Coutorture

Fashion in 50 Seconds 12/08/09 Lara Stone for Louis Vuitton

coutorture — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:00:11 -0800

Lara Stone poses with white doves in the first of six Louis Vuitton spring campaign images to be released.

Martin Margiela quietly leaves fashion house and will not be replaced.

Julia Restoin Roitfeld models memorable fall 2009 runway looks in Vogue China.

Rumor has it Naomi Campbell is working on a reality show.

Tom Ford and Roberto Cavalli will appear on The Martha Stewart show this week.

Christopher Kane, Alexander McQueen, Ann Demeulemeester, and whomever is designing for Martin Margiela will create a one-off dress for Printemps' Alice in Wonderland-themed window display.

Sephora is testing make-up vending machines in select JC Penny stores.

Director of Valentino: The Last Emperor, Matt Tyrnauer, on his subjects' thoughts after seeing their first screening of the film, "I showed my director’s cut to Valentino and Giancarlo for the first time in March 2008. “Hate” is really too light a word to describe their reaction."

Source: WWD

Maison Martin Margiela 2009 Fall Haute Couture

PopSugar — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:48:24 -0700

Paris 07/07/09 Photos by Victor Boyko/WireImage.com.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 03/10/09 Margiela Speculation & More

coutorture — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:34:55 -0700

After seeing the Fall 2009 collection, top fashion editors are openly speculating the presence of Martin Margiela at the fashion house.

The highly anticipated Coco Avant Chanel trailer has been released--in French.

Topshop will open in New York "quietly" which, to us, can only mean police barricades and EMTs on hand.

Alexander Wang made up for lost cocktails, when Colette threw him a party in Paris this weekend.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 03/05/09 "60 Minutes" Follows Anna & More

coutorture — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:27:34 -0800

Journalist Morley Safer of "60 Minutes" compared his shadowing Anna Wintour at the Dolce & Gabbana festivities in Milan to covering the Vietnam War...

Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus compete for better gift bags at the beauty counter.

Topshop lands in New York next month and gives Americans a glimpse at upcoming deliveries.

Maison Martin Margiela reported a 20 percent increase in sales in January, while rumors circulate that Martin Margiela will be leaving the company.

Martin Margiela Artisanal Spring 2009

coutorture — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:36:09 -0800

Image Source

For Martin Margiela's Artisanal Spring 2009 collection the designer used unlikely recycled materials to create elaborate one-off outfits. To the left, an a-symmetrical jumpsuit was created out of denim scraps and, to the right, a teeny tiny dress was made out of discarded plastic combs. For more on the Spring 2009 Haute Couture collections, click here.

Fashion in 50 Seconds 10/2 with Martin Margiela, Givenchy, and Fred Segal

coutorture — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:35:12 -0700

If discretion is the better part of valour then the fashion industry is valiantly staying away from its red state friends and their new crusading new Queen, this isn't because we are uninformed princesses without a care for reality despite what we have said this past week and Guy Trebay has now reiterated, no we really just have no comment. Well OK, we like her up do even if we don't condone highlights. We bet Hilary wishes she had been left alone like this too.

Fred Segal has a new pop-up shop called 15 Minutes. It will be run like an art gallery, where the shop’s structure is permanent but the theme, decor and wares on display change regularly

Want to see a picture of Martin Margiela? Eric Wilson has one of the last invisible man. Really, because designers have gotten to be such little publicity hounds (and not for the reasons they should be like say their work) this quiet relative anonymity is considered quite shocking.

If you are concerned with what is or is not wearable on the catwalks, which we think is rather relative to your own comforts, then we suppose its nice that someone is keeping score.

Do you read seating charts like tea leaves? Well Givenchy has much fodder for the divination set as the front row was packed with LVMH executives. What does it all mean!

Perfumer Sarah Horowitz's fragrance brand is going mainstream by repackaging her premiere line of scents in a more accessible form and launching it in Anthropologie. We had no idea that even the perfumers had to go for down market markets and collaborations. Not that we are saying Anthropologie is down market per say.

The Emperor Has No Face

coutorture — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:48:20 -0700

We almost hate to make a critique of Maison Martin Margiela on their Twentieth Anniversary but the reliance the house has on the intellectual chestnut of anonymity has grown stale for us even as fashion conformity grows as a problem in identically merchandised style capitals across the globe. At no time is critiquing the sameness of fashion more necessary and yet never has it felt more stale to literally wipe out any traces of personality or identity when conceiving a catwalk. Yes, how clever, fashion obscures as it reveals, Frederick Jameson's photorealism and artistic simulacrum in a dress, the representing and the represented. It's been done, and while everyone loves a "best of" show the collection leaves us unsure, amid the rumours, that a future is even warranted.

In the twenty years since the house begun the fashion landscape has changed, leaving behind unsteady footing for the avant garde. Barbarians are at the gate and an army of amateur editors lay waste to the minutiae of every gossipy detail. And so it is no longer enough to have one issue, no matter how salient, as an intellectual rallying point. We simply do not have the attention span (and even if we did we would question anonymity as one that needs to be reiterated season after season).

Many designer have gotten past this attention deficit conundrum not through better designer or stronger inspirations but through celebrities, political innuendo and skillful public relations. Perhaps Martin Margiela is too good for these gambits or perhaps he is not quick enough to operate on this new playing field. It is no coincidence that no one has even seen his photo and yet we must say that rather than heightening the allure it makes us say perhaps the emperor has no face. He has let us in on the joke and it turns out its not very funny. Post Modernism is over Martin.

Fashion in 50 Seconds 9/26 Adult Diapers, Adidas and Antwerp

coutorture — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:05:22 -0700

We are so angry at the failure of the American government to propose a reasonable bailout strategy for Wall Street we can barely control ourselves, and while our problem may be emotional incontinence apparently a lack of control is the inspiration for Japan's newest fashion trend. Seriously, a fashion show of "nappies" aka diapers to show an aging population just how fashionable diapers can be happened in Tokyo. The funniest part? They played Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Beauty behemoths may be well financed for the rough road ahead but smaller cosmetic firms are in for a tough time.

French Jeweler Mauboussin is opening a Madison Avenue boutique

Belgium designers are getting a grip on business, Maison Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester and Dries Van Noten are opening stores and entering into licensing agreements in order to boost their sales.

It turns out not advertising can be good for business if you have eager broke customers shopping your store for the price point and not that quality.

Men, still the new women.

Jeremy Scott, who will show his namesake collection in Paris on Sept. 30, has signed a multiseason deal with activewear giant Adidas to design apparel and footwear for men and women. Streetwear designers Alyasha Owerka-Moore and Kazuki are also involved. His winged high tops are actually pretty cool.

Halter Without The Hideous

coutorture — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:30:51 -0700

The halter top is saddled with all kinds of unfortunate cultural associations. Your editor had a veritable closet full during her sorority days thanks to the good folks of Express Fashions (ask her about her miniskirt collection someday). Thus, when community partner Fashion Pad reminded us that baring your shoulders during the hot summer months is a good look for many women and not to mention quite cool, we did a double take on the halter top. We didn't want some boob hugging up in your face "why don't you buy me a drink, spare the roofie please, check out my sequins" contraption obviously. We wanted something that was in line with the fashion we already consume. A quick shopping trip has shown us that we are being rewarded by the gods of merchandising this summer. The hippest of the hip from across the cool spectrum including Martin Margiela, Mayle and Humanoid all have options we can sincerely endorse.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 7/11

coutorture — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:28:02 -0700

The CFDA is worried about New York City's Garment District. Forty percent of the Manhattan Garment District's production base could vanish in the next three years, according to a new survey done by the Garment Industry Development Corp, and designers are being urged to press City Hall to preserve a stable and enforceable production core. Women's Wear Daily has a blog so we can all quit now. What a relief huh? Speaking of WWD they have a fragrance insert today (hope that advertisers liked it) including pieces on the troubled Prestige Market's desired comeback, the vast number of fragrance launches in the coming months (15 in July alone), and innovations in mass fragrance. Maison Martin Margiela's debut fine jewelry collection, in partnership with Italy's Damiani Group, is deliciously oversized. The creative on this signet ring upsized to bracelet proportions makes us very much desire the piece which makes us feel strange since its a powder white hand. The collection of 14 items is to arrive in November in 14 Margiela boutiques with prices ranging from $1,100 to $61,800