From Balmain’s mouth to Chanel’s bird cage

What is the relationship between two articles whose titles are almost the inverse of each other? One is the continuation of the other. Or “From Chanel’s bird cage to Balmain’s mouthh” is the prequel to “From Balmain’s mouth to Chanel’s bird cage”.

11. Courrèges

What is interesting about the brand’s rebirth is how there is continuity in something intangible, which makes us say that what we see is Courrèges. There is no need to look at the types of pieces, the materials, the similar inspirations, the modeling, the color palette… Di Felice is Courrèges through and through. The creative director himself explains to Phelps that in the zeitgeist in which we live, creativity is always a return to something that has already been done.

12. Chanel

Chanel is Chanel. And by that I don’t just mean legacy, style and collections — but also as a business. Chanel is Chanel in the sense that it is not part of a conglomerate. And while the issue was never about Viard’s succession, but rather Lagerfeld’s, the musical chairs here have a very different rhythm than at Kering or LVMH.

And this is also what Tim Blanks reflects on:

“So why does that feel more relevant than ever? You have to pose the same question about Chanel. While the speculation about a new designer mounts, this one was designed by the “Creation Studio,” in other words, the design studio, who did a perfectly fine job of meeting the expectations of Chanel’s loyal clientele around the world. At which point you wonder how much this clientele even cares whose actual name is on the finished product. It’s all Coco as far as they’re concerned.”

Blanks also points out that Karl Lagerfeld would have liked the set of this show featuring Riley Keogh, Elvis Presley's granddaughter, performing Prince's "When Doves Cry". However, the performance that took place at the end of the show with the singer suspended on a swing inside the giant birdcage — inspired by the 1991 Chanel No. 5 ad starring Vanessa Paradis and directed by Jean Paul Goude — might not have been to Coco's liking.

13. Balenciaga & Vetements

With the help of the reviews I fully understood the reference to the cocoon silhouette, although it was not intended to be literal. And recapping the material given, I can see the inspirations from Gvasalia's childhood, at his grandmother's house. In the same way that I subscribe to the idea that Vetements was once more underground, as Luke Leitch states, the breath of fresh air given by Denma to Balenciaga was once stronger.

14. Louis Vuitton

A few years ago, one would have called this an eclectic collection, and perhaps that is exactly the adjective. There is much more focus on suitcases and trunks, which is understandable, since these will always be Louis Vuitton's ultimate goals.

15. Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren has a very defined target and a more than proven strategy and identity, very much linked to the identity of a part of the USA, or to the preconceived idea conceived by television series in the collective subconscious of Europeans regarding the lifestyle of many North Americans — a bit like The Perfect Couple.

As other reviews describe, Ralph Lauren's secret is the on-site presentation experience, designed to dazzle, the perfect environment for styling different classics, combined together to create a true show.

16. Prada

Muicca Prada brings us the reinvented space age, we don't go to space, but we have intelligence in others outside of ourselves. Prada, according to the matriarch herself, formulates the human proposition. Creativity is a human characteristic, the Italian creative par excellence and Simons went beyond their own limits, the designer and political scientist Dr. Prada admitted that this show made her more nervous in anticipation than usual.

17. Miu Miu

The idea that Miu Miu is Prada’s younger sister is being rewritten. Miu Miu has different layers of freedom and rebellion, but it is ageless. And it extends to different formats such as writing and the u+press that in the physical touches the digital, through a newspaper and installation by Gosha Macuga. The newspaper as a piece, part of the installation of “Salt Looks Like Sugar” is hybrid, since “The Truthless Times” also had QR codes strategically positioned on the physical object.

18. Rabanne

There was a time when the name of the season defined a type of wardrobe and a lifestyle inherent to the socializing invited by a certain predictable climate atmosphere. Rabanne knows this: we don't live in one season, we live in days, versatile with various moments, in which the dressed body dresses, without shame, to reflect it. And we don't save the gold for the occasion that society in general defines as special.

In a detail as seemingly simple as nail rings, the brand welcomes women of various faiths.

With Rabanne we can go out in the cold, take off a layer, when the heat hits us when we return to the office we won't be overdressed and we'll still be ready for an event at nightfall.

And the rain will never ruin our suitcase or shoes!

In short, Dossena celebrates the essence of the brand through experimentation, wanting, according to him, to take such approaches to new limits.

19. Issey Miyake

I feel that speaking properly about Issey Miyake is still beyond my reach. I cannot express the aesthetic pleasure that the way the materials, especially the combination of washi (hemp paper) and silk rayon, are worked gives me and how the proportions, which are new to me as they emerge, amaze me.

The deconstruction of the functionality of the garment itself, questioning the relationship between the garment and the body.

The molds themselves are the center of creation.

20. Extra Content — the Vestoj studies

If you read the article "A Fashion Career is not a microwave meal" , you may remember that Vestoj was mentioned here. It was recommended by Professor Dr. Elizabeth Kutesko, tutor of the Masters in Communication: Stories and Theories, at the Central Saint Martins digital open day for the Masters in Fashion Communication:

“I have to figure out how to turn academic fashion writing into something that has a wider target audience in mind, according to Kutesko, Vestoj is a good example of this and that is where my next homework will start.”

There were several lessons I learned from Vestoj regarding how academic writing can be more accessible in terms of style.

But, in short, from the lessons I learned, the most pertinent thing is to separate two things — content from writing style. Content can and should be the result of a process as rigorous and organized as that found in academia. Therefore, writing style can be personal, creative and with hints of relaxation and even closeness to the person, without this distorting what is written.

Since there will be Fashion as long as we exist as human beings and as a society, there is no room for conclusions here.