FASHION Magazine

The gossamer lace dresses printed with a profusion of blooms in Erdem’s Spring 2012 collection called to mind a few things: a summer of leisure, innocence about to be lost, perhaps a girl one step removed from reality. London, U.K.–based Canadian designer Erdem Moralioglu explains that he conceived the designs after reading Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, “and it stuck.” The French Riviera–set story of a girl’s complicated relationship with her widowed father and his lovers was written by Sagan in 1954, when she was just 18.

This literary link in Moralioglu’s design process isn’t out of the ordinary. A voracious collector of books—he estimates his current count at close to 1,000—he frequently looks to them for inspiration. “I can point to books on my shelves that were catalysts for different collections,” he says.

We round up the best in show, best finale and top invitation designs of Milan fashion week.

View our editor’s picks »

Beloved for her wildly original style and joie de vivre, Diana Vreeland is right up there with fashion’s most legendary. The famed editrix’s career, spanning 50 years—from her first role in the fashion department at Harper’s Bazaar in 1936, to becoming editor in chief of Vogue in 1962, and moving on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in 1970, after Vogue fired her for being too extravagant—mirrors some of the most important moments in pop culture and fashion; if it happened, she was there. Vreeland’s stamp is indelible indeed. With the release of Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel ($62, at Teatro Verde, 100 Yorkville Ave., 416-966-2227, teatroverde.com), her vision has once again come alive, as curated by the wife of her grandson-turned-most-ardent-admirer, Lisa Immordino Vreeland. Last month, Immordino Vreeland shared some of her favourite spreads, as well as insights about her would-be grandmother (the two never met) and now we share them with you!

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At the gorgeous Villa Necchi, for an equally gorgeous Tod’s presentation. The sun is shining and it’s all I can do to keep myself from plunging into the pool (the same one featured in the Tilda Swinton film, I Am Love).

Viewing the collection over cappuccino with Derek Lam, Tod’s creative director, it’s remarkable to see how much he’s upped the brand’s luxe ante since he first began his collaboration in 2006. Spring is inspired by “the strength of Italian craftsmanship” and that’s quite apparent—from the bead- and precious metal– studded moccasins to the special-order gold-embellished bags. Colours vary from neutral tans, oyster, and dove grey all the way to citrus brights—as in a fringed-calfskin orange shopper. Juicy and delish!

Word: Vulgarity

Meaning: An act or expression that defies good taste.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and golden fish and pretty maids all in a row. Oh, and lotus flowers and Ming vases and tea-room wallpaper and… all this print which is more than I have words for. It left me faint.

Fall ’11 is only Mary Katrantzou’s sixth show, and I remember her first, when she was back-to-back with Mark Fast and nobody knew either of them. She’d just began doing perfume-bottle prints and their hyperrealness startled me. Then she picked up whole rooms and swirled them into wearable objet d’arts. Now she’s in the garden: more specifically, she says, Diana Vreeland‘s apartment, or “garden of hell.” If this is hell, I’m quite happy to be headed there.

Yay! Chanel Iman confirmed for the new House of Style. [Fashionista]

DIY Balmain from our favourite auntie. [Auntie Fashion]

Depending on how you feel about SJP, the Harper’s Bazaar editorial with her posing as Diana Vreeland will either be amazing or a travesty. [Cyana Trend Land]

Ever wonder what it really looks like in a fashion closet. This is pretty much it. [NYTimes]

Despite earlier reports, everything seems fine between Nina Ricci and Olivier Theyskens. We really can’t take all this back and forth. [NYMag]

Get thee to Rome for an exhibition on the relationship between Italian fashion and the divine Mrs. Vreeland. [Dazed]