FASHION Magazine

Perry Ellis is a brand undoubtedly for the preps. From their collared shirts to classic sportswear, it exudes a sort of squeaky-clean All-American vibe. And in terms of design, they’ve always leant on the side of tradition, the side of safety… that is, until Marc Jacobs’ infamous Spring Summer 1993 collection. Jacobs was hired as […]

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John Galliano is back on the map after a two-year hiatus. The Gibraltar-born British fashion designer, who not so long ago held the reins to one of the biggest fashion houses in the industry, has been the subject of much dispute since his 2011 firing from Dior. Galliano spottings over the past couple of years have been scarce, leaving questions about a possible comeback unanswered. With a new Vanity Fair interview on the stands and a televised one just released online, Galliano seems to be straying from the low profile he’s been keeping contributing to suspicions of a rebound on the horizon. From internships at his designer pal’s atelier to facing blackout drinking, were taking a look at recent developments in John Galliano’s slow but sure return.

By Randi Bergman and Meredith Gillies

2012 has been quite the year. We’ve waited for Carly Rae Jepsen’s phone to ring since what feels like forever, we developed major girl crushes on Girls director/writer, Lena Dunham, and we felt like we’d never be as cool as Azealia Banks. Jepsen, Banks and Dunham may have rocked our worlds this year, but in the world of fashion, important things that have gone down too. There have been soaring highs, crashing lows, and shocking changes for celebrities, designers and even journalists.

Designer shifts at Balenciaga and Dior that are just a sampling of what seems like an endless list of fashion shakeups that went down over the past 12 months including Stefano Pilati and Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent, YSL becoming simple Saint Laurent Paris and more. And speaking of shakeups, Kristen Stewart’s rise from a teen queen to a heartbreaking fragrance face has been epic to say the least. So let’s look back, reflect, and count down together the events that made 2012 so real.

See our list of 2012’s top influencers »

The rumour mill has steadily been churning since the announcement of Nicolas Ghesquière’s departure from Balenciaga. Effective tomorrow, the seat of the creative director will officially be vacant, but as of today it seems that Alexander Wang has pulled ahead of the bunch and is the front-runner for the position.

According to the French newspaper, Nouvel Observator, Wang has emerged as the shoo-in for the job, and this statement was followed up by, New York Times writer, Cathy Horyn—who was one of the first to break the news about Ghesquiere’s departure—in an article that said the announcement of Wang’s new role at Balenciaga could come as early as next week.

Lady Gaga is no stranger to wearing designer wears, and it looks as though she couldn’t even wait a week to try on some of Hedi Slimane’s debut creations for Saint Laurent Paris.

The designer showed his much talked about Spring 2013 collection last Monday during Paris Fashion Week, and although it’s received much flak in the industry, Lady Gaga seems to be on Team Hedi, as the first to have worn pieces from his collection literally straight off the runway.

Check out our front row pictures from Spring 2013 Fashion Week! »

Front row seating at the Spring 2013 Fashion Week collections has been an exciting who’s-who jumble of predictable favourites and amazing surprises this year.

Miu Miu’s Spring 2013 collection was presented today in Paris, with Glee’s Dianna Agron front and centre of the It girl mélage that came to check out Miuccia’s latest creations. Looking quite mod, she wore a ‘60s look of a turquoise dress, blue heels and purple tights, all by Miu Miu. Dianna Agron was seen with actress Amanda Seyfried who was wearing a Prada suit, Emma Stone and Felicity Jones both in Miu Miu and fashion week fixture and designer herself Chloë Sevigny. The girls looked like they were about star in the brand’s latest campaign, although Sevigny can already boast about that.

The claws have come out in the battle of Hedi Slimane vs. Cathy Horyn. After making his guestlist, and checking it twice, Slimane chose to exclude The New York Times critic from his debut collection for Saint Laurent. WWD was quick to point out the fact that Cathy Horyn was missing from the show, and Horyn, who is known for being a bit of a loud mouth—she recently called Oscar De La Renta a hotdog—did not keep quiet about her exclusion from the show.

Horyn wrote her New York Times review based off the photos and cleared the air about her lack of attendance by saying, “I was not invited. Despite positive reviews of his early YSL and Dior collections, as well as a profile, Mr. Slimane objected bitterly to a review I wrote in 2004 — not about him but Raf Simons. Essentially I wrote that without Mr. Simons’s template of slim tailoring and street casting, there would not have been a Hedi Slimane — just as there would never have been a Raf Simons without Helmut Lang. Fashion develops a bit like a genetic line.”

To say that Raf Simons had a mountain of pressure weighing down on him for his couture collection for Dior would be an understatement. And yet somehow, Simons managed to pull off the impossible: his stunning 56-piece collection was a reverent nod to Dior’s heritage fused with Simon’s signature modernity. Even more impressive than the collection itself is the outpouring of approval from the tough-to-please fashion crowd, including Simons’ peers. Here are some of the reactions to the collection so far:

He said he was leaving Milan forever, but he never said anything about Paris. Yes, the longest-running game of Guess Who? the fashion world has ever seen is finally over. And cue the welcome party, because we couldn’t be happier.

Cathy Horyn broke the news today that Raf Simons will be taking over (effective immediately) as artistic director at Dior. His first collection with the house will be for the haute couture shows in July—somewhat fitting considering the colour-loving minimalist took a decidedly haute hand to his recent Jil Sander “Couture Trilogy” (before getting the boot, that is).

The news comes after over a year of headhunting on Dior’s part. The house famously went after Marc Jacobs last year (the two parties couldn’t agree on salary) and reportedly later Lanvin honcho Alber Elbaz (he turned down the offer). Simons’ name started popping up in late December and the rumour mill began churning like nobody’s business.

The juiciest part in all this? Yves Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane has been a longtime menswear rival of Simons’. And now the two get to face off in the womenswear arena. Does this mean Dior versus YSL walk-offs are in our future?

Whether he was their first choice or not, he was most definitely ours. We’re still having dreams about his last Jil Sander collection. Those reds! Those pinks! This really couldn’t have turned out better.

The fashion community is starting to weigh in on the reports that Raf Simons will be Dior’s new creative director, and we’re not surprised to hear both positive and negative expectations. Dior is widely known for its decorative, romantic, and ladylike style, and Galliano’s over-the-top vision fit the brand perfectly. Simons is known for a much more minimalist style, but has been showing different sides of himself in the last few Jil Sander collections.

Speculation surrounding a change in Proenza Schouler’s investors has been circulating for quite some time now. That change seems to have been confirmed yesterday by Cathy Horyn of The New York Times. According to the writer, the label’s current backer, the private equity firm Permira (also the primary owner of Valentino), will be selling its shares in the label as early as Friday.

The 45-per-cent stake will reportedly be transferred over to a group of New York investors including Andrew Rosen, CEO of Theory and Helmut Lang. Designers and founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez will likely hold onto their control over the other 55 per cent of the company.

While we’re excited to see what Rosen’s plans are for the brand, we’re hoping that too much doesn’t change. New investors can often demand a lot of designers, but that won’t necessarily be the case with Proenza Schouler. McCollough and Hernadez’s It-girl aesthetic seems in keeping with Rosen’s previous ventures (think Olivier Theyskens at Theory). What we are hoping for is the production of more accessories, which seems inevitable with the success of the PS1 bag.

Yesterday marked the start of Fall 2011’s Paris Couture Week. Though couture is often luxe and intricate, one house stands apart from the rest in boldness and charisma: Christian Dior. But as the cloud of former Dior designer John Galliano’s ongoing trial still looms over the industry, critics suspected the collection would be different due to his absence of direction. To our surprise, “different” turned to out mean shocking, and frankly disappointing.

The collection was what can only be described as an overzealous attempt to rework what is known as Dior. It seems to be of widespread opinion that from the patterns to the cuts, the ensembles simply did not belong in a couture collection. Overall, there was a vast lack of direction and vision, with colours and materials clashing all over the runway.

At the end of the show, creative director Bill Gaytten took a bow, accompanied by his first studio assistant, Susanna Venegas. He seemed elated to be at the head of the runway, but that’s probably because he didn’t see the giant elephant in the room with the “It Wasn’t Galliano” sign around its neck. Gaytten is already set to take over Galliano’s self-titled label, and though there were suspicions that he’d be taking over for the estranged designer at Dior, those can probably be put to rest. Is Gaytten going straight to the guillotine?