FASHION Magazine

See the Chloé Comme Parris Fall 2013 collection »

The dreamy, artsy girl we usually see on Chloé Comme Parris runways showed her tougher, ennui-filled side for Fall 2013 at World Mastercard Fashion Week, slouching aggressively out to the sounds of Nirvana’s “All Apologies.” Nineties grunge reappeared in international Spring 2013 collections and continues to fly its flag into fall with Hedi Slimane’s all too faithful interpretation for Saint Laurent Paris (most of the fashion media wasn’t having it but it gave Courtney Love “gasms” and reminded her of Value Village).

Here, under-25 Toronto sisters Chloé and Parris Gordon applied their own richly detailed aesthetic to classic signifiers like check shirts wrapped around the waists of slips: their dresses are beautifully cut in silk and feature custom 19th century Arts & Crafts-influenced prints (the Gordons’ mom is an enthusiast of the era). Adding to the feeling of rebellious, seething youth were crop tops, patterned thigh-highs, tough leather, army overcoats, vests layered over sheer tunics layered over cropped pants, and dresses slashed across the chest and held together with what looked like metal body piercings.

View the Fall 2013 colour moments »

Fall 2013 is on the agenda, but here at Paris Fashion Week, spring is in the air. It’s been deliciously sunny over the past few days with fashion warriors shedding winter for bright spring outfits. If Carine Roitfeld can do head-to-toe cream and caramel, bare legs and open-toe shoes (as seen at Hôtel de Crillon), then the rest of us can too. Black, however, is still a dominant hue on the catwalk and the sidewalk, but every now and again a flash of brightness taps you on the shoulder and says, “regarde-moi.”

Here are Paris Fashion Week’s top four colour moments for Fall 2013.

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 »

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.”

Today’s debut of Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent cast a strange shadow over the entire day. Nothing else seemed to matter. Not Stella McCartney’s micropleated dresses with large blobs of blue, green or orange. Not Clare Waight Keller’s layered tunics and pleated ruffles. Not the sequinned Rorschach splashes on Roger Vivier’s platform mules. Not even Louis Vuitton’s new fine jewelry collection inspired by the locks lovers leave on bridges.

Everyone was counting the hours, waiting for Hedi.

Finally the front row of the Grand Palais filled. Marc Jacobs. Alber Elbaz. Riccardo Tisci. Kate Moss. Salma Hayek. Jessica Chastain.

Historic? You got that right.

After the hate-athon that ensued after Yves Saint Laurent unveiled a photo of its revamped Saint Laurent Paris logo, two fashion heavy-hitters have come to the defense of creative director Hedi Slimane.

Both Karl Lagerfeld and Arizona Muse have given their stamp of approval to the new fuss-free, sans-serif logo, which was pictured atop two black boxes stacked on white marble on the brand’s Facebook page Monday. The logo, which is a nod to the brand’s Rive Gauche era back in the ‘60s, is the exact opposite of the swirly Yves Saint Laurent font that’s been a mainstay for the brand up until this point.

It should come as no surprise that Hedi Slimane’s much talked about collections for Saint Laurent Paris (his revamped moniker for the legendary Yves Saint Laurent) are being kept well under wraps as he prepares for their debut this fall. Fortunately for us, a handful of select retailers were invited to view his first designs […]

The post All the reactions we could suss out so far from Hedi Slimane’s first mini Saint Laurent Paris presentation appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Though yesterday’s news about Yves Saint Laurent’s name change was met with a torrent of outrage, one person is actually happy with the new direction of the legendary fashion house. Pierre Bergé, the late designer’s long-term business and life partner, is giving his blessing to newly appointed creative director Hedi Slimane’s brand revamp.

Bergé told WWD that Slimane called him several weeks before the announcement yesterday to give him a heads up about the name change from “Yves Saint Laurent” to “Saint Laurent Paris” (though to much of the fashion world’s relief, the YSL logo will remain the same).

“I’m very happy. Anything that makes the house more Saint Laurent is welcome,” he said. “I am happy that Stefano Pilati is gone, just as I was happy when Tom Ford left.”

As we reported yesterday, Slimane’s decision to change the name of the fashion house was an effort to recapture the original spirit of Saint Laurent’s first foray into ready-to-wear in 1966.

Bergé is even standing behind Slimane’s decision to move the quintessentially French line’s creative studio from Paris to Los Angeles, another move that has had some fashion folk foaming at the mouth.

“The creative studio is in a designer’s head, it resides within the person,” said Bergé. “Hedi lives in Los Angeles. He should be left to do fashion in a city he likes.”

While we had mixed feelings about Slimane’s decision to change YSL’s trademark moniker, a stamp of approval from someone who knew Saint Laurent better than anyone should count for something. Who knows—maybe this heralds a new era for the brand and will bring back some of the excitement of ’60s Saint Laurent.

Well, this is certainly a game-changer: Yves Saint Laurent has just announced that under the creative direction of Hedi Slimane, the fashion house will be entering a new era, complete with a new moniker.

In the next few months, the legendary French fashion house will undergo its transformation into Saint Laurent Paris, a nod to “Saint Laurent Rive Gauche,” the name YSL’s first-ever ready-to-wear collection was produced under in 1966. The rebranding will first hit sales floors as the S/S 2013 women’s collection later this year.

A YSL rep told WWD that Slimane wanted to recapture the original “impulses” that led Saint Laurent himself to make his foray into the RTW world: youth, freedom and modernity. The rebranding’s aim is to bring the house back to its “truth, purity and essence.”

Obviously, you can’t make a big change like this without eliciting some strong responses. Saint Laurent died relatively recently (in 2008), and understandably, a lot of people are still very attached to the image of the man behind the label. Taking the eponymous brand’s name in a new direction has been met with a certain degree (i.e. a lot) of outrage so far. The Twitterverse in particular was blazing with anger, with big-ticket fashion players from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week to Independent Fashion Bloggers tweeting their distaste.

“Yves Saint Laurent is changing their name… Not gonna lie.. I’m a little upset,” MBFW tweeted.

“Why anyone would want to name change the classic Yves Saint Laurent is beyond us […],” IFB opined.

We’re a bit torn on this one: calling the “YSL” moniker iconic is almost an understatement, and anyone with the slightest inclination to fashion is probably a bit attached to the fashion house’s name and logo (which, thankfully, Slimane isn’t changing). Then again, maybe Slimane is right — maybe it is time to breathe some new life into a brand that’s long been shadowed by its founder’s legacy.

What do you think: can you get behind SLP or will you always be a YSL type?

What with Raf Simons now officially at Dior, Hedi Slimane officially at YSL and Jil Sander officially at…Jil Sander, it seemed the fashion-land rumour mill was as good as retired. But how silly of us. (Re)enter Stefano Pilati, who was replaced as creative director of Yves Saint Laurent in late February. Sources (namely Jim Shi) […]

The post Gossip that rhymes: Pilati for Armani? appeared first on FASHION Magazine.