Christian Dior, AW13, Paris.
The recent Christian Dior collection for Autumn-Winter 2013 used an array of solid and elegantly draped silhouettes in combination with sparse embellishments seen in the form of painterly watercolours and illustrations borrowed from Andy Warhol»
Comme des Garçons, AW13, Paris.
There is always a certain generosity in the way that the Comme des Garçons garments are created, more specifically a generosity of volume. This means that when Rei Kawakubo does a take on ribbon roses, then we are not shown mere puny, silky roses but are instead shown large masses of fabric that seem to grow from oversized tailored garments.
Louis Vuitton, SS13, Paris.
It was all about the graphic use of counterchange at the Spring-Summer 2013 show for Louis Vuitton. A checkerboard design was used in a wide variety of scales, with minute details to match.
Céline, SS13, Paris.
The Céline collection for Spring-Summer 2013 combined texture plays with slouched silhouettes to create garments that felt simultaneously luxurious and effortless. There was a certain gravity to the collection, created in no small part through the use of large twists that folded heavy satins across the body.
Alexander Wang, RST13, New York.
When a piece of fabric is first cut out, it has none of the markings that are seen on the pattern.
Comme des Garçons, AW12, Paris.
For her Autumn-Winter 2012 collection for Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo presented a very flat collection that called into question the very nature of the way we view fashion. As a comment on the way that we generally view collections as endless catwalk thumbnail images the garments were made out of very thick felt, giving the appearance of paperdolls playing dress-up, and making the garments perfectly suited to only being viewed front on.
Balmain, AW12, Paris.
To create an opulent collection in his second season at the head of Balmain, Olivier Rousteing drew on an array of techniques to create multi layered fabrics with an intense level of detailing. Leather was used as embossed and laser cut panels layered over velvet, or quilted with lines of stitching. Velvet was used as an under cloth, or heavily embossed for fitted trousers. Velvet was also used with a burnt out devoré effect, revealing sheer lines of fabric in the base cloth beneath the velvet pile.
Comme des Garçons, SS12, Paris.
Rei Kawakubo and the team at Comme des Garçons were able to tread a careful line in the exploration of female wedding gowns for the Spring-Summer 2012 collection. They gave us all the right clues to know that this collection was all about bridal wear with silk satin in whites, off whites and creams layered with fine lacework, beading and even some faux floral embellishments in soft greys and lemons.
Valentino, Couture, SS12, Paris.
There are some designers who can take an idea or a technique that has been used time and time again, and can bring their own freshness to them to use the techniques in new and beautiful ways. Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, as the creative directors at Valentino, are finding ever more intricate ways to work with lace, and lace-like effects to build ethereal collections.
Miu Miu, SS12, Paris.
In the past few seasons there have been some great examples of designers taking fairly old-fashioned and dated techniques and using them in the context of more contemporary collections. In the recent Spring-Summer 2012 collection for Miu Miu Miuccia Prada has reworked the smocking technique on cotton and satin dresses and capes and even extended the technique into the embellishment on hand bags.
Maria Parsons, MA Graduate Collection 2011.
The leap from concept to realised design can be one of the most difficult for student designers. Some students try to make entire labour intensive collections by themselves, and can feel frustrated that they do not have the specialist expertise, or the time, required to complete the work as they had envisioned. For others the learning curve is in how best to communicate their work so that a professional can help to construct their garments, make their fabric or embellish their designs.
Jean Paul Gaultier, Couture, AW11, Paris.
There are some designers who create clothes that have a great sense of movement, often through the sheer volume of fabric used in the garment or the amount of space between the body and the garment, or even through the lightness of the fabric that enhances the movements of the models.
Armani Prive, Couture, AW11, Paris.
It is commonplace for designers to develop altered silhouettes and construction techniques that carry throughout their collections. The good designers (and those with teams of skilled crafts people) have the ability to take that detail and blend it away, so that the viewer isn’t distracted by the subtle change in silhouette. This allows for the viewer to absorb the other colours, prints and surface embellishments that become the focal points of the collection.
Junya Watanabe Man, SS12, Paris.
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.
Chanel, Couture, AW11, Paris.
Hidden amongst the boucles and tweeds at the Chanel couture collections were some incredible buttons that were as beautiful as brooches. There were also some trims that on closer inspection seemed to have been designed to directly mimic the look of chain, and this ran around the edges of cuffs, hems and collars.
