Hell and heaven. Prabal Gurung's Fall collection made that journey, starting off all black, traveling through a blue period, and culminating in a finale of gold and ivory worthy of the pearly gates. Beforehand, the designer talked about his own spiritual quest, about embracing both the dark and the light within.
On the runway, that translated into dueling impulses. On the one hand, Gurung is an expert tailor with a keen skill for creating a sleek, sexy silhouette: See his sleeveless, body-hugging dress made in part from stretchy iridescent neoprene or a pantsuit pieced together from shiny and matte black fabrics. The new louche trousers he showed came in a low-slung, skinny flare shape.
With the bandage dress as a baseline, the question each season at Herve Leger is in which direction will Max and Lubov Azria spin their tale. To their credit, the Azrias manage to take something that could feel a bit like boiling an egg—a little softer one season, a little harder another—and nudge it forward onto new ground. This season's theme delved into the darker side of equestrienne motifs. These girls were more horse than rider, with leather harnesses fastened around shoulders and waists and even long, straight, blunt-cut ponytails swinging from side to side.
In fact, there was a strain of mythical woman-as-beast in the body-hugging outerwear—a developing non-frock category—of python-stamped black leather trimmed with swaths of wild black fur. What felt newest in the dresses were the patterns and prints—an op-arty ombre beat out an odd chain-link jacquard—as well as the pleating, which gave the usual shrink-wrapped silhouette a chic modicum of freedom. You could see the long-sleeve diamond-pattern dress with a flippy skirt in look four, for instance, attracting a whole new customer. That's the kind of uncharted territory any designer can get behind.- Style.com
Alexander Wang's biggest news of late is a highly ambitious plan to open 14 stores in China over the course of the next year. It's likely no coincidence that what he showed today was his most luxurious-feeling collection to date.
Wang continued the trompe l'oeil theme of his pre-fall collection, this time taking "a surrealistic approach to fabric manipulation," as he explained in a preview. "It's this idea of shrink-wrap, lamination, covering up, lacquering." Nearly every surface seemed to have a slick sheen or gloss. He lacquered the tweeds on coats, hooded jackets, and even chunky wool sweaters. Leathers were glossy and seamless, and suede pants and coats came with waxed panels. The clothes themselves were also covered up. Wang sent out mid-calf-length skirts (with those great, soon-to-be-ubiquitous knee-high boots), buttoned-up coats, and fishnet turtlenecks pulled up over models' faces. This was definitely Wang in a more grown-up, if not dystopian, mode. (Those turtlenecks recalled surgical flu masks.) His designs exuded a new precision, as well as a new, expensive polish. And we're not just talking about the all-gold hardware. Ninety percent of the fabrics here were custom developed, and it showed.
At first blush, Duro Olowu's high-impact designs seem to be made for a very specific woman—someone high-powered who gravitates toward feminine shapes and bold, even eye-searing patterns. And indeed, for that woman, Olowu's clothes are catnip. But give his collections time to work on you and a more universal appeal reveals itself. Take the short flapper-y dress in his latest collection: Made of hand-pieced strips of printed silks, it's got a punchy eloquence that is unmistakably Olowu's. Let your eye adjust, however, and it's also a flat-out pretty party dress; some nervy starlet should try it out on the red carpet.
Olowu is well known for his mixed prints. But there's a method to his madness: His cuts are sharp, his silhouettes digestible, and the prints themselves are always combined in a disciplined way. This season, he achieved painterly results by going for more tonal print mixes, a strategy inspired by his obsession with the Egon Schiele painting Self Portrait in Peacock Waistcoat. The collection defaulted to shades of green and teal, with the palette girded by tones of brass, cream, and black, and spiked with hits of red and pink.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all time. Her awards include two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. Houston was also one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. Inspired by prominent soul singers in her family, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, and her godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing with her New Jersey church's junior gospel choir at age 11. After she began performing alongside her mother in night clubs in the New York City area, she was discovered by Arista Records label head Clive Davis. Houston released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification.
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits ("Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know", "Greatest Love of All", "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"). She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboardmagazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African-American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
Houston's first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992). The film's original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single "I Will Always Love You", became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history. With the album, Houston became the first act (solo or group, male or female) to sell more than a million copies of an album within a single week period.The album makes her the only female act in the top 10 list of the best-selling albums of all time, at number four. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The Preacher's Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history. Three years after the release of her fourth studio album My Love Is Your Love (1998), she renewed her recording contract with Arista Records. She released her fifth studio album Just Whitney in 2002, and the Christmas-themed One Wish: The Holiday Album in 2003. In 2009, Houston released her seventh studio album, I Look to You.
On February 11, 2012, Houston died of currently unknown causes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
