Friday, September 30, 2016

INSPIRATION Issey Miyake Pleats Please.... Jil Sander SS||2017

Rodolfo Paglialunga has been the head of Jil Sander for two years now and in my opinion he, together with Raf Simons, is one of the creative directors who understand Jiline’s design DNA. But is he already out of original ideas? The faux pas to get so close [right] to one of fashion’s most recognisable designs: the Pleats Please of Issey Miyake [left], comes quiet as a surprise. So far only fast fashion houses dared to copy this Japanese creation, first launched in 1993. Made from single pieces of high quality 100% polyester fabric, the innovation behind Pleats Please is that  clothes are first cut and sewn together two-and-a-half to three times larger than the finished garments. Individual pieces are hand-fed into a heat press sandwiched between two sheets of paper. The garment then emerges with permanent pleats.


Sunday, September 25, 2016

INTO THE ARCHIVES... Bottega Veneta 1980 and Bottega Veneta SS||2017

Bottega Veneta celebrating their 50th anniversary was a great occasion to go back into the archives. The German creative director Tomas Maier made a connection to one of the iconic moments of Bottega Veneta, Lauren Hutton carrying an intrecciato woven clutch bag in the 1980 movie ‘American Gigolo’. It's been reproduced as a company milestone re-edition among 14 other bags from the archive. We usually connect this movie another Italian brand, since Richard Gere’s wardrobe was entirely designed by Giorgio Armani.




Saturday, September 24, 2016

INSPIRATION F.C. Gundlach 1966... Gareth Pugh SS||2017

The German photographer F.C. Gundlach is regarded as the most important fashion photographer of West Germany’s early post-war period. His pictures are often reduced to the essentials, clear in structure and prioritising the precision of communication. His images meld emotional and rational elements in a unique visual language.That’s maybe why his iconic image from 1966 of model Brigitte Bauer wearing op art swimwear by designer Sinz Vouliagmeni [left] seems like an inspiration picture for the visually extremely structured SS||2017 collection of Gareth Pugh [right].