From Tradeweave Insight
February 14, 2001
Line of Sight: Dior's odd couple
Also spotted on the Web: Making sense of Fashion Week
BY RACHEL ELSON
Senior editor
NOTE: The following column originally ran as a weblog; the
underlined text below originally denoted links to other stories on the Web.
In many ways the two men of Christian Dior seem
completely
antithetical: There's cerebral, reserved menswear designer Hedi
Slimane, all sleek lines and elegant design, and racy, effusive
womenswear designer John Galliano, the bad-boy Brit with a
penchant
for scandal (note the fuss created by last year's "homeless chic"
couture
collection). "Where Hedi sees simple shapes, John sees lavish layers,"
notes
Time Europe. "Where Slimane sees minimalism, Galliano sees
extravaganza." Does the pairing make sense? Time seems to question the
house's "separate but equal" strategy, but Galliano pooh-poohs any
notion of
discord, saying he actually lobbied for Slimane's appointment: "I was
rooting for him because I want something to wear."
Backstage at Fashion Week
Is it possible that Fashion Week coverage can actually be
smarter on
television than it is in print? "Fashion TV flips the standard media
paradigm on its ear," notes the New York Observer; "in
general, TV
reporters ... can be more critical than their print colleagues ...
because
they are less beholden to advertisers. After all, while Gucci
and
Jil Sander advertise in glossy magazines, they're not buying
spots on
Metro." The Observer follows Metro Channel fashion reporter
Judy
Licht's blaze of Burberry to the Kenneth Cole and
Carolina Herrera shows, and tries to figure out the significance
of
Fashion Week in general and the Cole show in particular. "Here is a
summary," the Observer notes: "Clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes,
clothes,
clothes, big belt, clothes ..."
Also in the Observer: An Onion editor finds himself
adrift at
Shoshanna Lonstein's bathing-suit show ; and Simon
Doonan pronounces the season's menswear looks trés
sauvage.
PETA peeved at Puffy line
Oops, he did it again. Representatives for Sean "Puffy"
Combs' Sean John line apparently assured People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals activists last week that the rap mogul
and
designer had abandoned the use of fur in his latest collection, notes
Sonicnet: "Puffy has evolved, and his clothing line has
matured
with him," Sean John publicist Hampton Carney said Friday.
"That's
why he's no longer featuring fur on himself or in his clothing line."
Or
perhaps not. The collection's weekend debut showed that it indeed had
all
the trimmings of his previous lines, with items that included a mink
kimono
with fox fur trim, a lamb-suede sweat suit with lynx-tail scarf and an
ostrich trench coat. PETA is apparently up in arms at the deception,
especially since it had called off a planned protest at Puffy's
assurances.
"Now it seems that [Combs] will remain a Neanderthal," said PETA
publicity
chief Lisa Lange.
Fitting to a T
It's not just for teenagers anymore: "Crossing cultures,
generations
and even tax brackets, the lowly T-shirt is being rethought and
reworked --
not to mention being snapped up at the cash register," reports the
Chicago Tribune. Everybody's doing it -- from Dolce &
Gabbana (who are designing T-shirts imprinted with old-school
images of
fave client Madonna) to Target. Designers taking cues
from
the '70s and '80s are putting tops with a "flash-and-trash" edge out on
the
runways, says Nordstrom fashion director Gregg Andrews, but it's
a
look that translates easily to the real world: "It is an affordable,
accessible fashion trend for mainstream women."
From Tradeweave Insight