Fashion 2008: Light, airy and bright
Wave goodbye to 2007’s tough, clinging sexiness and say Bonne Année to natural, pretty innocence with loosened-up frocks in light fabrics, vibrant colors and vivid prints. Designers like Dolce & Gabbana, known for their nocturnal sex sirens in heavy metal, have turned to a sweeter look with their summer sylphs for 2008. The sharp, biker, leather-glove-clad Karl Lagerfeld now talks about “the birth of the day,” soft-dawn pink and pale blue, to describe his collection at Fendi. Roberto Cavalli of saucy, curvy animal print dress fame, has white maiden dresses with open work lace and dusty mauve dresses with tiny 19th-century flowers. And even the 25-year-old wunderkind Christopher Kane, who was discovered last year with his hot, club-ready, bandeau dresses, showed a new silhouette that is loose and airy with flouncy ruffles.
Clouds In The Heavens
The new fashion has a lot to do with nature and enjoying the outdoors. Many designers looked heavenward for the soothing colors and textures just right for summer days. Consuelo Castiglioni of Marni created cloud-like effects on easy shift dresses with ombré and dyes. Giles Deacon has a classic full-skirted prom dress of purple rain with cotton-candy white tulle peeping at the hem. Raf Simons at Jil Sander simulated gray clouds with organza hovering as a tunic over slim black trousers. Clouds were even more voluminous to accent evening gowns at Zac Posen. Rick Owens, however, went minimal using cut and draping to form a cloud on a white dress.
Flowers Below
Flower prints will be abundant come spring, from small, tight bouquets to enormous single blooms. Balenciaga and Dries Van Noten are the stars in this flower show: Nicolas Ghesquiere took Cristobal Balenciaga’s floral patterns from the couture archives but gave it a techno update for the 21st century by sculpting the fabrics into extreme, ultra-modern proportions.
Using matelassé quilting on taffeta and radzimir with an underlay of latex, he was able to create short dresses with rounded shoulders and hemlines, definitely in tune with the futuristic vision he is known for. Dries Van Noten also rethought the way of using and making prints. What looked like patchworks of pattern were in fact cut from one piece of fabric that was printed and dyed to suit the design of the dress, which made the body look like it was broken up with different designs and colors. In both cases, florals were catapulted to the future from their humble, rural beginnings.
Wood Nymphs
Where there are flowers, there are wood nymphs romping with satyrs in their gauzy frocks and wild hair. Olivier Theyskens at Nina Ricci even opened his catwalk to the woods outside his tent to complete the mise en scène of his modern nymphs in fluid dresses, which were shaded and faded, some with specks of magical silver dust.
Rodarte also had water and fairies in mind with ripples of blue and white organza forming a skirt. Leaf cutouts of silk were appliquéd to Giles’ pink gown straight out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Plumage
Birds in the woods continue to propagate for the coming season with feathers still a favored embellishment. Alexander McQueen had show-stopping wings in black and white with vermilion streaks as an asymmetric bodice with one wing tip dramatically covering half of the face.
Ann Demeulemeester used white on white to add volume to a sleeveless tunic over white capris. Giambattista Valli’s party girl was more coquettish in a yellow plumed mini that looked like a newly hatched chick.
Joyful Decoration
With minimal looks gaining ground, indulge your horror vacui with dresses that are appliquéd with ribbons, bows, flowers, beads and other playful decoration. Even the very austere Narciso Rodriguez couldn’t resist adding black velvet floral appliqués to the hem and strap of a peach dress. Marc Jacobs couldn’t bear to leave the overlay tulle of a navy satin gown bare either, so he scattered some aqua flowers for good measure.
Art Attack
Still reaping rewards from his collaboration with Murakami, Marc Jacobs has chosen another winner in the art world with the work of Richard Prince. His opening of white-frocked nurses was a homage to one of Prince’s paintings and the bags were finished in the artist’s trademark airbrush technique.
Dolce & Gabbana were inspired by their wanderings around
Sheer Brilliance
Transparency is a big story for next year with lots of translucent shirting, layers of frothy chiffon and diaphanous pantsuits. Perfect for the ever-warmer global climate. Jil Sander’s Raf Simons explored the transparency theme to the fullest with his almost-not-there caftans and multi-layered tops and skirts in geometric cuts that form clever patterns and color combinations.
Cocktail Shorts
With warm weather, even cocktails can be graced with shorts — the shortest kind worn for sports or for the beach but of the dressier sort, of course, in spiffy fabrics and maybe worn with blazers and dressed up with jewels. It’s really a cool new trend for summer with many options from Chanel, Derek Lam, Miu Miu and Hermes.
Flaring Trousers
For 2008, do liberate yourself from leggings, tights and skinnies! The new trousers, like the dresses, are loose and flowing, often cut to mid-calf like the bright yellow ones at Kris Van Assche and the basic whites at 3.1 Philip Lim.
Giorgio Armani has slinky ones in gray tied at the knee for a gypsy spin. Vera Wang has the slinkiest cargo shorts cut in luxe duchesse satin. Prada has many variations in the sheerest fabrics, from the subtlest bell to full-on flares.
(To be continued)
