Carven Earmarks Feet, Dries in the Clouds, Pugh on Video

Guillaume Henry said he was thinking about 50s Parisian torch singers for Carven’s spring collection, “the kind who wear dresses with lots of tricky details and sensible shoes.” Carven’s pumps with big rabbit-ear bows showed with every outfit, but they don’t look too sensible, just fun. And the 50s torch singer tricks: femme fatale scarf hem dresses in bright patchwork prints, a mix-and-match Greek ruin lithograph in black and white splashed over a simple shift and peek-a-boo secondskin draping cut out at the waist, or across the chest, to reveal a slice of torso, or a matching bra.
 
Dries Van Noten was looking at next spring through the clouds; even his delicate oriental floral prints faded into a cloudlike swirl, as though they had been dipped in bleach, for dresses and jackets. The real story is that he was looking at the work of Belgian painter Jef Verheyen and his way of treating light. So that was the reason for the powdery gradated colors and the iridescent silver belts that looked like a rainbow around the waist of oversized men’s blazers. Van Noten always likes to mix dressy with slouchy. This time it’s luxurious metallic tailoring with oversized drawstring carpenter’s pants, or a big white shirt over a glittery skirt.
 
Gareth Pugh is a showman, a showman from the other side of the moon, or more precisely, from across the channel in London where a video on YouTube is a more pertinent (but he swears just as costly) style communicator than an old-fashioned runway presentation. And so instead of a show, Pugh made a film with Kristin McMenamy swirling in space shot by Ruth Hogben who created the images for Lady Gaga’s world tour. Luckily for fashion aficionados, classic look book shots of Pugh’s collection showed up the next day. For spring it’s a cyber symphony in grey second skin pieces, psychedelic black-and-white checks and shiny silver.  Vests are shaped like mini capes and show over leggings with robot-like patching.  There’s lots of filmy chiffon and the wet look silver shines in sculptured a-line dresses and cone-like capes.