Moving on up, over

New address.

Unnamed - mikellestreet

Fashion to Columbia

I've been absent, this I know.

It's really weird how it happened, just sort of all at once. I was blogging here and then opportunity after opportunity began to knock, and responsibility after responsibility began to submit itself and before I knew it, Musings of a Gallivanting Boy had been put on an unofficial hiatus and about a month ago went to a full, official hiatus.

While it sucked abandoning the child I'd birthed and reared, he had completed his assigned task. The point of the blog was to give me a platform from which to launch into other work... and that I've most certainly done.

As of now I'm a writer, PR person, and part editor. All of this comes in addition to being a student. Easy tasks they are not but, they certainly are preparing me for a future in this industry. I'm not the only one maturing in fashion though.

It seems that the entire Columbia fashion industry is maturing, and progressing. This past week alone the city was privy to an exclusive Tibi Fall/Holiday Fashion Event as well as the kick off of the Urban Outfitters: Store on Tour pop-up shop. Both events were tasteful, targeted directly to the right individuals and well executed. I really did enjoy them.

Because of the many obligations there's no way I'll be able to pour into this blog all of what I once had. There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to be able to. But I'm not leaving.

As I never did do show reviews for the Spring 2012 shows - and can we pllllleaassee discuss all of the insane scheduling problems that are cropping up for next year - I do plan on going back and taking an in depth look at some of the collections, so at the very least there's that to look forward to.

There are other ideas for content but I was once told that if you keep your mouth shut about things, people can't hold you to your word... so I'm going to try to employ that tactic.

But until the next post.

M

Armani Prive Couture Fall 2011

label Armani Prive Haute Couture
season Fall 2012

The couture shows have begun and if one thing is certain, it's that the idea of the east has caught hold. Viewed most prominently last season at couture weeks when Riccardo Tisci presented the Givenchy Haute Couture on a cast of strictly Asian models, the trend pops back up in a number of different forms and shows, one being the Armani Prive Haute Couture show.

It sometimes takes watching the video for you to get the full effect of a show. Watching Armani's Fall 2011 couture show put the concept of a modern day geisha into motion. With obi belts cinching waists tight and silk with beautiful watercolor floral prints as the material of choice for most of the collection, it was hard to not make the connection. Giorgio Armani's geishas are not quite as dependent as their predecessors though, with slim cut pant suits, allowing a better range of motion, and belts that tie in the front as opposed to the back. Fans have seemingly been replaced with glamorous evening clutches and bows have been given dual purpose as pockets and design flourishes.

Calvin Klein Spring 2012 Model Rollcall

model Austin Hall(exclusive)
agency New York Models
label Calvin Klein
season Spring 2012

There once was a time when bookings for runway shows really had sway in campaign bookings for models. Stars on the catwalks normally were also stars in each sector of the industry but as this industry has evolved and changed the importance of runway bookings has seemed to diminish. Besides a few select shows, runway standouts and exclusive bookings have come to mean nothing.

One of the shows that has seemed to retain it's influence in casting is that of Calvin Klein. Each season the exclusives as well as the opening and closing models for the show are almost always labeled as faces to watch. This season it was Dmitriy Tanner of Soul who snagged both the opening and closing slots of the show. The tattooed model also walked for the show last season.

Caesar Stovall #malemodelmonday

model Caesar Stovall at Red
label Givenchy
season Spring 2012

A few days ago I got tipped off that something big was in store for a certain model originating from the southeast. A few texts later I had pretty much confirmed that Caesar Stovall formerly of Charlotte North Carolina Fashion Week would be walking in the Givenchy Spring 2012 show. As these things go, I couldn't really tell anyone else but this was just one more thing that was regional or stemmed from something in my region to be excited about.

Currently represented by Red in New York, I first met Caesar in a casting for Charlotte Fashion Week. When he walked in I recognized him from some editorial shots I'd seen by a Columbia local, Travis Teate. He breezed through the casting with just about everyone present in the palm of his hand and was gone.

It's not his muscles that send casters into a proverbial tizzy but instead it's the combination of a near perfect facial structure, and engaging personality. To say this break has been a long time coming is maybe the understatement of the season but I will certainly keep my eye on Monsieur Stovall... who knows he may be shoved into the limelight like Stephen Thompson was.

photo Travis Teate

Rick Owens Spring 2012

label Rick Owens
season Spring 2012

Every Rick Owens collection is such a religious experience. Watching his videos are like a service and each season I just want to come and lay prostrate before the altar so I can rise and he can clothe me in the folds of one of his monocromatic dresses for men.

To call them dresses though is to misspeak. Surely the word dress with it's connotations of feminine, flimsy, and sometimes even frilly at times, can not describe the piece that Owens presents each season. With their shapeless silhouettes anchored with heavy boots and all done in blacks, grays, and whites with the occasional beige thrown in, it is neither a LaRoque frock or Carolina Herrera gown that comes to mind but instead it's something that is thoroughly and utterly masculine.

The pieces are certainly not for everyone. I find the ones with high backs a little too... adventerous for my tastes but the white numbers that seem evocative of robes are certainly my speed. Even the blazers, which by the way assist in composing the Rick Owens 4 Piece Suit, resonate with me.

Prada Spring 2012

label Prada
season Spring 2012

I think I've finally put my finger on the strength of Miuccia Prada: crafting ugly.

When you look at a Prada collection it's very frequently composed of looks that are a tad off, and sometimes a bit garish. For example take the Spring 2011 womenswear collection filled with it's banana print skirts and the harsh vibrant hued stoles. Then we have the Fall 2011 Miu Miu collection with it's prominent shoulders and even the Prada collection of the same year with it's dropped waists and "interesting" choice of materials. The pieces, like many of Miuccia's favorite models, are not conventional beauty in the least. They are what I like to call an acquired taste.

This season Miuccia invited the industry into another one of her sets, this time a simple green astroturf floor with blue styrofoam cubes carefully spaced apart for seating. The entire thing read man-made, synthetic even, and most certainly a little saturated. The collection to follow very much followed this beginning with foulard printed baker hats, and even golf bags. The collection seemed to be from the closet of some 70s Americano golfer that frequents historically southern events like Carolina Cup. With what was certainly one of the brightest collections yet, Miuccia once again sets the label apart from the rest of the other menswear collections.

Calvin Klein Collection Spring 2012

label Calvin Klein Collection
season Spring 2012

To be quite frank, there was nothing new in the collection that Italo Zucchelli sent down the runway this season.

This isn't said to be mean or vindictive but only very matter of fact. With a trouser silhouette that was rocked in the 90s along with t-shirts and tank tops, and even a few pieces of outerwear that were presented last season, for anyone to laud this collection as either ground breaking or "new" would cause me to question either their fashion knowledge or the prescription of their eyeglasses. That being said, not every collection needs to, nor can create something new. There are just not enough things to create and when your aesthetic has become the stripping away of everything, well there's even less than there was before.

That being said we look at the Calvin Klein collection with renewed eyes that see only the utilitarian nature of the pieces. The pieces boil down to exactly the parameters of the Calvin aesthetic: slight silhouette changes on wardrobe basics. While I do feel that the label will have to eventually move on from this aesthetic I do feel there's one more collection or two that the brand can wring out of it.

Burberry Prorsum Spring 2012

label Burberry Prorsum
season Spring 2012

Every season I have the uncanny feeling that Burberry Prorsum is going to come off as stale, as overdone and rehashed, and almost every season Christopher Bailey proves me wrong.

I never knew that there were so many ways that one could portray an aesthetic based on outerwear and bags. What was even more surprising to me was that in a day of collections that seemed more directed towards winter, a label that's basis is on the coat and the jacket seemed the most season appropriate. While most of this came because of the collection's color palette, the movement of the jackets show how light weight they clearly are. The collection does have some vague allusions to some of the Prada archives but at this point, what collection doesn't? The show ended with me feeling that Bailey had indeed pushed the collection and the house forward once again, even nodding to the brand's technological excellence by sending every model in the finale down with an iPad case.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2012

label Dolce & Gabbana
season Spring 2012

And it's upon us. Menswear Show season has kicked off in Milan as the languid Resort season winds to a close. First up for our visual consumption: our uncles Dolce and Gabbana.

It's weird that coming off of what seemed like a relatively strong season Domencio and Stefano would present something so... uninspired. With the stated theme of "the net" the collection made me think back to Prada Spring 2010 and the First Spring film that accompanied it. This isn't to say that the Dolce&Gabbana collection was a copy but it most certainly felt familiar. Only seconds after that I felt the same sort of gloomy, apocalyptic feeling that crept over me during the Chanel Fall 2011 showing. Sadly though, it wasn't as convincing. While Uncle Lagerfeld managed to convince me this was a commercially feeble attempt at best. While certainly filled with some strong pieces, from a house of this stature I'd expect a creative direction/vision that I don't find in this collection.