By Maya Peilow
From coverage of Milan Fashion Week and a creative directors’ game of musical chairs to a lesson taught by Kanye West and things to get up to this weekend, here’s our pick of the best fashion news stories from this week.
Milan Fashion Week had a love affair with the seventies for SS15, featuring Emilio Pucci, Max Mara and Gucci to name but a few. But not everyone is approving of this reference. After the Fendi show last week, Karl Lagerfeld expressed his disdain with the flurry of references to the decade. “What I personally like about this collection” he told The Financial Times, “is that there is no reference to the 1970s. I think there’s been enough…all these hippies and bohemians. I hate nostalgia!” The Gospel according to Lagerfeld has spoken.
Chains don’t only occur when you’re buying a house. This week, Fashionista reported on the “latest round of fashion musical chairs” in light of the upcoming move of Carven’s Guillaume Henry to Nina Ricci, replacing Peter Copping (read Fashed’s interview from a couple of years back here) as he moves on to Oscar de la Renta. This rumour has been going around for a while but Henry’s lack of denial after the Carven show yesterday has done nothing but quell the rumour mill. If this game of musical chairs is true, Henry’s old Carven seat is empty. So who will snatch up the chair?
Backstage at Carven SS15 in Paris, photographed by Kevin Tachman (via Vogue US)
Tom Ford will no longer feature on the London Fashion Week schedule. Beginning with AW15 on February 20th, Ford will be moving his show to Los Angeles. This date will clash with the start of London Fashion Week, which is set to run from 20th-24th February next year. “I have loved LA since I first moved there from New York in the early 1980s. Richard and I have had a home there and divided our time between LA and Europe for the past 20 years” said Ford to The Independent. He is excited to be at the epicentre of music and film production, especially given that he directed and produced the critically acclaimed film, A Single Man, back in 2009. “Like fashion, film is also a creative endeavour that is extremely important to me. I am excited to bring these two aspects of my life together by presenting the collection in Los Angeles.” Perhaps this means we can expect a film along with the collection early next year.
Backstage at Tom Ford SS15, photographed by Sonny Vandevelde (via SonnyPhotos.com)
Imagine if Kanye West rocked up at your college to teach you a lesson? For students at the LA Trade-Technical College (where Rick Owens studied), no imagination is required. As part of his court-ordered 250 hour community service, after he attacked paparazzi last year, West is back in the classroom. According to The Telegraph, the students learned that West only listens to his own music (of course!), he’s still angry with Fendi for rejecting his leather joggers idea, he doesn’t measure success by the things you own “because there’s always something more expensive to buy” and he’s a strong believer in the Illuminati conspiracy.
Kanye West teaches a lesson at Rick Owens’ old college (via Dazed)
I feel like there’s been a bit of an information overload recently with the iPhone 6 and the upcoming Apple Watch. The new iPhone was only released a week ago and it’s been dominating the headlines ever since. But a new tech release from Chanel might be about to steal the limelight. Cast your mind back to the supermarket-themed AW14 collection and you might recall some of the models wearing headphones. In a collaboration with Beats by Dr Dre, Chanel will be launching quilted leather headphones. But at $5,000 a pair, only die-hard Chanel fans need apply.
Lexi Boling wearing the headphones in Chanel AW14 catwalk (via style.com) and the quilted leather Chanel x Beats by Dr Dre headphones (via Forbes)
Hedi Slimane is a man of many talents. In a new exhibition at the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, Slimane’s photography exploring his love of music will be displayed to accompany his latest photography book entitled Sonic. “Music has a sense of freedom that continues to inspire me” he told the Financial Times, “and I have never found anything else that has the same capacity to impact on popular culture.” The exhibition spans the music scene in London in the noughties, featuring Amy Winehouse and the Arctic Monkeys, to life in LA, which Slimane says “is living something of a golden age at the moment. The art community and music scenes are extremely vibrant.” Slimane is the first Saint Laurent designer to have an exhibition at the Fondation – “this is somehow where I started, so this is very moving for me.”
The Hedi Slimane: Sonic exhibition is open at the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent until January 11 2015.
Pete Doherty photographed by Hedi Slimane at the Hedi Slimane: Sonic exhibition (via Dazed)
Photographed by Hedi Slimane at the Hedi Slimane: Sonic exhibition (via Dazed)
In case you’ve missed seeing those pictures of Victoria Beckham in her new Dover Street store, here they are! The Mayfair shop, designed by Farshid Moussavi (who also worked on the London Olympic Park) officially opened yesterday. The shop has been designed with an ultra-modern, minimalist aesthetic: using iPads instead of tills, no mannequins in the window and a concrete grid ceiling which took seven builders, seven days a week a total of nine weeks to complete. Lest we forget, if you’re lucky enough to be a VIP shopper, you’ll get to see the £600,000 Damien Hirst.
Inside the Victoria Beckham Dover Street store – catch a glimpse at the impressive ceiling which took seven builders 63 days to make! (courtesy of Victoria Beckham)
Choupette is one lucky cat, with over 42,000 Twitter followers, a book and a Shu Uemura make-up collaboration, not to mention belonging to Karl Lagerfeld, she is now branching out into design. She has been given an angry-cat makeover for the Monster Choupette collection which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, shoes and, of course, in true Lagerfeld style, a furry keyring. It’s certainly more affordable than Lagerfeld’s eponymous label, with a pair of glittery socks costing €25 (approximately £20) and a leather shopper at €295 (approximately £230). The collection will be available at Karl Lagerfeld’s UK flagship sotre on Regent Street, in addition to his website, from November.
Highlights from the Monster Choupette collection (via The Guardian)
In a topical piece on nationality, Alexander Fury explored the importance of where designers come from. While the nationality of designers is important in some cases (Jean Paul Gaultier’s collections are inherently French), “the nationalities that really count are the people buying the clothes.” He suggests that rather than presenting a coherent collection, designers are creating something broader for different customers around the world to pick and choose the elements which suit their lifestyles, such as furs in Russia and flirty, printed pieces in Italy and Brazil, “because it won’t all be everywhere.”
Backstage at Jean Paul Gaultier AW14, photographed by Molly SJ Lowe (via Vogue US)
The London College of Fashion is hosting an online auction to coincide with their second annual gala, the Fashion Matters Dinner, supported by The Countess of Wessex, on 10 October, attended an illustrious selection of designers and business leaders. All the money raised from the evening will be used to fund student scholarships and bursaries, 29 of which were created thanks to the successful campaign last year. Bidding for the auction is already open and the lot includes incredible prizes such as a personal tour of Paul Smith’s Covent Garden studio with the man himself, a Giles Deacon dress from SS09 and the chance to meet Rupert Sanderson in his studio, where he will help you select the perfect pair of shoes to take home.
Paul Smith, photographed by James Mooney, and the Giles Deacon dress from his SS09 collection
Get into the mood for Paris Fashion Week with the recently launched ‘How to be Parisian Wherever You Are.’ The book, co-written by Caroline de Maigret, Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan and Sophie Mas and tells us everything we need to know, from fashion tips, such as which items all women should have in their wardrobes, to relationship advice. It’s a tell-all of the “French secrets” to life. “I wanted to debunk the myth that the French woman is perfect” said de Maigret in a recent interview with Harpers Bazaar. “It’s a lot of pressure on women to always think that somewhere, some woman can be perfect, and she’s not, in fact.” French women may not be perfect, but they’re pretty close – so pick up a copy and learn how to dress, eat and live like a real Parisian!
‘How to be Parisian Wherever You Are’, £16.99 available at Waterstones
Looking for something to do this weekend in London? A collection of 34 intimate photographs inside the apartment of Coco Chanel at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris, taken by renowned photographer Sam Taylor-Johnson, are being displayed at the Saatchi Gallery. Taylor-Johnson took the stunning images of the legendary apartment five years ago on a project for a biography of Mademoiselle Chanel. After seeing the images, mastermind Karl Lagerfeld decided that they deserved to be in an exhibition. From leather bound books to chandeliers adorned with blossoming camellias, the intimate portrayal Chanel’s personality in the apartment is everything you’d expect and more. “The essence of Chanel is firmly rooted there in all of her possessions” says Taylor-Johnson, “and I truly believe that her spirit and soul still inhabits the second floor.”
The Second Floor: The Private Apartment Of Mademoiselle Chanel exhibition will be open at the Saatchi Gallery until October 4
The legendary mirrored staircase leading up to the second-floor apartment at 31 Rue Cambon, Paris (via the Saatchi Gallery)
The post This Week In Fashion: 22nd-26th September appeared first on Fashion Editor at Large.