Glamour and Glitter

Antwerp Fashion Academy Show 2009

The Royal Academy of Antwerp is considered one of the best design schools in the world.  Their end of year show is notoriously long, showcasing the work of students from all 4 years of the program.  We went one year and couldn't make it through the whole thing.  The standing section in heels for 3 hours did not work out for us.

There were 14 graduating students this year, of them Alexandra Verschueren was the big winner, with her collection 'Medium'.  She was inspired by paper, folding and cutting fabric to resemble paper.  She also included a print that resembledd grid paper that had been doodled on.

The collections were very diverse, including menswear and womenswear.  Each student clearly had their own vision, which is refreshing to see.  More coverage can be found at A Shaded View of Fashion, Sonny Photos and the Antwerp Fashion Observer

Graduate Fashion Week London

London has just experienced Graduate Fashion Week 2009, where BA Fashion Design students present their final collections.  Over 50 schools exhibit their students' work, while 22 schools put on fashion shows.

Early in the week, Central Saint Martins showed and awarded the L'Oreal Professionnel Award to Marie Hill with runners-up Luke Brooks and Dean Quinn.  40 students in all showed their vision.  Futurism was a major theme threading throughout the night, as well as big shoulders and embellishments (glitter!).

Marie Hill was inspired by the Helmet Newton power woman.

Luke Brooks was inspired by the concept of Jerusalem's Syndrome:  the phenomenon of religious pilgrims being overwhelmed.

Dean Quinn was inspired by the films Bladerunner and The Confirmist.

On to the London College of Fashion, where Alicija Aputyte won the Textile award, Alex Rosenwald for Design Technology and Hoi Lam Wong for Collection of the Year.  28 students showed collections with extreme technical precision.  Overall themes for the graduates included the Early Nineties, the colour beige, and androgyny.

Hoi Lam Wong was inspired by menswear tailoring.

Alicija Aputyte was inspired by the architecture of Gaudi and experimented with laser cutting.

Alex Rosenwald was inspired by military uniforms and parachutes.

After 4 days of school shows, the Gala Show exhibited the best work of the week.  The jury included Matthew Williamson and Giles Deacon.  Myrto Stamou of University for the Creative Arts Rochester won the River Island Gold Award.  12 other awards were given out as well.

Myrto Stamou's collection was inspired by the artwork of German Surrealist Hans Bellmer.

More coverage of Graduation Fashion Week can be found at Dazed Digital and fashion156.  All photos in this post are from the Telegraph

Best Dressed at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival wrapped up last night, so let's talk about the best dressed ladies.

Angelina Jolie for best colour, and best fabric.  Charlotte Gainsbourg for best runway look, and best print.  Leila Bekhti for best cocktail dress, and best matchy-matchy shoes.

Angelina Jolie in Versace

Charlotte Gainsbourg in Balenciaga

Leila Bekthi in Lanvin

And in our reoccuring category of ladies dressing the same:

Rachel Weisz and Evangeline Lily both in Valentino

Fritz Helder and The Phantoms + Fashion Cares Toronto

Musical Act (and Fashion Darlings), Fritz Helder and The Phantoms have teamed up with Fashion Cares, ACT (AIDS Committee of Toronto) and 10 Toronto fashion designers to create Platinum: a line of special edition concert merchandise.  Platinum will be auctioned off during their concert on May 22, 2009 in Toronto.  A portion of the proceeds go to Fashion Cares and ACT.  For more information and to check out the entire lookbook, go to their blog.

Our favourite pieces include:

Jeremy Laing's Swarovski crystal transfer t-shirt dresses inspired by skid-proof metal flooring.

Label's black tank dress with silk fringe and silver-plated chain attached to the neckline.

And just for fun, Fritz Helder and The Phantoms music video for Lagerfeld Lady, shot in Paris.

Met Ball RoundUp

The Met Ball was last night! And a few trends appeared:  the mullet dress (short in the front, long in the back), the colour Red, mini-dresses and Glitter!  Oh, did those ladies sparkle!

And a few ladies decided to dress the same:

(I find it crazy that a designer would wear a dress in the same fabric and colour as one given to a client/star)

We love the Met Ball because it's where fashion fantasies become reality.  We love those who took a risk and dressed fashion-forward.  Best: Leighton Meester in Louis Vuitton.  Other G&G best dressed include Kate Moss in Marc Jacobs,  

Gossip side note: big drama was that Stephanie Seymour, Veronica Webb, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell boycotted the event at the request of Alaïa who was grumpy his work wasn't well represented in the Costume Institute exhibit.

83rd annual SO-EN competition

Bunka Fashion College is one of Japan's oldest and most prestigious fashion schools.  It has many famous alumni including Yohji Yamamoto, Jun Takahashi, Kenzo and Tsumori Chisato.  The younger generation includes Nigo and Limi Yamamoto (Limi Feu).  For 83 years, SO-EN magazine has sponsored a design competition at the school.

This year's winner is Yusuke Takahashi whose collection was based on seamless knitting of whole garments.  The jury included Naoki Takizawa and Limi Yamamoto.

More student work after the jump...

Hyères Festival Report

The Hyères Festival went down this past weekend.  10 fashion designers and 10 photographers took part in the competition held in and around the Villa Noailles.  More information about this fabulous house can be found here.  The Villa has housed this festival for 24 years, which over time has earned a reputation as a laboratory for experimental fashion on an international level.  The careers of Viktor & Rolf, Gaspard Yurkievich, Christian Wijnants, and Matthew Ames have all been launched during this 3 day festival.

This year's fashion jury members included Jefferson Hack, Zoe Cassavetes and President Kris Van Assche. The two main prizes (L'Oreal Professionnel and 1,2,3) were award to Marite Mastina & Ronlds Peterkops from Latvia for their mixed collection "Private Detective".

Photos by Shoji Fujii courtesy of A Shaded View on Fashion

The fashion show is presented in a large tent on the beach.  Florent Gilles sent us this glittery picture of the runway.  You can read his accounts of Hyères at Vogue.fr

Steven Meisel was honoured with a retrospective, but apparently failed to show up.