Haider Ackermann – Paris f.w 2011
Haider Ackermann is a Colombian born designer who moved to Belgium in 1994 to study at the Royal Academy Antwerp. He presented his first collection in Paris in 2002. He has taken the art of draping to new levels that are now somewhat his signature. Always with a very avant garde twist. He is produced and distributed by the Belgian company BVBA 32, who also is behind a fellow Belgian designers Ann Demeulemeester and Josephus Thimister.
The colors of his fall collection were the most beautiful shades of bordeaux, blues and greens. The best colors on the runway of the season.
Haider has been around but this past week is when his name came more to the forefront. He is rumored to be a contender for the creative director/designer throne at Dior. Not many people know that he interned for John Galliano at the start of his career.
photos : Monica Feudi
Paris – THIMISTER
Josephus Thimister is a Belgian designer based in Paris. He has been creatively present in the fashion world since 1997 when he started up his eponymous label and Anna Wintour anointed him one of the top designers of his generation. Josephus has worked with Karl Lagerfeld and at the House of Jean Patou for the couture collection before he became creative director at Balenciaga prior to Nicolas Ghesquière. He has been in the same role for Genny and also Charles Jourdan. Somewhere amidst all these different jobs, he shuttered his namesake collection. His Thimister label made a tremendous comeback during Paris Couture in January where he showed his couture/ready-to-wear collection to much adulation from the press as well as retailers.
Thimister opened the spring.summer 2010 couture shows with his “Bloodshed and Opulence” collection. A sort of a blend of Russian history and present day anti-war message complete with military jackets, cossack coats, knitwear with splatters of red yarn to convey bloodshed. Dire elegance… imperial satins, regal wools, mohair knits, leathers and fur trims lead the charge. The color red was once again the punctuation mark.
Josephus Thimister self-financed this collection after an 8 year hiatus of showing on the runway. A tremendous show during couture that many regarded as a welcome change because he chose to show a collection that was not all red carpet wear. A sign of things to come? See a slideshow of his complete collection here from January 2010. These sweaters were amongst the strongest from New York to London to Milan to Paris.
The photos I took are from a showroom appointment during the Paris pret-a-porter in March. It’s good to see Josephus back. This time, we hope to stay.
This post is experiencing a first. It’s being written and posted at 39,000 feet. Strangely, for me, airplane cabins are some of the best places to completely relax and think. Thanks to a system called Gogo, I am able to stay connected throughout my flight. Some may say dangerous…. but I’m all for it.
Dries Van Noten – revisited
Many of you asked for more photos of the Dries Van Noten f.w 2010 show. My trusty little Casio Exilim couldn’t do it’s usual job from my vantage point at the show and the lighting was not very advantageous for quality photos. Instead, here is the link to the Dries Van Noten website and to the video of the runway show that took place on Wednesday, 5 March 2010 @ 3:00pm… in a grand hall of the Hotel de Ville. It’s like you’re there yourselves….
http://www.driesvannoten.be/movie.html
One quick photo I will include that I just found in my camera…. I was only able to get the back of the dress as it strode by. The print look familiar? I believe it is the same fabric and print of the beautiful gown that Maggie Gyllenhaal wore to the Academy Awards this past Sunday.
photo DChen
