Switch up your office style with the season’s best runway trends. View full post on InStyle.com – This Just In
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Tags: If the clothes that Bouchra Jarrar showed for her second haute couture collection weren’t quite as severe as the austere stonework of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs that provided their backdrop, they definitely had a classical rigor about them. Jarrar set out to offer a complete wardrobe—from jackets, dresses, and a trenchcoat to the goddess gown that closed the show—in a way that reflected the breakfast-to-bedtime ideal of traditional couture. That meant her emphasis was on what she felt was essential, and things were pared down to the max. The palette, for instance—navy, black, ivory, with gold accents. And the silhouette, streamlined for an athletic impact that felt very much now (the trench was sleeveless).
There was delicacy in the balance of a two-piece outfit in ivory crepe that met at a single point on the waist. The slashed wool pieces with a glint of gold lamé underneath had a subtle glamour. But the most encouraging aspect of the collection might have been Jarrar’s faith in her own voice as a designer. After the show, the Balenciaga and Lacroix alum counted “my maturity, my age” as influences. If enough customers feel the same way, then Jarrar’s voice could become that of contemporary couture, too.
—Tim Blanks
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Alexis Mabille went through a phase of thinking it was modern to mix his ready-to-wear and his couture into one homogeneous stew. Reason prevailed when he realized that wasn’t doing his craft any favors. But with his new couture outing, he maintained a ready-to-wear fundamental by building his collection from mix-and-match separates.
He started out with a basic eight top-and-bottom combinations and managed to double, maybe even triple them. Admittedly, it was mostly by exchanging a skirt for a pair of pants, or removing a dressy outer layer, but Mabille made his point nevertheless. With a twist, of course. His clothes are scarcely the stuff of an everyday wardrobe, hence his insistence that he was designing for “high-profile events” in the life of the modern professional woman. So a tuxedo jacket could be paired with pants and a pussy-bowed blouse in pink silk crepe, or worn over a simple black cocktail dress. Or a long evening coat might be worn either with a black turtleneck and full lace skirt or a lace bustier and black cigarette pants.
The craftsmanship that Mabille was keen to highlight was most obvious in a black velvet column with a lavishly embroidered and beaded bodice. Random trompe l’oeil petals cascaded down its front. It was the kind of seemingly throwaway gesture that confirms Mabille’s sly talent.
—Tim Blanks
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The Glee star looked gorgeous in a flower-strewn Carolina Herrera dress View full post on InStyle.com – This Just In
Szohr took an N.Y.C. stroll in white jeans and wild accessories View full post on InStyle.com – This Just In
There’s been a note of boyishness in the United Bamboo collection lately. Last fall, Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham sent suiting separates down the runway, and now, for Resort, they’re vacationing, as it were, in classic Oxbridge, with a range that takes England’s Henley Royal Regatta as its theme. It doesn’t get more proper than the century-plus-old boat race on the Thames, but no fear that UB is getting stuffy. Look closely at a floral calico, and you’ll spot a tiny Pac-Man-style ghost. A larger flower array suggested a hothouse gone to seed. Feminine and masculine played off one another in the proportions of nipped-in mini blazers cut close to the figure and formfitting trousers. (Intriguingly, Pham promises a sexier show to go along with this closer crop for Spring.) The Japanese-made knits, introduced last season and expanded here, were a standout—just the sort of open-weave sweaters a lad would want for a chilly English day on the river.
—Matthew Schneier
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Roberts looked leggy in DVF shorts and a Stella McCartney blazer View full post on InStyle.com – This Just In