Milano – Fragola di bosco
Aside from fashion and shopping, I have often professed that eating is the other pleasure that Milan offers in generous doses. It’s the quality of ingredients. Whether vegetables, meats, fish or fruits, Italians seek out the freshest and best quality even in your smallest neighborhood restaurants.
This is dessert from last evening at Al Girarrosto on Corso Venezia. Fresh fragola di bosco with vanilla ice cream. These small Italian Alpine wild strawberries are delicate but are big on flavor. A great example of keeping it simple and allowing the flavor to be the single focus.
Raf Simons is reacting to the recent invasion of designers in his campground of minimalism. He decided to stomp bravely into their turf…. maximalism. Stomp he did but with a clear vision and a very controlled hand. There was no hedonistic excess. His ideas of form and shape were based on modern couture.
Mr. Simons expressed, ” I thought about maximalism - its forms and shapes, with codes that could be brought to Jil Sander in a couture language.”
He played with the basic tee shirt shape on top and volume in controlled forms on the bottom in the form of long skirts. He switched on his presentation with a high voltage color palette. Grass greens, bright pink, flame orange, electric blue, hot purple, sizzle yellow, red-red… he inserted floral prints that looked as if it were bleeding through the fabric and then very bold stripes in colors to underline his measured steps outside of the box of what we have always expected at Jil Sander. He tossed familiar sportswear outerwear pieces like a lightweight parka over his parade of colors in the most unexpected combinations.
This collection is one of Raf Simons strongest for Jil Sander. This is a man who dares and leads fashion. He continues to guide the Jil Sander label forward and is always one of if not the most prophetic in Milan.
Photos: Monica Feudi / gorunway.com / Style.com
Milano Loves Fashion
Milan fashion week is off and running. The city is humming.
Sandwiched between New York, London and Paris next, Milan has opened it’s doors with fashion events non-stop……
Crossing the Divide – Lanvin
The other great working experience was chez LANVIN in Paris. The women’s s.s 2011 pre-collection was shown in at an immense space at the Cite de la Mode et du Design on the quai d’Austerlitz in the 13th arrondissement. This new space dedicated to French Design and Fashion was designed by the architect team of Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane. This work is a conversion of concrete warehouses dating back to 1907 built right on the left bank of the Seine by gare d’ Austerlitz.
The team at Lanvin was polished, organized and great to work with. That says a lot when they hired over 30 freelance sellers for this pre-collection.
The LANVIN pre s.s 2011 collection was as beautiful and complete a collection I have ever worked. It was well edited and the presentation by Alber Elbaz made you fall in love with this collection over and over again. His raison d’etre is simply… “What do women want? ” He answered his own question in this pre-collection. Reversible tulle trim little black dresses, the newest versions of the Lanvin trench, deconstructed tailoring, flowing python print silk, jewel tone washed silk and a white marriage collection. One piece more exquisite than another. Alber also introduced a very strong capsule of swimwear with a high glamour quotient.
Working on the other side of the table and selling the collection to other buyers was a natural transition. Learn the collection, know the computer system, understand the store and clientele you’re working with, be attuned to how the buyer and the team you’re working with likes to write the collection. But once a buyer, always a buyer. I found myself not just showing the collection but already editing and pre selecting for the stores I worked with… with a merchant’s eye. This was actually appreciated in the end. For me, a perfect opportunity. Multi-tasking and doing two jobs at the same time.
Photos of the pre s/s 2011 collection here on style.com .
Come runway s.s 2011, I will return to the buyer side of the table in Milan and Paris.
Photos LANVIN.
