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Antwerp, Art, Designers, Exhibitions, Fashion, London, Paris

A Season Of Fabulous Fashion Exhibitions

October 4, 2012 by cheriecity

Summer in London was all about the Olympic Games and the Royal Family, but for autumn 2012, the focus is firmly back on fashion. What better way to ease into the colder months than in a cosy museum in the company of haute couture and beautiful photography?

See the very best fashion exhibitions in Europe this autumn…

Tim Walker: Story Teller, supported by Mulberry, explores the great fashion photographer’s mesmerising, often whimsical images created for the world’s top fashion magazines. Alongside instantly recognisable and rarely seen photographs, the exhibition reveals the mechanics behind the magical images with props and installations, including a giant doll and Spitfire plane.
– Somerset House, London – 18 October 2012 – 27 January 2013

Chloé Attitudes celebrates the 60 years of the maison founded by Gaby Aghion, with its first dedicated exhibition. On display will be key looks from each of Chloé’s nine designers, exploring the brand’s aesthetic and iconic signatures. It will be difficult not to feel a hint of nostalgia when seeing memorable designs by Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo and Martine Sitbon, alongside early creators and current designer Clare Waight Keller. Also featured are never-seen-before drawings and images of the Chloé woman by Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Jeanloup Sieff and David Bailey.
– Palais de Tokyo, Paris – until 18th November

Madame Grès – Sculptural Fashion pays tribute to the elements of sculpture in Madame Grès’ designs, from her exquisite draping and Hellenic-inspired evening gowns to chic beachwear. The exhibition has been developed in collaboration with Belgian artist Renato Nicolodi and his works also feature. If you missed the Madame Grès retrospective at the Musée Galliera, Paris, this is a great opportunity to see the garments interpreted in a new way.
– Momu, Antwerp – until 10th February 2013

Valentino: Master of Couture celebrates Valentino Garavani’s nearly half-century in fashion and the artistry behind his brand. The dedicated three-part exhibition begins by focusing on Valentino’s personal life with photos from his archive, leading into a major survey of his haute couture, featuring an impressive 130 pieces. Finally, visitors are given a rare insight into the craft of couture, showcasing the intricate work of ‘les petits mains’, whose exquisite hand-sewing, beadwork and embroidery made Valentino a cut above the rest.

– Somerset House, London – 29 November 2012 – 3 March 2013

The Little Black Jacket is the travelling photographic exhibition to accompany Karl Lagerfeld’s book, ‘The Little Black Jacket; CHANEL’s classic revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld’. The exhibition features 113 photographs showing the iconic Chanel jacket worn in a number of ways by such as Sofia Coppola, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kanye West, Waris Ahluwalia and Kirsten Dunst. See the exhibition before it moves on to Moscow, Sydney, Paris and finishes in Berlin.
– Saatchi Gallery, London – 12 October – 4 November

Beauty, Designers, Fashion

Will Marc’s new fragrance go Bang?

June 5, 2010 by cheriecity

Marc Jacobs is a fine specimen of a man, agreed? He’s got a ripped bod, super cool tattoos and is basically a David LaChapelle dream boy, oh, and one of today’s most prolific and successful designers.

We’ve already seen almost every inch of Marc for the Stephen Sprouse x Louis Vuitton campaign, with his body resembling a pink LV graffiti leopard. So the statement there was clear – ‘stop thinking of me as geeky, awkward, drugged up Marc. My body is a temple, and what a place to worship! In a non-arrogant, ironic way, mind you.’

This brings me on to the reason for such Marc dissection – his new mens fragrance, Bang. If it wasn’t all over the internet, I’d guess that the Bang campaign was an April Fool’s joke. The only resemblance to the Marc Jacobs brand as we know it is naked Marc, with ‘come hither’ eyes, covering up Little Marc with the bulletproof bottle. It seems to have been inspired by the image of a Yves Saint Laurent taken by Jeanloup Sieff for his 1971 fragrance, Pour Homme.

This new direction come as a bit of a surprise, as the Marc Jacobs fragrances seemed to be targeting the younger, NYLON generation, with Lola, Daisy and this summer’s Splash fragrances inspired by macaroons in a Paris patisserie. Of course, the men need a bit of MJ love and Bang is the first Marc Jacobs men’s fragrance in over a decade. Marc Jacobs Men is cool and understated, but a little uninspiring compared to its sister fragrances, but is the male population ready for the raw, in-your-face sexuality of Bang?

Gone are the innocent days of Sofia Coppola languishing in a pool filled with gardenias, but everything about Bang just screams sex. Not the kind of alluring, intoxicating sex of Purple Diary, Gucci or YSL Opium, but the kind of bawdiness of a Carry On film. Even the name Bang suggest crappy, back seat sex and doesn’t the female model look like she’s been sprayed with some man fluids?!

On the the fragrance itself – the bottle is futuristic Thierry Mugler and is supposed to look all scrunchy, like a bullet has hit it in the centre. The perfume does actually sound delicious and spicy with notes of black, pink and white peppercorns, wood, vetiver, white moss, patchouli and the rather odd sounding benzoin and elemi resinoid (perfume addicts will know about these, but to me they sound strangely like American prescription drugs).

I don’t want to take too much of a stern, serious approach to the campaign, as Marc Jacobs brings a lot of humour and fun to fashion and has the right to take his label in any direction he wants. It’s bold and confrontational, much like his more recent collections and it will be interesting to see if such a tongue-in-cheek campaign will make it a major hit with its target demographic of young, style-conscious guys, or if it will be seen as too gimmicky.

So, are you loving Marc’s fearless, playful campaign, or does it make you want to grab Sofia and stage an intervention? Who does the advertising speak to and will they be down with it? Comments please!

Designers, Exhibitions, Fashion, France, News, Paris

Yves Saint Laurent honoured in epic Paris retrospective

February 17, 2010 by cheriecity

Yves Saint Laurent’s 40 years in fashion is to be recognised in a major retrospective at the Petit Palais in Paris next month.

Curated by Saint Laurent’s long-term life and business partner Pierre Bergé and under the patronage of the First Lady of France,Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the exhibition will cover 40 years of creation, from 1962 to 2002. On display will be 300 pieces of Saint Laurent’s haute couture and innovative prêt-à-porter line, Rive Gauche.

The exhibition ranges from Yves Saint Laurent’s beginnings at Dior as Christian Dior’s successor (including his debut trapèze collection) in the 1950s to the Scandale collection following the May 1968 Paris riots to his evening gowns just before his death in 2002.

Yves Saint Laurent turned style rules on their head and revolutionised Paris fashion with his use of masculine tailoring for women. His signature look Le Smoking tuxedo has been reinterpreted dozens of times and he’s also responsible for popularising the safari suit and the beatnik look. Pierre Bergé once said: “Chanel liberated the woman, but Yves Saint Laurent gave them power.”

Also on display will be a number of drawings, films and photos chronicling the history the house of Yves Saint Laurent, including an image by photographer Jeanloup Sieff, depicting Yves partially naked for his eau de toilette campaign, and French film star Catherine Deneuve’s entire Yves Saint Laurent wardrobe.

The exhibition also sheds light on Yves Saint Laurent’s influences, such as opera, cinema, theatre (his early collections referencing the theatre sets of Christian Bérard) and painting – his . His travels to Morocco, China and Russia are well documented in the ‘Chinoiserie’ and ‘Opium’ collections that are presented in the exhibition.

Yves Saint Laurent’s influence has been been Marc Jacobs, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Tom Ford . The house of Yves Saint Laurent still thrives today under the direction of the talented Stefano Pilati, whose deep respect for Saint Laurent’s aesthetic is evident in the collections. Unlike Tom Ford before him, Pilati understands the subtle sexiness of the strong Parisienne, but isn’t afraid to drive the house forward with futuristic references.

The garments are drawn from the collection of over 5000 piece at the Fondation Pierre Berge – Yves Saint Laurent in Saint Laurent’s former atelier on the Avenue Marceau.

The exhibition runs from 11 March to August 29 at the Petit Palais. Tickets are €11.