favorite shows from FW 2013 - part 2

continuing what I started in part 1 earlier this week, here are another three of my favorite collections from the fall-winter 2013 season. this one tends to be a very nostalgic and feminine chapter.

valentino

it's all about the face in this vermeer-inspired collection. opening with various reinterpretations of ysl's iconic school girl dress (seen here on catherine deneuve in belle de jour), it's only natural that artfully face-framing collars of all sorts play the leading role. saturated hues of black, ruby and sapphire and a delicate ivory dominated the color palette of the collection, while deliciously creamy fabrics, impeccable lace and ever-so-elegant embroidery tend to steal the spotlight back and forth from each other. overall a beautiful journey through old and new, traditional and the contemporary. maria grazia chiuri and pierpaolo piccioli are certainly establishing themselves as a very foolproof designer duo.

 rochas

put a belt on it! in his penultimate collection for rochas, designer marco zanini takes us to a journey through the 1950's. rich in both texture (knit, velvet, mink, silk and wool) and in character: sometimes it's a hitchcock blonde, sometimes it's audrey hepburn in funny face climbing up the famous steps of montmartre, and sometimes just a boarding school girl in her pajamas absconding for the night. sombre colors like taupe, camel, prune, cream, khaki and mahogany add an explicitly nostalgic spirit into the collection, but punches of apricot, acid yellow, sky blue and baby pink cheer it all up. my favorites happen to be those mouth-watering silk pajama suits, skirts- both pencil and full, and that perfect little black dress. I'm planning to form my entire winter wardrobe around this collection.

christian dior

raf simons uses impressively simplistic 1950's (which happens to be the fashion house's heydays) silhouettes as a canvas for the collection where he plays with the patterns and illustrations freely. what grabs the attention the most is what simons calls memory dresses, where the black or white garnment is used as a mere sketchbook to demonstrate embroidered recreations of andy warhol's early drawings. I reckon these will quickly become collectors' pieces. however, the star of the collection for me is pied-de-poule, or the alice in wonderland treatment simons gives to the classic pattern: cuts it open, dichotomizes it, bends it up, magnifies and miniaturizes it.

I'll have to admit one thing here- when raf simons presented his first collection as the new creative director of dior, I wasn't as crazy enthusiastic as everyone else. sure I was happy that dior finally got rid of john galliano's VA-VA-VA-VA-WHOOOSH-EIGHT-DAYS-A-WEEK. plus, the pieces were honestly pretty revolutionary and quite impeccable by themselves, but (and a big 'but' indeed- pun not intended) well, not always that much so on women (such as here). there were times I thought simons didn't get the female body well enough, for which I blamed his roots in furniture design. but this collection made me get rid of all doubts. there's usually usually a tradeoff between freshness and brand heritage when a new designer acquires the position at a namesake brand, but raf simons captures that specific dior sensitivity galliano never did, while being progressive as mr. dior himself once was, rather than being fully stuck with the brand's past. I'm not sure whether that means anything, but he should know that he has my full blessing.