YOHJI YAMAMOTO RETROSPECTIVE

YOHJI YAMAMOTO AT THE V&A

From 12 March - 10 July 2011, the V&A will present a retrospective of the work of visionary Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. Conceived as a site-specific installation with its core in Gallery 38 and small interventions throughout the V&A, Yamamoto’s menswear collections will be included in the display of his work for the first time. Each space will take its own meaning within the narrative of the exhibition which explores Yohji Yamamoto’s design world.

Super excited.

Alexander McQueen Retrospective

Today the shocking news of Alexander McQueen's death was announced on radio 1 to a silent studio of fashion students, everyone gasped in unison and my heart actually felt like it had stopped briefly.

Something I never contemplated happening happened, fashion feels like it lost some of it's sparkle today.

Here is a collection and my favourite McQ outfits.

RIP Alexander McQueen

You shall be deeply missed by everyone that you inspired and astounded

Aitor Throup Retrospective

Aitor Throup always astounds me. He comes at fashion from this completely different angle, and we can see this just by looking at his clothes in detail.

Dazed and Confused have taken a trip to Paris to see his new retrospective at the Galerie Jean-Luc and Takako Richard in Paris.

"This weekend in Paris, designer Aitor Throup launched 'Legs', a retrospective of trousers designed from 2004 to 2010 by the Royal College of Art graduate and the result of six years of new object research. Throughout the Galerie stationary male forms moulded in thermoactive cotton mesh in rows from the ceiling, captured in vital movements of the human body.

Throup’s series of trousers entitled 'The Funeral of New Orleans' is in particular a testament to the creativity and logic of his vision. Informed by the traditional funeral processions of New Orleans’ marching bands, it deals with concepts of body armour – each piece is formed onto a mesh sculpture of the human body created in the pose required to play each instrument, and the trousers demonstrate five exaggerated stages of shrinkage from when wool is exposed to water. It is clear that Throup’s designs exist beyond the tired parameters of fashion– they are meticulously constructed garments existing both within their narrative and without, made with respect for the human body and an astounding understanding of its formation."

Bonjour!

Paris was amazing! The city is so beautiful, I fall in love with it every time.
There's so much to say I don't know where to start.
Thank you for all your wonderful goodbyes when I was away. Sorry I haven't posted even though I've been back since Sunday. They was so much to catch up on, and I had to be back to uni on the Monday. A harsh back to reality!
The best exhibition I went to see in Paris was The Sonia Rykiel Retrospective, celebrating 40 years, at the Louvre. It's been running since 2008 so many of you might have seen it, if not then you absolutely must. It completely blew my mind. There were two floors showcasing previous collections, stunning photography, magazine articles, documentaries and around 30 silhouettes signed by other top designers in homage to Rykiel.


These designs were by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Christian Lacroix, Martin Margiela and by Jean Paul Gaultier after Sonia Rykiel spring/summer 2009 ready-to-wear collection

The only photos I could find online of the collection pieces were badly taken tourist photos, which is a shame. The collections were so beautiful the photos dont do them justice at all.
The exhibition did actually make me hate the English, there were groups of college fashion teens who knew nothing about anything, went round taking photos with the flash against glass, asking if the tracksuits were Juicy Couture and saying that they'd never even heard of Sonia Rykiel.

Jean Paul Gaultier Illustration

Despite the annoying English teens the exhibition was completely mind blowing and I would urge everyone to go and see it. I have always loved Sonia Rykiel but never knew the extent of her wonders.


Images taken from
www.parispopcorn.com
www.Fashionfile.com

Maison Martin Margiela Exhibition

I have just booked my tickets to Antwerp for the Martin Margiela retrospective at the end of January next year. I am so excited, it's going to be so inspiring.

Maison Martin Margiela, the eponymous Paris-based fashion house known for its rough avant-garde couture, understated branding and mysterious leading man (the Belgian designer almost never makes public appearances and you'd be hard pressed to find a photograph) is the fascinating and inspired subject of a new exhibition at the MoMu Fashion Museum in Antwerp.

Maison Martin Margiela, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in October, is at once an illustrious part of the global fashion consciousness and a quirky anomaly proudly distinct from it. It is a brand driven by product and sheer invention rather than hype, fad, or celebrity. Four exposed white stitches attaching a clean label to the inside of each garment, a trademark aesthetic, is the only outward brand insignia, a subtle nod to those in the know.

The new exhibition is less a traditional retrospective than a visual examination of the themes that have underpinned the brand since its inception, from its deconstructivist, subversive design aesthetic to the esoteric numeric labelling, the unusual store fit-outs, the clinical, lab coat-clad sales clerks, and of course the clothes themselves. Even in the absence of a photograph, one gains a solid picture of the designer: a man who, among other things, clearly prefers to let his work do the talking.

In 1988, after graduating from the fashion department of the Antwerp Academy and working as an assistant for Jean-Paul Gaultier, Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens established Maison Martin Margiela. Their first pioneering fashion show followed in October of that same year. Margiela’s was a radically new visual language, with a silhouette – long, with strikingly narrow shoulders – that diametrically opposed the power dressing of the 1980s. He furthermore declines public appearances. Early in his career, Margiela emphatically decided to let his fashion speak for itself. All interviews are consistently given in the name of the Maison as a whole and no photographs of the designer are distributed – a sharp reaction against the star status that dominated the fashion scene of the 1980s and 1990s.

Maison Martin Margiela is especially known for its deconstructivist approach and its use of second-hand materials or materials with low commercial value. Its entire oeuvre is characterized by an exceptional combination of classic tailoring and conceptual thinking. Margiela shows the inside of a clothing item, exposes its construction and focuses on that which fashion anxiously tries to conceal. Unravelling the grammar of clothing, Maison Martin Margiela reveals the strategies of the fashion system as he constructs something radically new. The working method produces an analysis of the system that underlies fashion and is followed through in the many varied aspects of the fashion house.

Pictures and information from www.momu.be and www.wallpaper.com