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Ode to an Italian Dress

October 1st 2007 01:52
DOlce and Gabbana Summer 08 PAINTED BLACK DRESS
All images from http://eng.dolcegabbana.it


Flamboyant and theatrical, Dolce and Gabbana’s Summer 2008 collection is indeed replete with works of art. From the hand-painted fabrics, the obsession with intricate embellishments and details to the matte velvet lips, D & G invoke a Keats-ian realm - instead of a Grecian urn, this is my ode to an Italian dress.


Dolce and Gabbana Summer 08 grey dress
Delicate but commanding.


In nearly each of the ensembles that traversed the runway the accessories near clashed with the colour and the style of dress. But instead of conflicting, the juxtaposition enriched the overall vision, the brocade on this bag is entirely different in tone, texture and connotation to the delicate silk and painted flowers on this geisha-like dress but through the symbiotic contrast a fascination arises.


Dolce and Gabbana Summer 08 lady in grey dress
Beauty through contrast


Again with this dress the fabric is delicate, the cut lady-like but the size and genre of the bag, the suggestion of gentlemen in the shoes balance the style and save it from being too feminine or frivolous.

Dolce and Gabbana Summer 08 lily donaldson
Never has dainty Lily looked so spectacular


But the real highlight of the show were these spectacular gowns for the finale which really conjure notions of walking art. Their sheer scale and massive meter-age of fabric are not simply opulent but create beauty of the kind to which haute couture should aspire.

dolce and Gabbana Summer 08 purple and yellow painted dress
The grandest of finales


For some action shots see Style.com, the video of the collection is certainly worth a look (despite the occasional vapidity of the interviews). I also highly recommend Dolce and Gabbana's website, which reflects the attention to detail in their garments
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In this rainy wintry weather looking at Junya Watanabe’s men’s collection in Milan I was reminiscing about college. For those of you unfamiliar with the Canberra education system, years 11 and 12 at public schools are called colleges, are located on their own grounds, have no uniforms and the teachers are called by their first names. There’s no HSC, assessment is close to the university system and generally they’re far nicer places to be. Anyway when I was at college the boys used to dress like this, themselves nostalgic for some sort of 80s punky/motorcycle rider style.

Junya watanabe chequered pants
From Vogue.co.uk

[ Click here to read more ]
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In my habitual internet trawlings I came across quite a feat on the Prada website. Admittedly I didn’t much like this season’s collection but the means by which it is represented is a true cultural document. Prada demonstrates wit, self-reflexivity and pastiche in a way that many other ‘postmodernists’ should envy. As a European luxury brand, descended from a grand tradition to a commercial reality, Prada is a modern day icon but the self-representation offers an entirely new perspective on the brand.

Prada sunglasses
From Prada.com

[ Click here to read more ]
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VivienneWestwood.com
From Viviennewestwood.com


After visiting the Victoria and Albert exhibition which travelled to the National Gallery in Canberra a few years ago, I’ve been obsessed with Vivienne Westwood. It’s not just that she’s sixty and has a beautiful thirty-year-old Italian lover, although that does impress me, and it’s not just that she’s been an inspiration for generations of fashionistas, mostly it’s because for Westwood, fashion is thought


[ Click here to read more ]
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Bottega Veneta

May 23rd 2007 23:48
Bottega Veneta jacket
Exquisitely detailed leather jacket


This is a brand to which I was largely indifferent before stumbling across some of their pieces on net-a-porter.com which is incidentally where these images come from. Their recent string of advertisements in British and American Vogue also helped. A certain wistful nostalgia resonates through the garments while an accompanying attention to detail and quirk of cut pulls them out of the average everyday


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