As the picture above shows, when Raf Simons came out to take his bow at the Dior couture show it was a far cry from his final bow at Jil Sander. This time the tears were replaced with a beaming smile and he has every reason to.
Talking to Style.com after the show, he explained that he's tried to change the way people look at couture so that the pieces have longevity rather than being limited to the being seen through the lens of one red carpet moment:
[I am trying] to change the psychology of people who are interested in couture. The way I’ve been looking at it so far is as a still image, something you look at for that moment. I think lots of people see it as a still, an image from the red carpet. I want to make it more dynamic, appeal to a person who has a different energy. A younger person, in mind, not necessarily in age. And I think couture is very much about curating something unique for women. Fashion is so mass-produced now; I hope there will come a refocus on how people see couture. And I would also hope for a new focus on the craft.
His approach has paid off. Everyone from Cathy Horyn to Alber Elbaz have produced complimentary reviews of his debut and if the praise for couture is anything to go by, we have a lot to expect for his debut ready-to-wear collection in October.
Anna Wintour has a knack for spotting promising talent. Back in 2009 she requested to style Adele for the Grammy Awards and booked the stylist to appear in the age issue of Vogue. "Adele is a lioness. She has poise, taste, humour and soul," she said at the time. "Her astonishing talent never ceases to fill me with enthusiasm," she told Vogue. Now the British singer has finally caught the attention of the British counterpart by securing the magazine's October cover.
We're so pleased they did. The cover is beautiful and is definitely the best British Vogue cover we've seen in a long time. Not only does the singer look flawless, the warm feeling of the cover with it's mustard type makes us happily embrace the upcoming autumn months and the wardrobe planning to accompany.
Adele is the perfect candidate to cover the magazine 'English Woman Now' cover. Her success in the US is unrivalled and the past year has seen her pick up a legion of awards and her performance at this year's Brits is quickly being recognised as one of the most memorable in the event's history.
As Fashionologie so rightly put it, the Phoebe Philo effect is upon us. Gone are the days when people were more interested in making a point to the world by bagging an item with the biggest logo. Today the economy is making consumers seriously re-think their purchases and as Maria Grachvogel told me yesterday, customers want their wardrobes to work hard for them.
With that in mind it came to no surprise that last week, PPR CEO and chairman Francois-Henri Pinault said that bosses at the conglomerate are supporting the shift.“Our groups are moving toward fewer logos, more discreet luxury," he said on Friday. "It's a question of adapting our ranges very rapidly to this new perception of luxury, a luxury which is more subtle, more sophisticated — which is what we are doing.”
The Times' fashion editor Lisa Armstrong tackled this new seismic shift head on in the August issue of British Vogue heralding 'the cult of the restrained' as the way designers are moving and rightly so. 'Designers have finally got their heads round a much more cautious economic reality, we've finally getting clothes that make sense," she wrote.
So what does this mean for the likes of John Galliano and our avant garde designers known for fantasy and innovation? Will they follow suit now the big conglomerates are supporting a restrained luxury? Only time will tell....
