If Christopher Kane is trying to create a younger, hiper, more fun version of Versace for the Versus collection, then this show is spot on. It feels like fun versions of the Versace brand, little mini dresses that are the younger sister of the Versace brand. They are colourful, fun, and cute. (But please stick to the cocktail dresses, the day wear looks a bit too high street for me.)

I Love…

a bright colour and great details on a fun cocktail dress.

a sexy straps dress.

great little details on a perfect LBD.

I Loathe…

that this is Topshop, not Versus.

boring daywear for Versus. Stick to the dresses!

All images from Style.com.

Versace is in big financial trouble at the moment, and considering the state of this collection, I am not surprised why. (Speaking of which, I have just had an email from Amazon that my House of Versace book is on its way, so I’ll be able to comment on all of this a lot more in the next few weeks.) The collection was full of tacky bright colours, ridiculous leather pants, and boring sexy dresses. There were also way too many mini skirts with front slits. It just looked cheap.

I Love…

sexy, shiny dresses. What Versace is all about.

bright coloured evening wear.

I Loathe…

a boring dress, verging on slutty. Do we need to go to Versace for this?

hideous colour combinations, a cheap shiny slut skirt, and a terrifying coat. Versace needs a new creative director.

hipster flared, chap-style leather pants? Why? Worn with full length gloves? I don't get it.

All images from Style.com.

Here’s an example of a fashion video that looks hot without making an attempt at being controversial, philosophical, or pornographic (unlike the YSL video by Bruce Weber that I recently trashed.) It just looks hot, its only 30 seconds long, and it helps that we all love Lara Stone.

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The collaboration we are all dreading: Jimmy Choo and Ugg.

There has been so many new product launch announcements in the past few weeks.

• Armani is doing a collaboration with Reebok
• and… Armani is making chocolate
• Diane Von Furstenberg is launching home decor
• Acne has launched furniture
• Paris Hilton is launching swimwear and lingerie
• Bebe is collaborating with Kim Kardashian (barf)
• Versace is launching a cell phone
• Tory Burch and Alexis Bittar are giving Barbie a makeover
• Gucci is launching couture
• Steve Madden is collaborating with Diana Ross

Great to hear these brands are doing so well that their allocating ressources to brand extensions, but isn’t it a bit strange that no one seems content to stick to what they do? Are these new products really going to expand profits or increase profiles, or are they just activities to get short bursts of media attention? I’m all for brands expanding into relevant product areas and interesting collaborations like Louis Vuitton’s artist series and H&M designer collections, but some of these brands are overdoing it, don’t you think?

Image source.

Versace is slowly losing it. Ever since Gianni’s death, things have gone very downhill. If Donatella stays on, I think this brand might just become history. That is very sad.

I Adore…

this coat, but it looks ridiculous paired with those vinyl pants.

the details on the shoulders of this sweater.

this coat, an interesting colour and the perfect shape.

I Loathe…

the trim on the bottom of this coat, and the hideous vinyl trousers. Versace is trying to be Gareth Pugh and failing miserably.

more black vinyl, this time in the form of a flasher coat.

this shirt and trousers. The proportions are completely wrong.

the bad raver print on this shirt. You can get this in Camden market for 20 pounds, you don't need to go to Versace for this.

the fact that this shirt reminds me of the carpet in the first real apartment I rented in Paris. Our only condition when we rented it was that we would be allowed to tear out the carpet and throw it away.

All images from GQ.com.

Everyone seems to be getting excited about the upcoming Spring Summer 2010 advertising campaigns. I guess in fashion terms that is something to get excited about, however I rarely get worked up about an advertising campaign unless there is something amazing going on.

I have always been obsessed with these Versace campaigns shot by Steven Meisel. The models are Amber Valleta and Georgina Grenville, and it was for Autumn Winter 2000. I am also very excited that I found the entire series today on this Russian photography site, they are quite large versions, and I like to have a record of great fashion things like this.

This campaign was turned into a small exhibition, and there are a few reasons why it was so well received. The models, although young and beautiful, are styled to look old, which is very unusual in fashion. The way they sit, their hair, makeup, everything, makes them look much older than they are. Also, they are staring straight into the camera, which is a bit eerie. The Beverly Hills mansion where these photos were taken must have been a locations scout’s dream, it is so perfect for the clothing. Someone pointed out to me that in nearly all the photos the models were smoking cigarettes, which were then airbrushed out. Take a look, you can see their fingers are in the right position. If you spend a few seconds looking into each photo, you can appreciate how amazing theses shots are, they are a bit weird, but fabulous. This is definitely my favourite fashion advertising campaign ever.

Here are some of the Spring Summer 2010 campaigns, which will start to come out in the January magazines, and make a full appearance by March. I got all the images from Refinery 29, except the Dolce and Gabbana ones, which were published in Italian Vogue.

Here’s Lara Stone for Louis Vuitton. She is the model of the moment, and has just replaced Madonna, who starred in the campaigns last season. I am looking forward to seeing this in more detail.

Louis Vuitton Spring Summer 2010: Lara Stone shot by Steven Meisel

Everyone was surprised by this Akris campaign with Daphne Guinness. The heiress is known for her amazing, eclectic style and her haute couture collection, and she is loved by so many designers. It was a surprise that she chose to work with Akris, a little-known brand.

Akris Spring Summer 2010: Daphne Guinness shot by Steven Klein

This Gucci ad looks amazing and I want to be next to that swimming pool right now.

Gucci Spring Summer 2010: Natasha Poly and Ryan Kennedy shot by Mert & Marcus

Marc Jacobs’ campaigns, always shot by Juergen Teller, are often slightly unusual. He is the only designer whose campaign involves taking five $1500 handbags, throwing them in the dirt, and then putting Sofia Coppola next to them. So it is no surprise that his next campaign has a model with her foot in a toilet.

Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2010: Jamie Bouchert shot by Juergen Teller

The Lanvin campaign looks pretty cool, as does everything from the Lanvin label at the moment.

Lanvin Spring Summer 2010: Jamie Bouchert shot by Steven Meisel

I think this Dolce & Gabbana ad, featuring Madonna washing the dishes and doing other very “Italian Mamma” looking things, looks great. I am surprised how many times she can be reinvented.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring Summer 2010: Madonna shot by Steven Meisel

I have been meaning to comment on this for some time, but I have quite a big pile of blog drafts piling up, which I am hoping to clear by the end of the holidays.

So, Martin Margiela has left the house he founded. Maison Martin Margiela was founded in 1988, and since 2002 it has been majority owned by Diesel, the Italian group which also owns Viktor & Rolf, and of course the denim brand Diesel. I won’t go on too much about the history and the acquisition, and if you are interested you can read all about it in this great article from the New York Times, but I will say that in the time that Diesel took part ownership of Maison Martin Margiela, their sales went from €15 million to €70 million.

Maison Martin Margiela has been quite an important brand for me, particularly when I am lecturing to fashion students (one of my many fashion-related jobs.) This was the brand that helped me define the level of my students. If they all knew the brand, I knew it was going to be a good group. If 30% knew the brand, I knew there would be a few strong ones leading the rest. If 10% or less had heard of Margiela, I knew I was in trouble.

Anyway, I am sure not all of my readers are familiar with Maison Martin Margiela, so I am going to do a little facts list. It is by no means exhaustive, I am going by memory (so feel free to correct any mistakes people) and I am not a Margiela expert, but here we go.

FACT 1: He is from Belgium, and considered to be the “seventh” member of the Antwerp Six. The Antwerp Six were six Belgium fashion designers that graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts (a super prestigious fashion design school) in the 80s, and then proceeded to drive to London in a van to show off their wares. That was their big breakthrough.  The Antwerp Six is Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Marina Yee. Thanks to them, and Margiela, the Belgian fashion designers got a reputation for being quite avant-garde, a reputation they still have.

Some cool Maison Martin Margiela sandal boots.

Toys by Maison Martin Margiela. They love white.

FACT 2: No one sees him. He doesn’t do personal appearances, and he never meets journalists. Even Carine Roitfeld, editor of French Vogue, has never seen him. I thought it was very funny the other day when someone said that he was spotted looking for a house in West Hollywood. That would imply someone has seen him…

Some menswear. I sort of imagine he looks something like the guy in the centre.

FACT 3: He never referred to himself as “I”. It was always “Maison Martin Margiela is doing this…” or “We are doing this…” instead of “I am doing this…”

This was a really famous Aids t-shirt they did. The text was printed straight onto the shirt, so some was on the front, and some was on the inside of the back.

The Aids t-shirt hanging.

FACT 4: His clothes don’t have the brand name on the label, and his shops don’t have the name on the outside (aside from the one in LA.)

Maison Martin Margiela clothing label.

The Hong Kong store.

The Paris store.

The sign above the London store.

FACT 5: He is known for recycling garments.

An outfit made from lots of old pairs of jeans.

FACT 6: He only communicates by fax (although I am not sure if this is still the case, since hardly anyone has a fax machine anymore. Except for my Mom.)

Another couture outfit.

FACT 7: His fashion shows involve a running commentary about the clothing, and all of his staff wear white lab coats.

One of the staff showing a men's vest.

FACT 8: He often costs his garments based on the number of hours spent making them. Which makes a €5000 jacket actually seem reasonably priced. It is really interesting to see the time involved in making a couture garment. Yes, it is expensive, but at least you know that it is because the garment actually takes a lot of time to make.

This picture came from Diane Pernet's A Shaded View On Fashion (another one of my favorite blogs.) She included the following caption: "Travel Jacket: 53 hours to construct/5330 Euros The jacket is cut from a zipped nylon travel garment bag. What I loved was the breakdown: 'The hours of work necessary for the creation in question includes: the preparation, the finishing and the quality control but exclude the research of raw material, technical control, necessary treatment (cleaning, softening, dying, etc.) and the fittings. Travel Jacket - February. ' "

Here are a few more of his garments.

Great Shoulders.

The famous wig jacket.

Some of the store's shelving.

And look at how cool his landing page is.

Anyway, he has left the company, and Renzo Rosso, the creator of Diesel, has decided not to replace him. Apparently the creative team of 20 something people are strong enough to continue designing without the need of a creative director. This is a very interesting move, and I think it is the right idea.

Replacing a Creative Director, especially the founder of the brand, is very difficult. There have been a lot of problems with Gianfranco Ferre, Emanuel Ungaro, and Versace, all of which have suffered as brands since their namesake founder has left. There has been a lot of speculation in the news lately about what will happen with Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, and Oscar de la Renta, because they all have creative directors in their seventies. Chanel has been quoted as saying “Karl Lagerfeld is the creative director of Chanel and enjoys a long-term contract which is absolutely not put into question. His succession is not on the agenda,” but that is just not credible, they must have some sort of plan in place, because lets face it, at 76, chances are he won’t be able to continue in his role for much longer. I won’t even begin to express the fear in my heart about the succession of Karl Lagerfeld, there is simply no one who can replace him.

With regards to Maison Martin Margiela, we can now only wait to see what happens. Critics have complained that the collections have been lacking for several seasons, apparently since he unofficially left the brand. But I agree that a replacement may only make things worse. I also believe that if this does work, Renzo Rosso will be setting a precedent, and many others will follow. If you can’t replace a great Creative Director, then don’t.

Sorry to anyone whose photo I didn’t credit. Most images came from www.martinmargiela.com and www.style.com but if I used your image without proper credit, please get in touch and I will remove it or credit it.

This week I dragged Jason out shopping again, as I still haven’t managed to see all the important Vancouver shops. Lyndi came with us, she does PR for Style Republic Magazine, and another one of Jason’s friends, who is Canadian but speaks Turkish and Mandarin. Her linguistic skills were probably the most exciting discovery of the evening, which doesn’t say much about shopping in downtown Vancouver.

I started alone in American Apparel, and I managed to get out without spending over 100 dollars. American Apparel is great, it is the brand that is not a brand, you can wear it in so many different ways, so practical , so simple, and so easy. While I was waiting for my shopping partners, I wandered into Adidas on Granville Street. Adidas is a fantastic brand, the clothes, shoes, and visual merchandising all look great. I am not very into sportswear, but since I became a contributor to View2 magazine a few years ago (which is a trend forecasting magazine for the sportswear and casual wear sectors) I developed an interest in some of these brands.

Look at the amazing running shoes in the Adidas store, I want the ones with the wings.

I'm trying to think of an outfit where I could wear these without looking clumpy.

Also very cool.

So many pretty colours and textures!

So our shopping destination was Leone, which is a high end store in Sinclair Centre that used to focus on Italian brands, but sells quite a few European brands as well. They carry brands like Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Prada, D&G, Jimmy Choo, Dior, and John Galliano. For those of you who don’t know it, this is one of the high end shopping destinations in Vancouver, probably second only to Holt Renfrew, our luxury department store.

There is definitely some nice stock in there, lots of it desirable and expensive but not ridiculously expensive. The problem was, like most Vancouver stores, the visual merchansiding. First of all, the brands weren’t grouped together, and luxury brands each deserve to have their own space (unless you are merchandising them like a boutique.) The sales people didn’t know what season the clothes were from. And the signage… oh my god the signage.

Can you imagine using a generic neon sign and tacky red sales tickets in a luxury store?

These signs were taped on several of the walls, all over the store. First of all, can't they get professional, classy signs made? Second, print them on expensive paper, not regular photocopier paper. And third, find a nice way to attach them to the wall, not globs of gluey stuff. Even H&M wouldn't use signage like this.

This is a shoe rack with Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu, Dior and other fabulous luxury shoes. They are displayed the same way you would display $29.99 stripper shoes. I bought a pair in London once, and they were displayed exactly like this. Can you imagine there must be at least 20,000 dollars worth of shoes on those cheap shelves...

Come on Leone! You can do better than this…

Julie called me today and asked me to met her at Envision Optical, she was trying to choose between two pairs of glasses, and she needed my advice. Well, I was glad to help but was unable to leave empty handed. Envision Optical Deisgns (see details below) is probably one of the only Vancouver stores that can compete with the ones in the major fashion capitals. The owner, Monny, has a collection that is superb, you won’t find better in Paris or Milan.

I was in there last month helping my Mom choose some glasses, and fell in love with these.

Here is another cool pair. (Please excuse the state of me, I was having a work at home day, therefore no makeup.)

Anyway, I am now working on creating a wardrobe of glasses so I don’t have to wear the same ones every day. I love the way a great pair of glasses can transform your face.  I have a couple of great “mainstream” glasses, like Versace And Miu Miu sunglasses, but I also want to expand and add some more unusual ones. Here are a couple from my collection, some of them are not quite ready yet (no lenses or wrong prescription) but I want to get them all sorted in the next month.

These are my every day Chanel glasses.

These are my old everyday Chanel glasses, good when I am going for a secretary look.

These are reading glasses I bought 15 years ago, I am definitely trying going to sort out the lenses on these.

These are my Mom's from a very long time ago, I wore them over the summer.

Sunglasses that my grandmother just gave me, I need to get the prescription lenses replaced.

These are the ones I bought today, lenses to follow soon. Monny had put them aside for me, knowing they would be right up my alley. They are dead stock, so vintage, but never worn.

Envision Optical Designs

2675 West 4th Avenue

Vancouver B.C.

Tel: 604 733 2020

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.