I didn’t like Alexander McQueen when I first heard of him. I remember when he was hired as head designer at Givenchy, in 1996. Here was a sacred brand, THE brand responsible for the Audrey Hepburn’s dresses in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, to be taken over by a brash Englishman. Then he goes and makes matters worse, by calling Givenchy “irrelevant.” I was outraged, and decided I didn’t like Alexander McQueen.

Audrey Hepburn wearing Givenchy in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I felt similarly about John Galliano, although he is not really English, I hated this new school of young designers who were taking over the traditional Paris brands.

Naomi Campbell in Spring Summer 1997 Givenchy Haute Couture, Alexander McQueen's first collection for the brnad.

But Alexander McQueen (and John Galliano) eventually grew up and I believe it was around January 2007, when Dior presented their Spring Summer 2007 Haute Couture collection, that I realized this. I also noticed that Alexander McQueen had gone from being the “the enfant terrible of the fashion world” to being an influential, widely respected designer.

This Christian Dior Spring Summer 2007 Haute Couture collection made me start to love John Galliano.

My opinion of McQueen’s work changed in the past few years, rather than seeing it as “shock tactics”, I began to truly appreciate his talent. And I would say that the Spring Summer 2010 show was the pinnacle for Alexander McQueen, when he had finally reached the point where he could truly be described as a fashion genius.

Alexander McQueen's Spring Summer 2010 collection entitled Plato's Atlantis.

And how ironic that his suicide followed that stunning Plato’s Atlantis collection.

I was devastated to hear of his death, not only because the fashion industry lost one of its finest talents, but also the realization that being at the top of your game, and revered in your industry, does not in the least way guarantee any sort of happiness. I had just finished writing a post about some of the “real” fashion victims, the people who dedicate their lives to the industry, at the expense of their personal lives. I had just spent some time reflecting on how happy I was that I had made the decision to “choose life.”

I won’t go on too much more about his life or his death, as many journalists have done a great job.  Here are some good articles, from On the Runway, The Times, WWD, The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, and The Cut. BBC annoyed the hell out of me by writing an article which featured quotes about McQueen by Victoria Beckham and Tyra Banks in the introduction (which I also found very insulting.) I also understand why PPR and Gucci Group have decided to keep the Alexander McQueen label alive. Business is business, and there was a lot invested in that brand. I personally prefer that the brand gets a chance to survive, as it would be very sad to see it shut down. There must be someone out there who can take the reigns as creative director. (And that’s not Gareth Pugh.)

Lee Alexander McQueen (1969 – 2010)

The Alexander McQueen Fall Winter 2010 show was apparently 80% his own work, which is why, I’m guessing, it was so small. I’m not going to do a Love and Loathe on the looks, the whole thing was beautiful. We don’t know if he knew this was going to be the last collection he designed, but if he did, it was a fitting farewell. I think Cathy Horyn summed it up very well in saying

“Someday there will be a retrospective of the fashion of Alexander McQueen, and if it ends with the 15 pieces shown here in a small salon the survey will indeed feel complete.”

The entire show photos are below, courtesy of WWD.

R.I.P. Lee Alexander McQueen

Other image credits:

Alexander McQueen at Givenchy
Breakfast at Tiffanys
Lee Alexander McQueen
Christian Dior’s Haute Couture Spring Summer 2007
Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 2010

Alexander McQueen's legendary Plato's Atlantis Spring Summer 2010 show live streamed on Show Studio.

This very interesting post by the Sartorialist last week got me thinking about the future of fashion shows. He says that fashion shows are changing so much because nearly all of them are live streamed, and asks “Don’t you think it’s only a matter of time before these shows are open to the public? …I mean, let’s think about it, designers always say that one of their biggest expenses are fashion shows. It’s always one of the first things to get cut when times are hard. But, if they had the ability to sell tickets to these shows, it would actually become a profit maker instead of a necessary loss.”

The concept of paying for a fashion show in Europe is unheard of. Many people ask me how much it costs to get into a Chanel show, and I then have to explain that no one pays to get into a Chanel show, its free for the very limited list of people that are worthy of attending.

I don’t like the idea of paying for a fashion show, whether it is a designer fashion show in Paris, or a local fashion show. Actually, I wouldn’t pay for a fashion show, as attending fashion shows is work for me, and I don’t pay to go to work. And I certainly don’t like the idea of the general public being allowed to pay their way in to a fashion show, it would completely ruin the notion of exclusivity that the fashion industry has cultivated and is desperately trying to hold on to.

Pointless celebrities in the front row of a fashion show.

In the CNN documentary about her, Carine Roitfeld talks about how unusual it is that everyone wants to know about the fashion industry now, and that ten years ago, it wasn’t like this. She is right, when I started, the fashion industry was not full of celebrities, and therefore there weren’t millions of people who followed it closely, movies dedicated to the going ons of the industry, front rows full of pathetic reality TV stars, and thousands of fashion students trying to get into the industry. But now it is different, Anna Wintour  is a household name (how many of you can name a fashion editor from the 90s?) and the fashion industry is out in the public domain.

I know that fashion shows are very expensive, and it would be nice for brands to find a way to earn some money from them, but I don’t think they should do that by letting people buy tickets. At worst, they should stage two shows, one which is for industry, and then a public version afterwards (although even that sounds hideous to me, and probably not very cost effective.)

One thing that has really surprised me about Vancouver is that there are a lot of fashion shows on here, and people pay to go and see them. It is actually a business. Tomorrow night I am going to a fashion show that costs a lot of money (I’m not paying) and takes place at 10pm on a Friday night. That is like asking me to have a business meeting on a Friday night. I’d rather be with friends or family, relaxing and enjoying myself, rather than being “at work.” But I have realised that this is how things work here in Vancouver, and it is surprising.

Yves Saint Laurent's Spring Summer 1974 fashion show, with an informal catwalk, in the companies headquarters.

Image source.

For now the shows may be open to the public through a live streaming, but the invitations are still reserved for industry and celebrities (ugh.) As much as I love a big production fashion show, if the future of the shows require brands to tone them down a bit, I don’t think that would be such a bad thing. Let’s go back to the salon style shows from the 60s and 70s, intimate affairs for industry only (not celebrities please.) Its a nice idea isn’t it? But I doubt that will happen… For now the celebrities are adding to much value to the brands.

Here’s hoping that the fashion show I am going to tomorrow night, which is showcasing local ethically-friendly brands (which could go many ways…) is a fun Friday night out.

Before I start this post, I just want to say that I am devastated about the death of Lee Alexander McQueen. I have decided to wait a few days to write a post about it, as I’d like to hear a bit more about the circumstances and the reactions, before I write.  I’ll post something in the next week or so. R.I.P. Lee Alexander McQueen.

It is hard now to go on and talk about fun fashion things, but I feel I am long overdue for a post about the Sonia Rykiel collections for H&M. I never wrote anything about the lingerie (I had a draft written for ages, and then it was too late,) so I definitely need to comment on that, and the knitwear coming out next week.

This body suit is pretty cool.

Not exactly a t-shirt bra, but very cute.

One of my students asked me if I was going to buy anything from the upcoming collection, and, unless I get the opportunity to do so with the least amount of effort, the answer is no. It is not because I don’t like the collection, on the contrary, it looks great but I have a lot of the real thing, so I don’t intend on buying the cheaper version.

But it looks pretty cool!

I had a look in my closet to see if I could show you all some of my fantastic Sonia Rykiel collection, and I realised that my collection consists of bags, shoes, and jewelry, I barely have any clothing at all. My Sonia Rykiel shoe collection is PHENOMENAL, with a lot of pieces that were never commercialised or that were produced in very limited quantities. My bags are mighty cool too. And the costume jewelry is fantastic. There is way too much of it to photograph tonight, so here are a few good bits.

Rhinestones, or "strass" as its called in French, are one of the key elements in all of Sonia Rykiel's collections.

My time at Sonia Rykiel was amazing, and I know I was fortunate to have worked with one of the fashion greats. She is a pretty amazing woman, and she was very invovled in all of the collections, which was rare because she was in her early seventies at the time. I can’t possibly describe the entire experience in one, or several, blog posts, but here are a few short stories that might make you smile.

My beautiful ribbon sandals.

One day Sonia took the design team to lunch at the Cafe Flore, which was across the street from the flagship store and the offices. She is known for being a bit of a swinger, and let’s just say, her love life certainly hadn’t caught up to her age. We were sitting upstairs, and a man came over to the table, which was filled with young fashion designers, good looking gays and girls, eating lunch, and right away he started chatting up Sonia. She didn’t even seem surprised. I was pretty impressed, and hope that I will still be receiving fancy pick up lines when I am 70.

These don't look like much, but the trim is real fur. And I love real fur.

If you work for Sonia Rykiel, and your name is Sonia or Nathalie, you need to adopt a new name while you are working in the company. They don’t want anyone to have the same name as the founder or her daughter. The even weirder thing was that our studio director was named Antoinette, but Sonia hated that name, so she was referred to as Louise while she worked there. Louise wasn’t her middle name or anything, it was a name assigned to her, because Sonia “liked” it.

Sonia Rykiel was not the most generous of brands when it came to giving freebies, particularly to the models. We always told the dressers to make sure that the models didn’t steal the clothing. At one show, I was helping someone dress Alek Wek, and she said she loved the shoes (I think those were the ribbon sandals shown above.) One of the senior designers said to me, “Give her the shoes! Give her the shoes!” We gave her the shoes, and what happened? A few weeks later she is photographed wearing them out, and of course they become one of the “shoes of the season.”

Yes, these ankle boots are amazing...

but even more amazing when you fold down the top and expose the pink lining. Notice the "strass" all down the side.

My favourite one-on-one Sonia Rykiel moment was when she called me in to help her tidy up the studio. I had just started there, so I felt pretty intimidated by her. Our fur supplier had dropped off some colour samples and they needed to be tidied. Now, this didn’t mean they dropped off a few bits of dyed fur, this meant we had about thirty top grade fox skins, dyed in the most beautiful colours (which, once lined with satin, sold as scarves for about $2,000 each.) She was shoving them into garage bags, and asked me to help her with it. She said they were in the way. Here I was, 20 years old, a little Vancouver girl, shoving $40,000 dollars worth of fox skins into a garbage bag with one of the most famous French fashion designers. Welcome to Paris.

My "Glam Star" strass pins.

All Sonia Rykiel for H&M images courtesy of H&M.

Going to my parent’s house has become more like a shopping trip than a family visit. On Sunday my husband and I went over there for dinner, and we ended up leaving with a pair of motorcycle boots (for my husband), a vintage Salvatore Ferragamo clutch, a few tacky but cool 80s cotton sweaters, a belt, some mohair scarves, and an old Celine bag. Plus, the piece de resistance, which was my sister’s 1992 Roots jacket.

You would need to be Canadian to understand how this ultra-tacky baseball jacket could possibly be an exciting acquisition compared to a Salvatore Ferragamo clutch and a Celine bag. These jackets were very fashionable when I was in my teens, and anything from your teens is either horrifically embarrassing, “totally awesome”, or a mixture of both. It makes me feel very old, discovering fashion items that were super-desirable to me in my teens which are now (in my eyes) cool again.

It says 1992 on the sleeve!

Here’s a few photos of the jacket. I’m not sure how I will wear it yet, the fit is terrible. The body is quite big, and the sleeves are too short. And its hideous, but in a good way (I think.)

Here are the new versions, available at Roots now. It’s obvious that the only way this jacket can be fashionable is if you are wearing a very old one, sort of like the Club Monaco sweatshirts I talked about a few weeks ago.

The old one is definitely cooler.

Roots is a very Canadian brand, and, like most Canadian fashion, has enourmous potential but fails to deliver. OK, the clothing and branded merchandise sucks, but the leather goods are super good quality and extremely durable. I have this wallet, from Roots, and I got tons of compliments on it. Its nicer and rougher than the Comme des Garcons wallets, and much more durable. So why can’t they make a decent handbag?

I’d love to give Roots’ leather products a makeover, in fact, I am offering my services to them. The leather is great, the product is very high quality, and its extremely durable. But they need to improve their designs, and what better time to do it. People are sick of paying $2000 for a handbag, let’s make some great ones for $300. Plus, I like the fact that they don’t blatantly brand their bags (like Coach…ugh.) Here are some designer brands that they should take inspiration from… Roots people: call me.

All Roots images from their website, all designer bag images from and available on Net A Porter.

The new Alice in Wonderland movie directed by Tim Burton is bound to be a visual feast. It will come out on March 5th, and the stars include Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. I looked up some of the visuals on the movie’s website, and they look amazing.

Now, with that in mind, maybe someone can explain this disastrous Alice in Wonderland themed window at Printemps.

A bit of background, Printemps is a big luxury department store in Paris. Powerful retailers, such as Printemps, sometimes ask brands to create special pieces for them, which can be exclusive limited edition collections or special display items, which will help the store to sell the brands.

Just looking at this photo reminds me of how much I miss shopping in Europe...

So, Printemps has asked designers like Ann Demeulemeester, Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Chloé, Charles Anastase, and Haider Ackermann to design special pieces for their Alice in Wonderland-themed window displays. These are all designers that I respect and like, so I really cannot understand why the resulting window displays do not look very Alice in Wonderland, or fairy tale, or interesting at all. It basically looks like the designers, aside from Maison Martin Margiela and Nicholas Kirkwood, couldn’t be bothered to actually make something for the window, so they took an old piece from an old collection and made up an Alice “story” to go along with it.

Seriously, how is any of this related to Alice in Wonderland? (By the way, the images and quotes below come from an article on Style.com, you can read more about it here.)

Chloe says: "“Running around careless and free in a romantic dress, falling down the rabbit hole, chasing time in a dreamlike state of mind, meeting unexpected characters with many tales to tell—sounds like many a girl’s night out!” I say: boring navy blue dress worn best on a "fat day."

Charles Anastase says: "“I went to John Tenniel’s original illustration of Alice for inspiration. She’s seated at a table having tea, and her dress looks much more asymmetrical and theatrical than that boring Walt Disney version.” I say: A white and blue pouffy dress does not equal Alice in Wonderland.

Haider Ackermann says: "“My favorite character is the Duchess, who at first seems nearly as unpleasant as the Queen of Hearts. When I was designing this piece, I was seeing Alice running, escaping through the forest destroying her shiny dress." I say: This dress looks nothing like Alice in Wonderland, or the Duchess. In fact, that horrible rounded slit on the front makes the dress go from "interesting" to "scary."

Here are some of the better pieces.

Nicholas Kirkwood says: "“I think my favorite Alice character is the March Hare. You can see I’ve made his watch rather prominent. ...this time, I figured, why not just pile as much as I can on top?” I say: Nicholas Kirkwood has one shoe shape he has redone a million times, and its starting to get boring, but at least that one shoe is pretty cool. Especially with all that stuff piled onto it.

Maison Martin Margiela says: "“Alice’s silhouette is a blue upside-down dress with cage sleeve, as if she walked through the mirror and her dress completely reversed.” I say: This dress is beautiful, combining the fantasy of the fairy tale and the innovation of Maison Martin Margiela, and the colour is exactly the right shade of Alice blue.

Cartoon Alice image source.

If you thought Alexander McQueen couldn’t get any better than the extravaganza Plato’s Atlantis show he put on for Spring Summer 2010, and THE shoes in that collection, then think again. Here is an image from the campaign for that collection, shot by Nick Knight with model Raquel Zimmermann.I hope Lady Gaga somehow emulates this scene in one of her next videos.

This is truly amazing.

Image from the Alexander McQueen website.

The menswear collections are always more tame and commercial than womenswear, but two major designers you can count on to make an impression on the catwalks are Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Alexander McQueen’s most recent collection is quite obviously inspired from his Plato’s Atlantis Spring Summer 2010 womenswear collection (yes, the one with THE shoe.) But translating that theme into menswear did not work, in fact, I think this is one of the most unsexy F/W 10 menswear collections to date.

I Adore…

this skull sweater. McQueen really knows how to do skulls.

the beautiful fabric of this suit. Its classic and beautifully tailored, but makes a statement.

I Loathe…

that this guy looks like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. A terrible look.

the haircut and the print of this suit. I guess they would work separately, but I don't like that they styled this so horribly to make a statement.

more bad hair and a suit pattern that should have stayed in the sixties.

the girly, flirty storm flaps on this jacket. But it would look great as womenswear.

this all-over acid washed/tie dyed combo.

All images from GQ.com.

Let’s face it, nowadays, the only reason why you watch an awards ceremony is to see what people wear on the red carpet, and who markes an arse of themselves during their acceptance speech. Thanks to the internet, we don’t have to sit through four hour awards ceremonies anymore, we can just look at the outfits online the next day. And that is what I did for the Golden Globes. I must say, I was very unimpressed with the red carpet dresses this year.

Cameron Diaz looks amazing here in Alexander McQueen. I haven’t seen a photo of the dress from the front, but from this angle, she gets my best dressed award.

Chloe Sevigny is supposed to have such great style, so how come she is wearing this fluffy Valentino dress?

I don’t like Courtney Cox, I hate Friends, and I DETEST Victoria Beckham, but Courtney actually looks pretty good here in one of Victoria Beckham’s dresses. It’s not much of a design, but it looks good on the red carpet.

Drew Barrymore is another Golden Globe disappointment. What are those puffy cushions on her shoulder and hip? A silly Atelier Versace creation.

I can’t bring myself to say anything bad about Glenn Close because I loved her so much as Patti Hewes in Damages. So I am relieved that she looks great in this Oscar de la Renta dress.

Heather Graham is supposed to be cool…isn’t she? So why is she wearing this boring Elie Saab evening gown that makes her boobs look pointy?

January Jones in Lanvin. Fabulous.

Julia Roberts in vintage Yves Saint Laurent. She looks effortless, relaxed and comfortable, three qualities you rarely find in a formal outfit, so well done to her.

Marion Cotillard has a very tight relationship with Dior, and they always dress her, and they usually dress her very well. Except last night, when she wore this dress.

I hate to say bad things about Bottega Veneta, as they are one of my favourite brands, but this iridescent, cheap prom dress that Sandra Bullock is wearing is just not working.

When I first saw this photo, I couldn’t belie that Sophia Loren had so many tattoos on her arms. Then I realised, its those nude, embellished sleeves that figure skaters wear. She does look great in this Armani Prive dress, but the sleeves are naff.

These images came from Women’s Wear Daily.

What happened to fashion magazines that have content? I judge a fashion magazine on how long it takes me to read it. If I can skim all the articles and flip through the entire thing in less than five minutes, then it is a crap magazine, and a waste of 5 bucks. If there is a riveting article, or a photoshoot that makes me stop and stare, or a fascinating interview, which makes the magazine “last” me more than 20 minutes, then it could probably be considered a good magazine. Unfortunately, most magazines today fit into the first category, with Vanity Fair being the only mainstream magazine fitting into the latter (and GQ is often a very good read.)

I have been a bit slow to catch up on mainstream press since I moved back, and this weekend I was flipping through a few American mainstream fashion magazines (Vogue, Elle, and W) and was extremely disappointed. American magazines have always been way more commercial and boring than their European counterparts (try and compare an Italian Vogue to a US Vogue and you won’t believe they share the same name) so I don’t have very high expectations, but still…

Firstly, the covers. Ever since the “celebrity” phenomenon started in recent years, models have been kicked off the covers of magazines. My friend at UK Vogue said that a celebrity will always sell more issues than a model, the only exception being Kate Moss, who is a celebrity model. So instead of getting amazing images where the photographer and stylist have been allowed to be imaginative and creative, we get boring photoshoots controlled by celebrity publicists on our magazine covers.

Boring, boring boring. Katie Holmes is boring.

Demi Moore is not boring, and when I am 47 I want to look like her. She looks great, but once you get inside the magazine, it is boring.

Another thing that shocked me about these magazines was the advertising. Just to explain some background info on magazine advertising, the pricing works in quarters, so, the front quarter of the magazine is the most expensive per page, the second quarter is the second most expensive, and so on, the exceptions being back cover and inside covers (which are the most expensive). But money doesn’t equal your product on the inside front cover, if you are a crappy brand, most good fashion magazine will take your money, but stick you near the back. Regardless of how much a brand is willing to pay, many magazines will want to maintain integrity and only have beautiful advertising in their first and second quarter. This is not the case with most mainstream US fashion magazines.

Now, I know magazines nowadays are desperate because their advertising revenue has dropped significantly, but really, there is no excuse to have this in the first quarter of your magazine, in the space reserved for the top brands.

Hair removal tools that are photographed to look like genitalia. Nice.

This is for yoga DVDs...on the page after a Burberry ad. Scary.

After a sea of ugly advertising in Elle, I was hoping to hit some content. Elle should have beautiful editorial images and interesting articles, but it seems that their editors have forgotten they work for Elle, and not Lucky magazine. Lucky is a shopping magazine, which shows lots of product and where to buy it, which is fine, and does the job it says it is going to. But Elle should not be a shopping magazine, and I was very upset to find about ten pages of really boring shopping pages, based on “looks” no woman over 25 would want to wear.

I thought the Valley Girl look was something we were trying to avoid...particularly in winter.

Not a thing on these pages is appropriate for November, or anytime other time of year.

Elle only had one editorial photoshoot, which doubled as a celebrity interview, as it appears Amber Valleta is now an actress as well. Magazine should have at least three editorial photoshoots, that, and great advertising, is why we buy them! So they really aren’t doing their job well.

And what is with this styling? Are we wearing bermudas and bras for November? This can't possibly be spring preview since the November issue comes out in October!

W had a great photoshoot with Demi. She looks amazing in this photo, shot by Mert + Marcus.

Fabulous!

But W forgot to put an editorial shoot in at all. NO EDITORIAL IMAGES! Only some more celebrity shots. Are we sure this is a fashion magazine?

A great image, but this isn't editorial, there was no styling story, no great fashion, just a bunch of up-and-coming actors.

So I was generally let down by these magazines…to say the least. My last two images are for my readers to decide. Are they great? Or crap. You decide.

I can't figure out if I love or hate this ad. It is SO American, and SO DKNY. It's the old concept of one basic piece in every colour in the rainbow. Is this good bad, or bad bad?

I hate Lily Allen, she is so annoying. But I feel I can never say anything bad about Chanel. Is this genius, or just plain rubbish?

For some reason I can’t figure out how to do links on photo captions, the techy husband is looking into it, so in case you all desperately needed to find the Katie Homes website and you couldn’t just google it, here they are: Katie Holmes, Mert and Marcus, Demi Moore, Lily Allen, Chanel and DKNY. And I also want to say, I hope I haven’t offended the lovely MB, who is an amazing writer, and Elle is very lucky to have her. MB, I know you didn’t do those shopping pages!

Oops, one more thing. Something good did come out of my Elle read, I saw this amazing clutch bag by Alexander McQueen. Love it!

I have been a bit slow to react on this, but my inbox is overflowing at the moment. WWD posted an article on Monday entitled Top Ten Collections of Spring 2010. You can read it for yourself, but here is their top ten: Alberta Ferretti, Balenciaga, Chanel, Donna Karan, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Missoni, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, and Versace. Well…

I know that it is inevitable that Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs are always the darlings of the industry, so I won’t argue that. Chanel is, well, Chanel, they rightly deserve a spot in every fashion top ten. But I would like to suggest that we replace Missoni, Alberta Ferretti, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, and Versace…

Missoni, Alberta Ferretti, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, and Versace (images from www.style.com)

with Lanvin (always amazing), Celine (what a debut for Phoebe Philo! minimal and NOW), Bruno Pieters (also minimal and very beautifully intellectual), Burberry (those trenches…) and Alexander McQueen (the Armadillos! and what a show!) My choices might be a bit more predictable, but I can guarantee five years from now we will remember THOSE shoes from the McQueen show, and the exceptional first collection Philo did for Celine more than Ferretti or Versace’s collection.

Bruno Pieters, Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Celine, Lanvin (images from www.style.com)

Celine and Pieters collection, amongst others, have definitely embraced the minimal look that we haven’t seen in a while… I would love to see a return to minimalism, I could always imagine myself with a wardrobe full of black and camel from Jil Sander, Michael Kors, Celine, Loewe, and Narcisso Rodriguez. Lots of cashmere and leather…and throw in some Hermes.