Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2011

The full skirt is making a comeback this season, it seems, and it seems Nicolas Ghesquière got the memo. The collection, admittedly, wasn't as cutting-edge as other Balenciaga collections seasons past, but one would be hard-pressed to not agree that it was at least very wearable.
Fantasy prints featuring lizards and flowers were adorned on hip-slung, folded-petal skirts covering the knees. Ghesquière called his new print, a multi-coloured dream-landcsape on white silk, "almost like a hallucination, like when you are a child and everything seems bigger than it is".
The key silhouette was a larger boxy top half, and a tapering lower half, with height added in the form of high-heeled, coloured snakeskin or black and white, multi-strapped sandals and ankle-boots.
Dimension also played a big part in a series of dresses in primary colors, all covered in a string mesh.
Combining Renaissance court neck and shoulder ruffles, high-tech sequin panes, silk panels in mixes of bright white and Roman imperial purple, Ghesquiere whipped up a great finale of tough yet dreamy dresses and tunics worn over neoprene leggings.

Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2011

With every other model wearing a variation of a double-breasted black jacquard jacket with matching trousers cropped right below the knee, a porkpie hat, and oxfords, it seemed that for Dolce and Gabbana, masculine is the new feminine for Fall 2011. But while that may be true, the designers really were just playing with a hot trend in fashion these days- feminine, but masculine.
The show progressed alternating between one boy look, one girl. On the "fellas": crisp shirts, low-slung pants, boxy vests, bright sequined evening jackets, and fur coats inset with stars. And for the gals: plenty of sheaths, plus corset dresses and billowy floor-length numbers in bigger star patterns, lace motifs, and musical-note prints.As one can see, I was more intrigued by the "male" pieces. Should I be embarrassed to say I would wear most of them?

Gareth Pugh Fall/Winter 2011

Staging his showing in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Pugh presented Stars Wars-style designs, razor-sharp in black leather, bisected with golden zips, and worn with fearsome wedge-sole boots.
Sculpted, leather "frock-coats", with skin-tight trousers, suggested the cyber-age. Striped leather ponchos, cloaks in chiffon and the extreme-palazzo trousers, as wide as a house, worn by both the male and female models offered a softer silhouette and suggested Pugh's usual gothic sensibilities.
"Articulated" leather body-con dresses, engineered in remarkable set-square patterns, defined the silhouette.
Brilliant blue crepe and gleaming gold metallic sequins, embroidered in a tile pattern, provided a colour burst to offset all the blackness. As much as I did like the collection however, and while his use of colour was certainly shocking (not to mention how beautiful all the gold work was) Gareth Pugh, in all honesty, could have come up with a better, more wearable collection; yes, I have that much faith in him. Still, for what it was, it was just fine enough.

Dries Van Noten Fall/Winter 2011

 

I can't even begin to explain how much of a fan i've become of Dries Van Noten as a label and the man as a designer. This collection, though, certainly explains why. Aswirl in prints (prints that were reminiscent, to me at least, of Tisci-era Givenchy), the collection masterfully mixed fabrics multiple fabrics, often in one look. The message was clear: everything matches.

His dazzling patchwork-potpourri of colour, print, texture, exotic skins and fabrics was perfectly in tune with the opulent gilded and frescoed interiors of the Paris' historic 17th-18th century Hotel de Ville where the show was staged. The mix-and-don't-match effect of the collection extended to the shoes and ankle-boots which came in a collage of coloured leather and python-skin, with heels in wood and even metal.
Peasant-dresses in blocks of up to six colours, had slightly raised waists, full sleeves, a square bodice, and a dirndl-style skirt; or in the Cossack-look tunics, with beaded sleeves or inserts of velvet.
Inspired by the Ballets Russes and the idea of meeting David Bowie, Van Noten combined up to five different silk patterns in one dress, applying a gilded finish to ornamental snakeskin appliqués, mixing three or four different coloured tweeds in a zippered bomber-jacket and and adding black sequined sleeves to gold brocade coats.