The Undersea World by Karl Lagerfeld

Tweet



Paris Fashion Week - CHANEL Spring/Summer 2012

An aquatic wonderland of gleaming white stingrays and sea horses adrift amongst coral branches and shell on a sandy sea bed. Lagerfeld had promised "the ground of the sea, but in a very poetic way", and his models, meandering through this dramatic set to a techno soundtrack abstracted from Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", looked like magical deep-sea sirens, from the pearls scattered in their hair to the sea urchin shells that propped up the heels of their sandals.

My lovely fellows knowing me and my special faible for CHANEL, and their Couture collections could follow my blog and discover many Chanel-editorials, and enjoy the CHANEL Spring/Summer 2012 Fashion Show at the end of this post by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories - The Fashion Channel.

Lagerfeld deconstracted some of the house symboles. Coco's iconic pearls were used as buttons or as belts to girdle his round-shouldered dresses, and Lagerfeld banished her signature braid trims altogether in place of fine black ribbon set in geometric blocks across pale sulting, a detail inspired by the "fabric paintings" of German abstract artist Blinky Palermo that he had admired in a recent exhibition at Dia. Lagerfeld worked with innovative techno fabrics to create the effect of light through water. Airy waffle-textured organzas and iridescent synthetics, open-weave tweeds and knits, and a palette of sea foam, shell pink, and mother-of-pearls (anchored with inevitable black) created an otherworldly effect.

And the detail brought a whisper of the haute couture to the ready-to-wear season; changeante organza ribbons were appliquéd to trail across little shift dresses like seaweed awaying in a riptide; silvery embroideries or a frosting  of macreous sequins spilled down black dresses like the phosphorescence on a moonlit sea. Swimsuits were anchored by pearls clasps or veiled in dear plastic "virtual jackets" printed with a tracery of fine black swirling lines like seawed washed up on a seashore.

CHANEL Spring/Summer 2012 Fashion Show

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photography by Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway

Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories 

and more to follow ...

Enjoy my previous Paris Fashion Week post -

'From Mermaids to Florals - Givenchy & Nina Ricci'

Tweet

From Mermaids to Florals - Givenchy & Nina Ricci

 Tweet

Paris Fashion Week - Many collections were inspired by the Sea-shell theme, we just viewed today CHANEL Spring/Summer 2012 collection (a kind of UnderWater World). or in Milan a fabulous line by VERSACE Spring/Summer 2012 'MFW | Mermaids by Versace', and Givenchy by Ricardi Tisci, claiming surfers and mermaids as influence. All these collection were taking in contrast to others working in the deminine florals like Emanuel Ungaro, John Galliano, and as presented here - Nina Ricci Spring/Summer 2012. Enjoy the Givenchy and Nina Ricci SS 2012 Fashion Shows during this post! LoL, Andrea

Givenchy Spring/Summer 2012 collection - Paris Fashion Week

Givenchy / Nina Ricci Spring/Summer 2012 - Paris Fashion Week

Givenchy by Ricardo Tisci - At Givenchy Riccardo Tisci is a designer who can command full attention for what, and incidentially, who he puts on a runway. And this  season, quit unexpectedly, he left off his darkly ornate panther-prints and black patent leather and dove under the sea for inspiration. The oversize shark-tooth pendants and use of eel skin and 'sea wolf' (get some informations here by 'ANDREA JANKE 'My Brand' about sea wolf - Lupo macchiato) were the most overt pointers to this watery theme. In fact, the imagery in this show was only used in an allusive way. Call it sea change: The Approach was less about the cool, street-inspired T-shirts and sweatshirts for young insiders than casting the net wider to catch grown women who are in the market for tailored, quite dressy, looks and a subtle, optimistic use of color.

The designer claimed surfers and mermaids as influences, but we've never seen either species in sexy suits quite like these: jackets that were sharp and soft at the same time, with strong, confident shoulders, and, for contrast, suggestive, undulating lapels and come-hither peplums trimmed not in leather but eel skin, shark, or stingray. Speaking of exotic materials, the jackets themselves weren't exactly cut from workaday fabrics. Chiffon sequins and lasered leather cutouts recalled the most stunning creations in his July couture show.

Nina Ricci - Peter Copping named his Spring 2012 collection Zina after the artist Zina de Plagny, who collaborated with Nina Ricci in the 1930's, designing prints. Copping found out about her not in the house's archive but in a World of Interiors article about her daughter, who had just discovered a treasure trove of her mother's work. "I thought to myself taht I should call her, but she called me", he explained. "It was fate". Zina's florals had a second life on Copping's runway tonight, cut into a sexy sheath with a scooped-out back, a printed top and matching high-waisted shorts, and most interestingly, a coat that was sandwiched between two layers of gray chiffon, quilted with silver thread.

But there was more at play here than pretty florals. Lingerie, a big Spring trend was a central element. It came in the form of bra-tops which Copping proposed as underpinnings for dressy stretch satin skirtsuits, or as delicate, lacy slipdresses, including one in navy and black that was particularly fetching. More surprising was that the designer described as his "Ricci biker lady" quilted leather jacket and coat. The rest of the collection was firmly situated on the dressed-up side of the spectrum like so many others in the season. Copping cited the golden age of couture as a starting point, and he accessorized with cage hats, sit was smart to add some daywear to the mix.

Selections made by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photography by Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway
Photo Credit/Source: VOGUE, Style


Enjoy my previous Paris Fashion Week-post -
'PFW | Christian Dior Spring/Summer 2012'

Tweet