A Picture Worth A Thousand Words... Or At Least A Few

One of the most celebrated ways Designer's spread word of their current collections are through the much anticipated Fashion Show.  Every season around the world, cities designate about a week in which all designer's showcase their upcoming collections, in hopes of catching the eyes and hearts of its market.  Since there is limited space at a show, access is granted mostly to the movers and shakers in the industry, including celebrities, designers, stylists, buyers, forecasters, and of course fashion's bridge to the public, the media.

Designer's rely on a variety of media resources to spread the good word on their collections. The internet alone provides multiple sources to catch a glimpse of these collections, including videos, reviews, images, articles, interviews, social media sites and blogs.  Appreciators of fashion have had to entrust fashion bloggers, authors, and reviewers to provide them with a vision so vivid, that the pictures provided are only complimentary to illustrative piece.  Cathy Horyn, writer for The New York Times covers the paper's major fashion news, including fashion week coverage for shows taking place all over the world.  Her work is a perfect example of how creative language can clearly convey a complete vision of the collection without picture.  I've attached a Horyn article from today, regarding garments featured from both MaxMara and Fendi Collections, during London's Fashion Week.  To grasp the hints of imagery disguised within Horyn's article, "With a Bustle, Milan Turns Somber", I've pulled key words that rendered the visuals in your head.  Look it over and then tell me, can you truly imagine what the collections look like?

Luca Bruno/Associated Press - Fendi, fall 2012.

With a Bustle, Milan Turns Somber

By CATHY HORYN,

http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/with-a-bustle-milan-turns-somber/#more-18463
Feb 23, 2010

Valerio Mezzanotti/NowFashion.com 

Max Mara, fall 2012.

Before the Fendi show today, I ran into the stylist Charlotte Stockdale in the jammed backstage area. We were surrounded by models with braided hair, furry shoulders and eyelids streaked white with powder. “Snow on branches,” Ms. Stockdale explained. The allusion was to Karl Lagerfeld’s winter forest colors. Or, as he wrote in the press notes of the deep greens, soft browns and wine reds: “The sparkle of the dark, miles away from classic black…” Shoes also had a dash of white.

You might say the mood of the Milan fall collections, which began on Wednesday, is rarefied and rationale rather than conservative or classic. Bauhaus architecture and the movies of Fritz Lang were inspirations for MaxMara’s relatively clean shapes punctuated by a single sharp detail or contrast, like a wool coat with a skirt of sheared fur or wool jersey tops banded in crocodile-stamped leather. There were also good-looking wool dresses and jackets with draped backs that recalled a classic couture shape, and a terrific update of the jumpsuit, now as an illusion of a cropped wool jacket with slim trousers. Shoes were silver heels and outfits included gaiters.

Luca Bruno/Associated Press 

Fendi, fall 2012

At Fendi, while I was chatting with Ms. Stockdale, a dresser was buffing a model’s wide patent leather belt, the oval front piece about the size of a small serving tray. Fendi was an engaging mixture of textures and modern shapes that nonetheless hinted of the past, or what Mr. Lagerfeld imagines from the past. You can’t connect anything he does to a specific reference, though. He sees a forest — maybe in France, maybe in Germany — and out comes an ivory sweater with a front covered in long brown and cream fur. Or it’s a shapely black leather shift with puffed cotton sleeves, or a sleek gray wool coat with fur sleeves worn over leggings in a pattern that mimicked a stingray’s skin. Some skirts had a bustle effect, with a pleated panel. Round shapes played off hard-edged ones, and shoes and laced-up booties were usually a composite of materials, including flannel and crocodile. A long-haired fur coat in chromium yellow, with a brown striped fur down the front, could be a nod to early abstract painters or just a light in the Lagerfeld forest.


1. Silhouette & Design:
 - Bauhuas architecture (A school of design established by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919, known for its designs of objects based on functionalism and simplicity)
- Clean Shapes
- Draped backs
- Cropped Wool jacket
- Slim Trousers
- Modern Shapes
- Bustle Effect
- Sleek

2. Details:
- Furry Shoulders
- Sheared Fur
- Single Sharp Detail
- Contrast
- Mixture of Textures
- Long haired Fur
- Puffed Sleeves
- Pleated Panel
- Laced up Booties
- Wide Belt/ Oval Front Piece

3. Color:
- Winter Forest Colors
- Deep Greens
- Soft Browns
- Wine Reds
- Dash of White
- Silver Shoes
- Ivory Sweater w/ long brown & cream
- Grey
- Chromium Yellow

4. Fabric:
- Crocodile Stamped Leather
- Wool 
- Sheared Fur
- Wool Jersey
- Patent Leather
- Black Leather
- Cotton

5. Creative Jargon:
- Classic Couture Shape 
- Rarefied
- Rationale
- Movies of Fritz Lang