Factory Girl

I've been trying to write this post all week, but I just had too many words to say and ended up having a small breakdown. Don't worry, I'm ok now, but following on from my breakdown, I'm thinking that the best way to write about this particular topic is to break it down... (you see what I did there? I am just SO street!)

First, let's all share a moment and look at this;

I know, I know, crazy/epic/mental/ridiculous/fabulous/insane right? But what's even more exciting about this is that moments before this photo was taken, that gigantic ruff/cloak thing was actually this skirt;

How Franki? How? And why? And also what? And who? And when? But mainly how? Explain all, please, for we are so confused by these images of strange and wonderful things.

Well children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoering, also known as Viktor & Rolf, the crazy-cool Dutch design duo, have always been known for their whacky but wonderful approach to fashion. I've mentioned them briefly in previous posts but not really gone into great detail about them... that is UNTIL NOW, because, having been rendered completely and utterly dumbfounded by their Fall 2010 show, I have to comment.

Imagine the scene; a fashion show. The runway is completely plastered with images of cogs, gears and screws and the music is layered with the mechanical sounds of a factory. The lights dim. Kristen McMenamy (a popular face of the 90s... I've never heard of her) heads down the runway wearing a ma-hoo-sive fur and tweed cape. The designers follow her and the three of them stop on a rotating circle in the centre of the runway, where Viktor and Rolf then proceed to remove said ginourmous cape from the model, who is standing as still as an extremely still mannequin (that's VERY still). Another model appears on the runway, steps onto the magical rotating bit and the designers dress her in the cape, which, with a few minor adjustments, becomes a coat. This process is repeated again and again as it is revealed, on removal of the giant cape, that McMenamy is actually wearing several layers of coats and jackets, which are each removed in turn, transformed into another garment through the magic of drawstrings, zips and fasteners and then placed onto another model, who then carries on down the runway, while McMenamy is STILL STANDING STILL!

You want a cape or a coat? Voila! You can have both!

Once all the layers are removed and McMenamy is stripped down to nothing but a nude bodysuit, the process starts again, this time in reverse, with models wearing various dresses, which are then removed, turned into yet more coats and placed back onto McMenamy, who, believe it or not, is STILL STANDING STILL! Is she a robot? Possibly.

First it's a dress, then it's a coat. Ah, the things you can do with a drawstring.

Basically, the whole thing was insane. I don't know what I was more impressed by; Viktor and Rolf's ingenuity and precision when removing/transforming/replacing garments or Kristen McMenamy's ability to wear twelve million layers of clothes while maintaining an air of zen-like coolness.

But what was the reason for all this? Are Viktor and Rolf telling us that layering is going to be such an important aspect for the Fall season that we should just wear all our clothes at once? Were they taking tips from that video of the 1930s future fashion predictions where they thought we'd all be wearing clothes which could adapt for day and night? Or did they just want to play dress up with a life-sized Barbie doll? (Don't we all?)

No. Don't be silly, it was none of those things.

The show was entitled "Glamour Factory", the runway (I think) represented a conveyor belt and the designers were like the two little workers, busily producing new garments. They were also playing with the concept of "Ready to Wear", as the pieces were somewhat extreme but, with a few tweaks, became instantly wearable.

I'll be honest, I don't really get where McMenamy and her layer upon layer of coats came into it all, but I'd like to think she represented a big stylish onion, which could be peeled to reveal more and more lovely things.

Regardless of what it all meant, I think it was brilliant, simply because it's a nice change to see a runway show which involves something a bit more than models just walking. Even so, having read several reviews, it's clear that the spectacle and theatrics of the show managed to overshadow the actual clothes, which is a shame because they were really gorgeous;

Those circle-lens sunglasses do remind me of Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? though;

Anyway, Viktor & Rolf have to be commended for the brilliant design features which utilised a simple drawstring to conceal or reveal volume, allowing garments to transform effortlessly from one thing to another. It was never a case of "oh that coat looks a bit like a dress now"; the coat was DEFINITELY a dress.

I also think it's great to see the designers taking an active role in the show, as usually, designers don't seem keen to enter the runway at all. I'm hoping that next season, designers will take their cue from Viktor & Rolf and we'll see Karl Lagerfeld whipping out a sewing machine on the Chanel catwalk and making all the clothes from scratch, right there and then. Brilliant.

Candy for cuties

"Zeerust: the particular kind of datedness which afflicts things that were originally designed to look futuristic" - The Meaning of Liff, Douglas Adams & John Lloyd

Before you read the rest of this post, please, please watch the video - it's very important! And you'll enjoy it, I promise...

I could quite happily watch this all day long. I love the idea that in the 1930s, a woman's biggest concerns were bagging a man and maintaining a comfortable temperature...

While some of the predictions are completely bizarre and off the mark, a couple of them are actually more than a little bit accurate. I don't think they've ever been a massive trend (and hopefully won't ever become one), but you can buy trousers with zips on the lower legs that turn them into shorts (I think they're quite popular with outdoorsy types who go hiking and climbing etc) and, when I was little, I owned a bubble jacket with removable sleeves. It was the height of sophistication, let me tell ya! Also, the 'cantilever' heels, have actually been a trend for years; I've seen vintage 'floating heel' shoes from the 1970s for sale on eBay and more recently, after Marc Jacob's inverted heels on the Spring 2008 catwalk, a lot of designers have experimented with inverting and even removing heels altogether!

Antonio Berardi, Marc Jacobs and Nina Ricci. Does anyone own shoes like these? How do you walk in them?!

Despite a few similarities with modern-day fashions, most of the outfits in the video have (sadly) not been made a reality in the noughties. I find it interesting that the designers in the video seem to have concerned themselves more with designing clothes which performed several functions rather than trying to predict actual trends for the future, but then I suppose that's quite a difficult task; if someone asked me what I thought people would be wearing in 70 year's time, I wouldn't have a clue! Even so, when it got to the point where that woman had a big torch tied into her hair, I did get a little bit hysterical with laughter. And the man! That poor, poor man! He had a phone strapped to his chest!

It got me thinking about some of the trends that actually have made the catwalks recently and what the people of the 1930s would have thought of them. If the concept of a dress made from 'transparent net' seemed whacky, imagine their reactions to these beauties;

(for your entertainment, I've added a mildly sexist narrative to accompany the photos, imagine it being spoken with a very clipped, RP accent.)

Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2007

"This fine filly doesn't leave much to the imagination in a dress made completely from steel. Unfortunately for her husband, he may need a can-opener to get her out of it."

Viktor & Rolf Spring/Summer 2010

"The ruffles on this jacket act as an excellent muffler for even the most delicate of ears. Now you can play your Glenn Miller records as loudly as you like without having to worry about deafening the little lady!"

Gareth Pugh Fall 2008

"The fabric of this gown is both flame-retardent and water-resistant. Perfect for even the clumsiest of cooks!"

Valentino Spring Couture 2010

"Eve may not have a very good sense of direction when she's out and about but you'll be able to spot her from a mile away when she's wearing this brightly coloured ensemble. Think you may have gone a bit overboard on the makeup there, Eve. Haha, silly Eve!"

Commes des Garcons Spring/Summer 2009

"A hat that covers most of the head and face will allow Eve to spend less time fussing over her appearance and more time worrying about what's really important, like tonight's dinner."

Haha, those foolish women, when will they learn?!

Well, did you ever?!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Source)

"More canapes, guv'nor?"

Did I dream this or was there once a time when Fashion TV was really crappy and featured fashion shows that nobody had heard of and had weird soap operas about models being forced into escort services? I swear I didn't make that up, but lately it's as if it was all some kind of ridiculous hallucination because whenever I've been blankly flicking through the channels, I've stopped on Fashion TV and found something wonderful to watch.

Today they showed some stuff from Milan Fashion Week and featured the Frankie Morello show which was frikkin' AWESOME (any fashion show that ends with a cast of fake wedding guests dancing to Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire gets an A* in my book). I've not come across Morello before so had a little look at his stuff online (weirdly, he's not on style.com but is on elle.com )

Let's just take a moment to enjoy that skirt. It's just...how did they...I wish...oh I love it! I always find it really interesting when designers do crazy things like this with fabric and folding and origami-type shapes because, from what I've seen on Project Catwalk, it's very difficult to execute such a challenging aspect of tailoring, and to do it well.

(Note - Project Catwalk and America's Next Top Model tell me everything I need to know about what's really important in the fashion industry, ie if you can't make a simple baby doll dress...you suck as a designer. If you can't smile with your eyes while balancing a bejewelled cockroach on your face...you suck as a model..).

Therefore, I have come to the (very wise) decision that Frankie Morello is an excellent designer. Frankie, I look forward to seeing more of you!

There's been a lot of clever folding and origami-ing (coz that's a word) of fabrics on the catwalks recently, the latest offerings from Viktor & Rolf were insane;

I can't even fathom how they've put these things together. The coat! It's like an armadillo but if an armadillo decided to be a really, really cool coat. And look at those skirts! I love how they're so demure, in muted tones and heavy fabrics but are so weird and brilliant at the same time.

Here's a few more origami-type pieces;

Gianfranco Ferre Spring/Summer 09, Christian Dior Spring/Summer Couture 07, Gareth Pugh Spring/Summer 09 and Bruno Pieters Fall 09

While all this crazily constructed stuff is FABULOUS, it is a difficult style to actually translate into a real life outfit for when you're just going about you're daily business (unless you live in space or are a very stylish armadillo), so I reckon it's more a case of really thinking about the basics - pleats, geometric shapes, ruffles and folds. The most obvious answer is to focus on more tailored stuff - pleated trousers, shirts with ruffle details and interesting geometric accessories. Although if anyone wants to send me the Frankie Morello skirt, I'd definitely give it a try!

So today, while in a folding frame of mind, I decided to try out some origami. Not just any origami, though, fashion origami! While I knew it would be basically impossible for me to make anything that was actually wearable, I thought that maybe I could create some interesting decorative little trinkets out of pretty pictures.

Figuring it'd be best to start out with some basics, I found an "easy origami for kids" page on the internet, with step by step instructions and lots of pictures, armed myself with a magazine and a pair of scissors and got to it.

First, I made a "pleated box" out of the Louis Vuitton ad with Madonna in it -

It's supposed to be a bit more 3D than this, so that you can actually put stuff in it, but magazine pages are quite flimsy so it didn't really stand up properly. Even so, I was pleased with this as a first attempt and moved on to a basket made from a Dior ad -

Look at it! It's a proper basket!

...Except you can't pick it up by the handle because I couldn't quite figure out how to fold it so that it stayed attached...

I think it's safe to say that Frankie Morello and Viktor & Rolf won't be hiring me anytime soon...

I did however, do rather well with the origami animals - ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce -

The Easter Critters! In case, like my dad, you haven't got a clue what they are, it's a chick and a bunny, but you knew that, right?

...maybe I've found my calling in life...

(photos from elle.com and style.com)