Alexander McQueen Moves Forward

Goodbye Mr. McQueen, hello Ms. Burton. Long live McQueen.

Style.com covered the passing of Alexander McQueen and the showing of the final collection he designed, but something that was equally important this year was the success of Sarah Burtonâ€s first show as the new designer for the McQueen label. The passing of such a genius creative mind was indeed tragic, and the showing of McQueenâ€s last collection was a special moment, but Burtonâ€s signal that the brand can honor McQueenâ€s legacy while moving forward was absolutely stellar.

John Gallianoâ€s Dior Couture Wows

Dior haute couture was in full bloom this year when John Galliano showed his Spring 2011 collection of flower-inspired looks. The imagery and execution of the designs combined with the high, tulip-like hair of the models for a full package display of gorgeousness and perhaps our favorite moment in fashion of 2010.

While millions of kids will probably unwrap one of those famous pink boxes this Christmas, there are a few yet unrealized fashion dolls who would be fantastic to see in plastic.

Christian Dior Couture Barbie

Too young for Couture?

Bloggers and editors saw elements of inspiration from Twilight in the most recent collection – which was fittingly opened by the new face of the brand, Freja Beha Erichsen – but no agreement on whether that is a good or bad thing seems to have surfaced. WWD felt the clothes were beautiful but too youthful for a couture line and the Telegraph thought the collection was more confident and signature to the new designers, while Style.com admits the pitch to a younger audience was peculiar but perhaps genius. {The Cut}

Or too Boring?

Style.com may have hit the nail on the head, as luxury fashion labels have attempted to keep their footing of late by reaching out to Generation Y. The looks may also come to symbolize a new era for Valentino.

The youthful slant to the collection is smart, but there are too many dropped waistlines and bows for our taste and the clothes are a bit bland, a kiss of death for haute couture, which we look to for the kind of over the top fantasy that would be out of place in ready to wear collections. The blah-ness of it is ironic considering the collection departs from their more typical Valentino lines, which critics found boring as well. Nothing is terribly wrong with the collection – the sheer hoop dress looks like a toned down take on Lady Gaga’s Grammy dress, but it looks like Chiuri and Piccioli are light years away from wowing like John Gallianoâ€s flower-inspired masterpiece for Dior did earlier in the week.

Filthy? Sure. Couture? Not so much.

In keeping with the predictability, the pieces in Farley’s  line are exactly what one would expect a loud-mouthed, over-bronzed star of a reality show to design. Some highlights include a sweetheart-necked mesh top with an overlaying, gold-patterned heart that appears to be pointing at a very specific area on the modelâ€s body and a white-feathered corset number that looks more like lingerie than a top. In fact, it is not clear whether most of the pieces are clothing or lingerie. Now the spring collections from many a designer featured lingerie inspired looks, so if there’s any kind of silver lining here, in a roundabout way JWoww may actually be on trend. Still, while some of the outfits cover more than expected, but if you’ve seen the inventory at Frederick’s of Hollywood, you’ve seen this collection. If you wouldn’t wear anything purchased at Frederick’s outside of the privacy of your own home – well, same thing.  If you’re into train wrecks, you can catch images of the entire collection here.

While we’re on the subject, can we make the case for restricting the word couture to oh, perhaps – actual couture? Couture isn’t Juicy or Filthy, and while we love a high/low mix, throwing the word couture on a label isn’t fooling anyone into thinking the “high” part is covered.

Real couture? That’s John Galliano, whose fall 2010 couture collection for Dior debuted in a courtyard of the Rodin Museum in Paris this week. The flower-inspired line is fantastical, beyond exquisite and raking in rave reviews. By including warmer fabrics and fall accessories in addition to dark lipstick on his models, Galliano brilliantly surprises by using what is normally a spring staple to inspire a fall line and making it work. If you havenâ€t had a chance to see it yet, check it out here. Totally worth your work procrastination time.

Cellophane headpieces and raffia belts made it all but impossible to miss the “women are flowers” theme of the collection, and Galliano proved to be more than capable of tending the garden.

On the opening day of the Paris couture, the casual insolence of the draped one-shoulder outfit that closed the show was a provocation. “Beat this,” it declared. – Tim Blanks {Style.com}

Indeed.

Christian Dior Couture favorites

view the entire collection at Style.com

John Galliano, however, has officially gone too far. Christian Dior has created shiny gold contact lenses with the high end labelâ€s CD logo on the actual lens, meaning it appears over part of the iris of the person wearing it. {The Gloss}

Can we all join together in a collective WTF? The look is just downright creepy. Dior mascara, yes – Dior eyeballs? We’ll pass. If the lenses had only the gold sheen, not the CD logo as well, we may be able to see some kind of potential for a fashion statement. At the very least the lenses could be used for a Halloween costume {Fashion Indie}, and the weirdest part of all is to imagine looking into someoneâ€s eyes as they are speaking to you and seeing the letters. We still love you, John Galliano, but we are really interested to see who, if anyone, will actually wear these.

The prospect of continuing a label after a visionary founder unexpectedly leaves the company however, is not unprecedented. Consider parallels to the cases of Christian Dior and more recently Gianni Versace.

Christian Dior, 10 years into his career as head designer for his label, suffered a fatal heart attack at 52. Yves Saint-Laurent, then only 21-years-old, presented his first collection for the house a year later in 1958. At that time, Dior’s label was such a significant part of the French fashion industry that shuttering it wasn’t seen as an option.

In recent days when comparisons between Dior and McQueen have been drawn, many are quick to point out that while McQueen is celebrated for his artistic vision and immense creativity, the line is only recently profitable. And not even profitable enough to split sales figures out from other labels in the Gucci Group portfolio at that. While McQueen may be suitably positioned to claim the “genius” term often ascribed to him and Dior, McQueen’s label at this point is not a financially crucial part of parent company PPR.

But a more recent case offers more hope. When Gianni Versace was murdered in Miami in 1997, he was 19 years into his namesake label, but had seen a large part of his success with celebrities and significant media attention in the 10 years before his death.

The company’s recent history hasn’t been entirely smooth: job cuts and a lower priced line have been announced {Bloomberg} as the company struggles to return to profitability among economic conditions that have seen labels like Escada pushed to the brink of collapse. While the next few years will require smart business decisions, Versace as a label has managed to thrive for more than a decade after the unexpected death of Gianni. Reviews of Donatella Versace’s first collections were mixed, but she has grown into a respected creative force, and helped to maintain hundreds of millions of dollars of sales annually.

While the news may seem sudden for some, considering how recent McQueen’s death is, the question now is who will be McQueen’s Saint-Laurent.

Counterfeits, knock offs, replicas – whatever you call them, designs too similar to someone else’s create endless uproars in fashion. Fashionista dedicates an (often heavily commented) entire section to their perceived crimes against originality. While the focus is usually on Forever21, Steve Madden or another mall brand taking on the latest runway trend, what’s not reported are the often hushed cases of larger design houses taking from smaller designers without credit.

A seamstress in the south of France is suing Chanel for copying one of her crochet patterns. Carmen Colle runs World Tricot, an ethical clothing company specializing in handmade haute couture for top designers like Dior, Gaultier and Givenchy. She runs a small business, and many refugees depend on the opportunities provided by the company. Since filing the lawsuit in 2004 she reports being bullied and dumped by banks and clients. She has had to lay off many of her workers and struggles to fight for her creation stating “[Big names] treat us as things they can take up and then throw away. It’s a shame for them. The greatness of a country, and the greatness of a brand, is the respect it shows for its petites mains (translation: little hands).” Chanel has denied the allegations, and maintains the pattern was created in their studio.

The case is just being presented in court and will bring light to the other side of copyright adventures between large brands and smaller companies at high risk of such infringement.

Read the full story {Guardian}