YSL, 2011

Rumors, rumors. Hintmag.com has speculated Stefano Pilati will make his way to Armani upon the legend’s retirement. Who’s to say whether this is accurate or valid, but, when looking at Pialti’s Spring 2011 menswear collection that seemed to interpret St. Laurent’s Moroccan fascinations as a palette of beige and greige and into modern, sleek, and global silhouettes with just a hint of retro flair – you can’t say it’s a bad idea.

Lemaire in at Hermes

Christophe Lemaire Spring 2008, shot by Sybille Walter, styled by Samuel Drira

Nueve Musas is beyond delighted to report that Christophe Lemaire will be taking the reigns of Hermes’ women’s wear after Jean Paul Gaultier presents his last RTW collection with the esteemed leather house for Spring/Summer 2011. Congratulations to Christophe and best wishes to Jean Paul in the next chapter of his career.

Symbols, 1989

Belinda and Edward Wilkerson photographed by Daniel Dease

– the very degradation and re-appropriation of symbols and iconography that Warhol had foreseen well before mass marketing brought art and designer logos into mainstream desire during the 1980’s – before the artist (or the fashion designer for that matter) as celebrity.

Pierre Cardin, 1981

Cardin reiterates his structured forms, this time, focused on the severely fashionable shoulders…

David Byrne, 1985

David Byrne from “Stop Making Sense”,  photographed by Adelle Lutz

Byrne exaggerates the anatomy defying 80’s silhouette, obscuring his figure within a heavy, flat and abstracted volume.

Rudi Gernreich

Austrian-American designer Rudi Gernreich was the U.S. counterpart to France’s space age trinity (Cardin, Courreges, and Rabanne). Having initially studied dance, Gernreich became a clothing designer heavily influenced by the functionality and movement of clothes on a live body. Of all the Space Age designers, Gernreich’s vision was perhaps the most prescient and accurate. He anticipated the shift in aesthetics brought on by cold war advancements in technology and the break down of sexual and gender barriers in society. There is a startling modernity in Gernreich’s designs that is reminiscent of another famed Austrian designer who migrated to the U.S. …

Maximalism, 2010

Fall 2010 collections by Balenciaga, Christopher Kane, Missoni, and Mary Katrantzou

Phoebe Philo seems to have erased away the past decade with a wet cloth soaked in “minimalism” rigor. It’s a feat that only she could have accomplished; YSL’s Stefano Pilati had been working the idea since fall 2007 with little penetration, Helmut Lang saw the concept, one that he had pioneered, go abandoned by consumers in 2004. Indeed, the Celine collections have been immensely influential, revealing just how captivating and enticing a clean line and a strong edit can be. But, it is problematic that the fervor in which major players are embracing “minimalism” has led to the conclusion that this concept is universal. It has not left room for any other discourse, and maybe this is an oversight.

Comme Des Garcons, 1988

Mr. McLaren poses in an ensemble by Comme Des Garcons. Having ignited Punk, dabbled with the New Romantics, lent a hand to Buffalo — McLaren is about as much of a style icon as he is a musical master.

Balenciaga, 2010

Released in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey served as a cap to the Space Age fascinations of the 60’s, as if to resolve the futurist existential questions, answering them with an enigmatic optimism of human transcendence.

Christophe Lemaire, Spring 2010

Lemaire makes a strong case for minimalism, cleaning up and simplifying the easy and relaxed look he has been developing for several seasons now.