FASHION Magazine

We’ve got the motherload of street style snaps today, so stay tuned for lots more where this came from. For now, enjoy your morning cup of coffee with snaps from outside of Peter Som’s Spring 2012 show!

View the photo gallery »

Six shows, three shoe changes, two blisters, and one Lara bar (no wonder fashion NYers are so skinny…no time to eat!) Hours into the day, I’ve got enough florals, pyjamas, and bright colours to last me a lifetime.

Peter Som started things off with a colorful bang, giving us acid-bright pinks, blues, and tangerines. Blown-up digital floral prints made a big impact, and the ‘60s influence we saw for fall made a strong showing in the form of box tops, swing shifts, and a cropped baby blue pant suit. On a more modern note, many of the pieces were paired with sporty, anorak detailing.

The anticipation for Denis Gagnon was palpable and sneaking early into the show’s venue, the Birks store in downtown Montreal, was my breaking point. High Versaille-esque ceilings and rows of glass-encased jewels persisted knowledge that Monsieur Gagnon’s show was the one to see. The Birks staff kitchen upstairs doubled as the show’s hair and makeup studio but, moments after I stepped off the freight elevator, stylist Denis Binet said to me, “Hair is natural, it’s nothing”. His idea of nothing really meant perfectly placed hair-ties and carefree fly-aways that looked more careful to me. Final touches of rich merlot-red lips were applied to a dozen or so youthful models, who all wore clean dewy faces and a nonappearance of mascara and blush. By blending an orange-red and a blue-red together, Amelie Ducharme improvised deeply seductive lips against otherwise virginal features and rivalled the aristocracy of the adornments downstairs.

Overheard backstage before Jason Wu’s Spring 2012 show: “You guys are SEXY and CAREFREE, ok?” We would have aimed for “sophisticated!” but hey, apparently we’re not the experts.

The post Overheard at NYFW: Really loud (and strange?) model instructions at Jason Wu appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Replace candy for clothes, and Fashion’s Night Out could easily be described as the Halloween of fashion (no, not because it’s scary). For one night only, the streets of New York are jam-packed with merrymakers trying to navigate their way from one party to the next. In and amongst the crowd, our boy Lewis Mirrett was snapping away, capturing all of the festivities in his signature vibrant way! We’re feeling pretty jazzed by the photos, and have added some hilarious (we hope!) captions to add to the fun. Enjoy!

View the photo gallery »

While TIFF-goers will be clambering to get a glimpse of Brad Pitt at tonight’s Moneyball premiere, nothing could compare to last night’s flashing of bulbs and girlish screams that echoed throughout NYC for Fashion’s Night Out. I spotted Diane von Furstenberg addressing the crowd at her meatpacking store in Pope-like style, arms waving soothingly at her fans. Later in the night as Anna Wintour made her appearance (a show-dog circle and then, poof, she was gone!) outside Pastis where I was noshing on late-night frites, a parade of fashion followers braved her bodyguards and the cobblestone streets in six-inch stilettos, chasing after their fashion god for just a glimpse. At Stella McCartney‘s downtown store the crowd was smokin’ hot, and I’m not talking about their looks. A broken air conditioner had guests passing the Perrier like it was crack.

View the photo gallery »

I really can’t think of a better way to start Day 2 of Montreal Fashion Week than at a cocktail. This year, instead of a traditional runway show, design sisters Claudia and Sabrina Barilà showcased their Spring 2012 collection by inviting media peeps to watch their look book photo shoot, styled by Cary Tauben. Models posed at each side of a triangular backdrop, flipping their crimped bouffantes from time to time. Each year, Sabrina, the design half of the duo, seems to venture into new territory, and this time around the look was sultry-preppy princess. The shirt dress was key, with the same cut appearing in different fabrics and patterns such as silk, chambray, Laura Ashley-like floral, and multi-hued pinstripes; as well as variations including a bare-shoulder cut-out style and a loose tunic version with a Mao collar.

Just shy of a traditional wingtip and meant to hover somewhere between European- and Asian-inspired looks, makeup artist Sebastien Tardif’s eye for the Martin Lim Spring 2012 is so fresh, so clean, so… spring! “The liner has a clean edge instead of coming to a point,” Tardiff told me backstage before the show. It’s a lift rather than an eye extension, with a bit of the graphic liner we loved at Marc Jacobs and Dolce & Gabbana for fall.

View the photo gallery »

Montreal Fashion Week rolled into town yesterday and parked herself at the usual spot at Marché Bonsecours in Old Montreal. But the first show to kick off the Spring 2012 collections was off-site at Harricana. Mariouche Gagné debuted her new écono-musée de la creation de mode, a kind of open atelier where the public can discover first hand her upcycling methods. Tired fur coats, wedding dresses, and old leathers that enter the building eventually exit as haute manteaux, whimsical separates, and trendy accessories.

The second half of fashion week brings some of the buzziest shows—notably Dion Lee and Josh Goot who are known at home as well as abroad as the new kings of Australian fashion. Both put on an impressive and memorable show for their adoring subjects, and their joint reign remains unchallenged.

Dion Lee has come back to the Sydney Opera House’s glass front foyer for his Spring show—and why wouldn’t he? Of all the images from last season, the ones of rows of models in pastel draped minidresses, framed by the soaring glass structure, are the most enduring. Local PR powerhouse Holly Garber, in a navy Dion Lee dress and complicated-looking headset, directs seating with military precision, but can’t control the searing beams of morning sunshine assaulting the eyes of the front row on the lower level. Happily, I’m facing the other way. Models walk along the two levels and up and down the shallow stairs in stiff, short dresses with moulded shoulders and skirts—even bootleg trousers have strategic volume behind the ankle, like rounded alien shin-fins. Shoulders and hips appear through Lee’s signature cutouts, keeping things light and allowing natural movement. He’s added brightly coloured prints—one resembles a photograph of a sheet of crumpled metal foil. There are shiny black accents, and metallic ones. Makeup impresario Napoleon Perdis has delivered wondrously illuminated skin that gives the sunlight some reflective competition. Flat Camilla Skovgaard Grecian sandals quickly give way to vertiginous ones, and metal breastplates provide a layer of glimmering protection. At the end, the models line up like a resolved and very pretty army—if Lee continues this show format, these money shots will provide an interesting slideshow of his development as a designer.

On a greyish autumn morning (in Australia that is), fashion press, retailers and industry people click-clop along the impressive Sydney Harbour foreshore towards the Overseas Passenger Terminal for the Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collections. Cruise ships dock at the large glass structure on the lip of the water, but we’re here to be transported through five days of presentations by the best Australia has to offer. Here we present our favourites so far: