In celebration of their 125th anniversary, Bulgari's first ever retrospective will open next week at at the prestigious Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. The exhibition, titled "Between History and Eternity: 1884-2009" will cover the company's historical achievements and design evolution. Over five hundred works of jewelry, watchmaking and objets d’art will be displayed including photographs of celebrities who have worn Bulgari over the years. Check out a few of those photos, courtesy of Bulgari, in the gallery below.
Coutorture correspondent and all-around great gal, Brigitte Nicole, catches the last weeks of the Martin Margiela Retrospective in Antwerp. Her report and photos for our viewing pleasure...
Forever keeping a hidden identity, Martin Margiela has been compared to likes of literary recluse JD Salinger and faceless graffiti artist Banksy. His design house dissolves the notion of one celebritized designer to a team who simply refer to themselves as “we”. These democratic workings are esteemed to further conceptual levels by combining them with a breaking of systemized rules--sale associates in white lab coats, long blonde locks transformed into shoulder-heavy jackets, erratic numbering to designate different collections, and unusual materials reworked with Savile-Row quality tailoring.
Founded in 1988, a time where the fashion world was ruled by celebrities and super models, Margiela kept his scope limited to fashion and fashion alone. Emerging out of Antwerp, where he attended fashion design at Royal Academy of Arts, he moved to Paris, working as Jean Paul Gaultier’s assistant until he created a house to carry his name. This past October marked 20 years, and to celebrate, a retrospective depicting 23 dominant themes at the house were displayed at Antwerp's MoMu. The exhibition still stands through February, but for those who do not have extra air miles to Antwerp...
Fashion works at high speeds--one minute we're at New York Fashion Week and the next we're jetting off to the next city, pressing the big shiny replay button. This time it's London Fashion Week and in honor of this city's courtship with fashion and the arts, we've scouted out one fashion exhibition that just couldn't be missed. The House Of Viktor & Rolf, currently at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, reveals the surreal haute couture fantasies that this passionate Dutch twosome have been creating on and off the runway for the last fifteen years, and boy, is it breathtaking.
These designers know how to make a satirical splash in the fashion world, from going on 'strike' in the early stages of their career to painting their models black to covering a single model with garment after garment to create a literal Russian Doll right on the runway.
For the exhibition the two commissioned a giant dollhouse, commemorating their most memorable designs with porcelain dolls (each about two feet tall) not only dressed in miniature replicas of the clothing, but rendered after the models who originally strutted, spinned, or danced down the innovative runways in order to display them. Playing with the notion of a 'fashion house' and their own fascination with 19th century European dolls, the exhibit perfectly sums up the allure of Viktor and Rolf: that there are some designers who just aren't afraid to give in to their imagination, even at the expense of selling clothing.
For more images from the exhibit, click here.
As part of Berlin Fashion Week, Basso & Brooke put together a retrospective which styled eight season's worth of clothing together in one show. Into the blender they went and out they came, undeniably Basso & Brooke and with such dizzying combinations of print and color and layering that we're pretty sure that whole plaid on plaid thing won't be such a big deal anymore. The 'collection' was absolutely stunning and welcomed after a season of transparencies and monochromatic nude looks. We can't help but think it must have been extra fun (and maybe not as laborious as it appears?) for the designers Christopher Brooke and Bruno Basso to sift through their previous collections and pick out their favorite pieces to re-show. We were happy to see
this orange jacket from
their Fall 08 show make it into the retrospective (left). If only because it made us like the darn thing ten times more, and debunked our initial impression which was 'Now how could you possibly wear that without the matching orange tights?'. We kid.
Obviously this jacket can stand all on its own and so, it seems, can a lot of Basso & Brooke's designs.
Take a moment to marvel.
Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti
Topshop
H.I.S
Latest Comments