Sisley Autumn Winter 2014

Givenchy Spring 2015 Ready To Wear

These were the baddest bitches on a Givenchy runway in a long time. That, and it was hands down the sexiest collection of the season so far.

As Tisci’s interest drifted toward the streetwear scene in the last couple of years and he turned the designer sweatshirt into a covetable (and highly lucrative, no doubt) commodity, his collections lost some of the unabashed sexual heat he was once known for. Well, it came roaring back from the first look out here: a little black dress with grommeted lacing between the breasts, worn with peep-toe boots, the tops of which nearly grazed the skirt’s hem.

After the sex factor, the next thing you noticed was how worked these clothes were, some as elaborately as haute couture. Black-and-white latticed jackets and coats, each more ornately decorated than the last with whipstitching and filigree; Roman gladiator dresses in studded leather backed with lace; fringed tinsel sweaters with giant jeweled medallions nestled at the chest; and, for something a little more low-key—though, to be honest, the one thing this collection didn’t offer was much in the way of variation—second-skin black knits with corset lacing tucked into super-high-rise jeans.

For the record, Tisci said his reference points were Tyrolean costumes, vintage pinball games (which explained the way the models zigzagged through the crowd), and his earliest days at Givenchy, nearly 10 years ago now. “In the beginning, when I started, it was much more tough and sexy,” he said. “I feel like women today tell me that’s what’s missing from the market.” Certainly that’s true this season, when so much of fashion has gone boho.

Earlier this summer, rumors circulated that Tisci was headed toward an exit from Givenchy and about to take on a new challenge. We gave up playing the designer-musical-chairs guessing game a while ago, but there was clearly no sense of wavering in this collection. The one word that kept coming to mind about Tisci’s take-no-prisoners, rock ‘n’ roll warriors? Committed.

Emporio Armani Spring 2015 Menswear

Parallel lines, blurred lines, white lines…the dozens and dozens of looks in the Emporio Armani show featured every possible permutation of linear geometry. The extravagant profligacy of the presentation was like a hedged bet: Offer this many outfits and you’re guaranteed that at least some will hit the mark. What is startling about Giorgio Armani is how many times it does. That’s the sign of a designer who knows what he’s doing. Alternately, the sizable presence of Asian models on the runway was a reminder of the new markets that are eagerly responding to designer products, and that must be inspiring to a designer like Armani, who will turn 80 in a few weeks.

The collection was called Avant Garde for no discernible reason other than it had a stark, monochrome quality that might once have been associated with edginess. But really it was more of Emporio’s urban same: bombers, bikers, the shorter blazer, the cropped pants, the thick-soled athletic slip-on. Armani had some optical fun with the lines, making diagonal slashes on some jackets, creating wide stripes of black and white leather on others. The most attractive pieces in the collection were the sheer shirts and shiny shorts that closed the show. It wasn’t so long ago that men in the city would never bare their legs. Now the streets of Milan offer ample proof that it’s de rigueur. And the ever-prescient Armani won’t be caught short.

Damir Doma Spring 2015 Ready To Wear

The sounds of nature have abounded at the shows this season: birdsong, waves crashing. Even a designer as urban-minded as Damir Doma is thinking about the beach. You can hardly blame him: With his signature collection, a lower-priced line, and a men’s offering, Doma is looking at upward of 10 collections a year. His modern customer is just as busy, if she’s anything like jewelry makers Annette and Phoebe Stephens of Anndra Neen, longtime clients who collaborated with Doma on the show’s necklaces and bracelets.

The idea of escape infused the new collection with a subtle ease. Doma’s not the kind of guy who makes dresses from striped towels. Jackets sashed closed, instead of buttoned; a halter dress was suspended from a scarf that he wound through large leather grommets; tanks and tees were made from a mesh-like lace, as cool as a breeze. “I would like my woman to breathe a bit more,” he said backstage. Making customers’ lives easier is often code for boring clothes, but Doma’s approach to wardrobe staples was unexpected and thoughtful. Denim, for instance, was cut into pajama shapes, doubling the comfort factor. And he romanced other familiar items, cutting a pantsuit in a navy fil coupe or adding sheer insets to an understated little black dress. The athletic ribbed collars and waistbands were a little predictable; sports references are tending to feel played out. Otherwise, Doma’s day at the beach was a very pleasant trip.

Ted Baker Autumn Winter 2014 Men’s Lookbook

Emilio Pucci Spring 2015 Ready To Wear

All of Milan seems to be on a 1970s trip, but the fringe, gossamer goddess gowns, and hippie beading we’ve seen on the runways here have been in Peter Dundas’ bag of tricks since the beginning at Emilio Pucci. On the penultimate day of fashion week, it’s safe to say that he does them better than anyone. He certainly injects them with more sex appeal. Need convincing? Click to Anna Ewers in a beaded macramé minidress and suede boots. See what we mean?

Dundas understands the value of power casting; he had Naomi Campbell in his lineup for the first time today. (“What took you so long?” she ribbed him at dinner later.) Ogling the models is understandable enough—they’re mere inches from your eyeballs at the Palazzo Serbelloni venue. But if you do, you might miss the artisanal details that Dundas has made as much a contemporary Pucci signature as the Florentine house’s famous archival prints.

Ewers’ macramé dress was originally embroidered on tulle, later removed so that only the tracery of beads remained. The embroidered flowers and studs on a sharply tailored pink suede blazer also dazzled, and if the tie-dye tent dresses looked like the real thing, that’s because the prints were based on get-your-hands-dirty trial and error.

Slick tailoring provided a strong counterpoint to this season’s artisanship. A tangerine orange flared pantsuit worn with a burgundy crocheted tank will remain seared in our memory for some time. Ultimately, though, Dundas zeroed in on precisely what women come to Pucci for. The finale series of printed goddess dresses was lush and gorgeous, the best of all suspended from bejeweled metal bib necklaces.

Anthony Vaccarello Spring 2015 Ready To Wear

Anthony Vaccarello took his second bow of the season tonight. In New York he’d walked down the Versus runway with Donatella Versace, trailed by models wearing the label’s most spot-on collection since it was revived five years ago. The experience with Donatella must have had an effect on him. Vaccarello’s team for his own label is four people. Versace’s? Let’s just say it’s a lot bigger. So it’s no wonder Vaccarello was in innovation mode today, thinking about his own brand, and branding. The first look out was a logo sweatshirt, stamped with his name and the season, worn with one of his signature diagonally sliced miniskirts and a shrunken leather jacket. A somewhat banal beginning, but one that Vaccarello made up for later with the cool, graphic manipulations of both his name and the word “Spring.”

The world of ships and sailors was Vaccarello’s jumping-off point. His seafaring references ran from the obvious to the less so—a brass anchor planted on the chest of a neatly cut sleeveless jacket; button-down shirts unbuttoned to the navel, conjuring visions of swashbuckling pirates. Vaccarello also had some sharp-looking denim, tailored in his typical take-no-prisoners way—note the on-theme portholes. But the real news was in the dresses and separates emblazoned with block letters created, he explained, by laser-cutting plastic film and heat-transferring it onto fabric. They twisted around the torso or the hips (occasionally and unfortunately exposing the models’ undies) like a sail wraps around a mast. Vaccarello hinted that the block letters were inspired partly by France’s many protests and partly by the artist Richard Prince. There was also the Versace factor: Those were his first-ever prints, bold and unmistakable. Donatella would approve.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2015 Ready to Wear

The idea of getting “dressed to kill” (or be killed) originated with bullfighters. Are you for one second surprised that for Dolce & Gabbana, Spain is the new Sicily? Those two points on the compass share a wealth of inspirations for Domenico and Stefano. Today there were a black net sheath, a black corset paired with thigh-high black stockings, a black jacket and pencil skirt combination that had the sexy severity of the racy widow—all of it adding up to enough Catholic guilt to choke a pope. There were also flamenco polka dots.

But at the same time, the corrida opened up a new world of possibilities for the designers. The silhouette and embellishment of a matador’s jacket inspired an entire passage of the collection. It was aired with rompers to bring it up to this decade. Then there was the color red: the color of blood in the bullring, the color of the carnations that were Domenico’s mother’s favorite flowers. They were embroidered everywhere, but were most effective as the streamlined adjunct to a body-conscious striped top.

The show was huge, but inside, fighting to get out, was a straightforward story of leggy silhouettes, romantic full skirts, and ornate embellishment on simple shapes. The finale nailed that. The Dolce army marched in white bullfighter shirts and high-waisted, embroidered

Louis Vuitton Spring 2015 Menswear

Kim Jones was named for a Rudyard Kipling character, the Irish orphan alone in late-19th-century India. Jones is a real traveling man, so it’s surprising that it has taken him all this time to actually get to India. It was the late Louise Wilson, his professor at Central Saint Martins, who persuaded him to make the trip. He dedicated his latest collection for Louis Vuitton to her.

Inevitably, a fundamental synchronicity emerged. The maharajas of Jodhpur and Jaipur were big Vuitton customers in the twenties. The timeless luxury of their palaces was an inspiration to Jones and his team. The palace guards were the starting point for the collection’s variations on military garb, like an army shirt and shorts in a lustrous suede, and jumpsuits in khaki and pink, “the navy blue of India,” according to style oracle Diana Vreeland. Shisha mirror-work beautifully decorated a flight suit and military bombers, every single mirror engraved with the LV logo. It was this kind of detail that testified to the designer’s all-seeing eye. There were plenty more. How often do you find yourself possessed by belt buckles or buttons? It was hard not to be when they were as immaculately realized as they were here. Jones had to produce the cotton-silk Airtex lining of his jackets artisanally, because mass production has destroyed any other options.

But that is really the kind of story that Louis Vuitton is always trying to tell: a connoisseur’s appreciation of the rare, the precious, honed by exposure to the best of everything. Jones obsesses over fabric research. Everything, from the organza shirts to the water-resistant leather bags, testified to that. He also knows from personal experience what real travelers need. It was a shame that the audience had no idea that a couple of the cases carried in the finale opened to reveal a portable writing desk or everything a musician would require (music paper, notebooks, ink). The guitar case, on the other hand, was obvious, even if its sheepskin lining wasn’t.

What people see and what they don’t is always going to be an issue when a collection like this is presented in the conventional way. For example, the seventies-influenced silhouette—high-waisted trousers and longer, double-breasted jackets—polarized the audience, so the big picture obscured the many wonderful details that distinguish Jones’ tenure at Vuitton. But the true connoisseur won’t be distracted.

Diesel Black Gold Spring 2015 Menswear

Diesel Black Gold’s creative director, Andreas Melbostad, brings an enviable design pedigree to the brand, having held senior positions at Phi, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Nina Ricci. Since his arrival in 2012, the Renzo Rosso-backed contemporary label has gone into expansion mode. Its first U.K. store, the eleventh worldwide, has just opened in London. That said, Melbostad is still new to the menswear game (he was handed overall creative direction of the label after making a fast start on the women’s side). Spring is only his second season showing Black Gold during the men’s collections. At today’s show, Melbostad pushed an ultra-skinny silhouette. Skinny jeans are not necessarily trending elsewhere this season, and they’ve been excellently worked on other runways in the past—Dior Homme circa 2004, for instance. Motocross leather jackets littered with patches or Keith Haring-like pictographs, while sharp, also seemed familiar. But if there was room for growth and a bit more originality here, there’s no denying that the denim looked high-quality, and there was one camel coat that was a little slice of heaven.