ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Monday, October 3, 2011

Aqua and Mineral Blue by Giorgio Armani

Paris Fashion Week is running, and before continuing my Paris Fashion Week-editorials (started on Saturday with 'PFW | Christian Dior Spring/Summer 2012' collection), I just wanted to present you this beautiful Spring/Summer 2012 collection by Giorgio Armani. Enjoy the Giorgio Armani Fashion Show 2012 at the end of this post! LoL, Andrea

If further proof was needed of what Armani has given to women of the world over the years, it occured a few minutes into his show. The theme aqua, or perhaps more accurately, what happens to aqua when moonlight hits it and causes all sorts of ripples and reflections. In short, we're talking silvery blues and greens, a touch of mother-of-pearl, and plenty of silks and satins, some printed to look like marble and wirled with blossoms. all of which were utilized for his latest idea of the Armani silhouette: a longer-length jacket set with small shoulders, before flaring out of Empire-style and then finishing at the hips, and worn with a new pant shape, which is cut with a slight kick to above a side-slit ankle.

Located among his variations on those were two superchic suits, one dark pearl gray, the other a marine blue. Both were cut with the skill and refinement that you can achieve only if you've been manipulating fabric for five decades and counting, and they moved with the kind of sinuosity you'd normally associate with slippery little nothings of lingerie. The jacket was cut on the bias, draped across the body with the merest suggestion of a closure, the skirt cut too on the bias, the slightest hint of a dip in the hem.

Later, as a complete contrast, Armani offered another twosome that felt just right: Peplum tops and the aforementioned cropped trouser, in color combinations of mineral blue and gray, a look perfectly pitched between sharp and urban, soft and sensual. He then went on to abbreviate trousers even further, finishing them at the knee and slipping them under the likes of a couple of killer crystal-encrusted short evening dresses with décolletés so deep they'd make a grown man blush.

Photography by Marcio Madeira/GoRunway

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Enjoy my previous Armani-post -

'Roses, cherry blossoms, and chrysanthemums -
Armani Privé Couture F/W 2011'

Saturday, October 1, 2011

PFW | Christian Dior Spring/Summer 2012

Paris Fashion Week - Christian Dior Spring/Summer 2012 by Bill Gaytten -The expectations facing Dior's first pret-a-porter show since John Galliano's ouster were mixed, or maybe just muddled by the endless roundelay of succession speculation that has turned the label into a fashion soap opera. Enjoy the Christan Dior Fashion Show at the end of this post! LoL, Andrea

A dressed-up mood ran through the entire collection, not simply the gazar and organza that so many of the outfits were cut from, but the classic New Look Bar jacket, modernized with a wider neckline; the Grace Kelly dress with the wrapped bodice; the orange-red silk and tulle dance number tied at the waist with a huge bow. And the evening section that closed the show felt like an immaculate parade of Hollywood legend Adrian's Art Deco gowns.

So the fact that there were no surprises, and no alarming swerves in any novel direction as this show took its course, meant Gaytten and his team acquitted themselves as well as could be expected under the circumstances. In fact, for those kinds of occasions where out-there fashion statements don't really work, there could be a plenty of saving graces here for the jolie maman and her daughter. The grown lady can nod to trend by wearing a skirt with volume under a jacket, the young girl with a need for a 21st-birthday party dress would look sweet in a rose-printed dance-frock, and, for actresses vying for pretty dresses for Cannes, there will be lacy, lingerie-influenced one to fit the bill.