitive brilliance—the Olsens, after all, have had a bona fide hit with The Row—or would the results be as embarrassing as a streaky orange fake tan?

Katie Fogarty (NEXT)

In separate interviews a couple of days before the show, Archs discussed reviving the DNA and Lohan mentioned injecting a bit of youth into the brand—not necessarily mutually exclusive notions for a label that was beloved by eighties party girls.

Kinga Rajzak (IMG)

The show opened on an up note, with a strapless fuchsia plissé minidress—two Ungaro signatures rolled into one—and Archs turned the house's polka dots into a charming enough heart print on colorful sequined jackets. So far, not so bad…but it wasn't destined to last.

Egle Tvirbutaite (NEXT)

This quickly devolved into a bad joke of a fashion show, one with questionable color combinations, "bad eighties" draped silk jackets and drop-crotch pants, old-fashioned and ill-judged fur stoles, and, yes, tasteless sequin pasties.

Tati Cotliar (NEXT)

To top it off, the fabrics and the construction lacked the finesse you expect from a famous Avenue Montaigne brand.

Kinée Diouf (VIVA)

To be fair, Archs had just about a month to design the collection. But both she and Lohan (if she sticks around long enough) will have to work a lot harder next time to impress the editors and buyers who witnessed this disappointing debut.

Marina Peres (IMG)

Skye Stracke (VIVA)

Imogen Morris Clarke (NEXT)

Tanya Dziahileva (MARILYN)

Viviane Orth (IMG)

Luca Gadjus (WM)

Kelli Lumi (MAJOR)

Georgie Badiel (ELITE)

Kristy Kaurova (MAJOR)

Anya Kazakova (MARILYN)

Sheila Marquez (WOMEN)

Liu Wen (MARILYN)

Mathilde Frachon (NEXT)

Xue Zhang (SLIDES)

Ali Michael (VIVA)

Angelika Kocheva (MARILYN)

Jennifer Messelier (ELITE)

Egle Tvirbutaite (NEXT)

Kinga Rajzak (IMG)

Jovana

Denisa Dvorakova (ELITE)

Iekeliene Stange (MARILYN)

Georgie Badiel (ELITE)

Melodie Dagault (ELITE)

Asia Bugajska (METROPOLITAN)

Skye Stracke (VIVA)

Marina Peres (IMG)

Anna Gushina (IMG)

Alina Ismailova (VIVA)

Katie Fogarty (NEXT)

Alex Sandor (METROPOLITAN)

Yulia Lobova (MAJOR)

Kinée Diouf (VIVA)

Jeneil Williams (FORD)

Imogen Morris Clarke (NEXT)

Irina Lazareanu (MARILYN)

Estrella Archs and Lindsay Lohan

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Balenciaga Resort 2010.

Elsa Sylvan

Resort is a season in which designers tend to scale back their creative vision in favor of surefire sales, but that wasn't Nicolas Ghesquière's approach for his latest Balenciaga effort.

Chanel Iman

His experiments with volume—as on a series of printed and embroidered frocks with super-short tiered lampshade skirts—were more daring than anything else we've seen during the current round of shows and presentations.

Alex Sandor

Ditto his chunkily woven leather sandal boots.

Johanna Kneppers-Corbel

Still, there was plenty here that was time-tested. A pearl- and crystal-embroidered Cristobal Balenciaga Edition jacket circa 1965 "still looks right now," Ghesquière said.

Alex Sandor

Remarkably, so did a long black net and velvet dot evening coat that Balenciaga originally made in 1959.

Katie Fogarty

Other pieces shown today, like a pantsuit in rustic, nubby linen, have no progenitor, but their very Ghesquière-ness—the slim fit of the jacket, the leg-elongating trouser—should ensure their success.