The Cutting Class

Junya Watanabe, SS12.

The Japanese designers seem to have a way of conjuring up new fantasy headwear each season and pairing it with delicate models and deadpan facial expressions. This season was no exception with Junya Watanabe displaying feather hair sculptures with flashes of unusual tones and hues to offset the floral repeats that embellished the garments. The use of the colours within the feathers echoed the off-kilter colour palettes that have been the norm for the last few seasons. These colours added a contemporary edge to simply draped floral dresses and trademark double breasted tailoring by throwing unexpected highlight colours into the mix.

Bearded Male Models from the SS12 Menswear Collections of Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Umit Benan, Ann Demeulemeester and Piombo.

Often the menswear collections of the past few years have been modelled by svelte young boys who are so fresh faced that it looks as though they may not have even started shaving yet. In the more recent Menswear collections for Spring-Summer 2012 it seemed as though many different facial hair variations were presented - everything from unkempt stubble to neatly trimmed moustaches and full grown beards.

The interesting thing about this choice of casting and styling, is that it lends the clothes a more worn in quality. There is something about the fact that the models hair has been left looking more individual that gives the models more ownership over the clothes. Whereas the freshly shaven young boys look as though they have been carefully groomed, before putting them into pristine clothing samples - the models with facial growth look as though they just walked in off the street, out of their everyday lives and onto the catwalk.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk and Style.com.

Junya Watanabe Man, SS12.

Patches were the perfect complement to the many variations of overalls at the Spring-Summer 2012 show for Junya Watanabe Man. Both contrast fabrics and self-on-self patches were used to create layered designs focusing around pockets that then spread across the fronts and sides of shirts. It appeared that the patches were applied both on top of the fabric, and also from underneath the main shell fabric, and held in place by a variety of zigzag and twin needle stitches.

Sewing patches onto a garment can cause either the base or patch fabric to buckle while you’re sewing. One way around this is to use bondaweb» - a product by Vilene that is basically like a double sided fusing with a paper backing. This allows you to iron adhesive side down (as you would a normal fusing) and then peel off the paper backing to reveal the second side of adhesive. You can then place the patch in position on the base cloth as needed and iron into place. This will form a strong bond making it a much simpler process to sew on any functional or decorative topstitching.

Junya Watanabe image from Vogue.co.uk». Technical images from The Cutting Class.

Meadham Kirchhoff Back Stage, AW11.

When it comes to the hair, make-up and accessories styling for catwalk shows there seem to be too different approaches that can be taken. The models can be cast and styled to look like carbon copies of each other, the advantages of this being that the focus is drawn away from the models and towards the clothes. It can also make the clothes seem less personal to the individual models, and instead having the models appear more as walking mannequins, representative of a certain stylised new look that accompanies the clothes.

The flip side to this is for the models to seem more different from each other and for the styling to accentuate individual features and physical quirks so that the styling of the hair and make-up complements them personally as well as the outfits that they are to be wearing. The effects is that the models appear more like characters from a film or novel, maybe the physical representation of the designers muse and generally more life-like rather than being a walking clothes hanger.

Many collections fall somewhere in between these two approaches - the styling is of course based on a theme that relates to and complements the collection, and within that brief there is room for the hair and make-up stylists to move, to create variations of the look for different models.

Below is an overview of the collections from Autumn-Winter 2011, as a snap shot of the different styling themes. There are a great deal of different approaches in the collections below. Many of them have a quite understated use of make-up and hair styling which is balanced against more complex structures, colours and prints. At other times the natural look is used as a base to which other vibrant highlights are added. The overall impression is one of restraint, none of the looks are so overworked that they draw attention away from the clothes and the most extreme styling acts only to heighten the personality of the collections.

Alexander McQueen, AW11.

Alexander Wang, AW11.

Ann Demeulemeester, AW11.

Balenciaga, AW11.

Celine, AW11.

Chanel, AW11.

Chloe, AW11.

Christopher Kane, AW11.

Comme des Garcons, AW11.

Dries Van Noten, AW11.

Erdem, AW11.

Gareth Pugh, AW11.

Givenchy, AW11.

Hermes, AW11.

Issey Miyake, AW11.

Jil Sander, AW11.

Jonathon Saunders, AW11.

Junya Watanabe, AW11.

Lanvin, AW11.

Louise Gray, AW11.

Louis Vuitton, AW11.

Meadham Kirchhoff, AW11.

Miu Miu, AW11.

Mugler, AW11.

Prada, AW11.

Richard Nicoll, AW11.

Rick Owens, AW11.

Rodarte, AW11.

Stella McCartney, AW11.

Simone Rocha, AW11.

Thom Browne, AW11.

Viktor&Rolf, AW11.

Vivienne Westwood, AW11.

Yves Saint Laurent, AW11.

Yohji Yamamoto, AW11.

Meadham Kirchhoff backstage image, photographed by Morgan O’Donovan for Dazed Digital». Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk».

Junya Watanabe, AW11.

In the recent Junya Watanabe collection there was some great details in the leatherwork which are worthy of closer inspection. There is some incredible dart work in the leather that creates corset-like structures around the models waists, possibly reinforced with boning. The clusters of darts are used in different sections of the garments as he approaches his leather jacket experiment from different angles, seeing different silhouettes evolve. At times the dart shaping is instead replaced by horizontal panelling, creating the rounded shape that sits above the hips of the models.

There are also times where the leather is teamed with black jersey to great effect, to get the best of both the drape of the jersey and the gloss of the black leather. Classic leather jacket hardware and styling appear throughout, as typical pocket flaps, zips, buckles, double welt pockets and press studs form the pivot point for his experimentations. These garments have all the features of a classic leather jacket and yet are completely unique.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk».