Futuristic Romance

Mix-n-Match

Playing with styles, mixing and combining different clothes and accessories from different eras and cultures, has been a hugely successful trend since the seventeenth century.

Bloomers

The fun of variety runs through the world of fashion, and you can often express your personality best with a mix of different styles.The taste for mix and match started at the end of the seventeenth century when exotic Chinese silks printed with birds, leaves and flowers were imported in Europe. Bringing together the flamboyance of the Baroque and fabrics with Eastern cuts, the fashion of the time created a cultural fusion between the two worlds. With the French Revolution, exoticism lost its hold – but it returned into fashion with Elizabeth Smith Miller and her “bloomer” movement. In her magazine The Lily, she promoted a new way of dressing, pairing knee-length dresses and belts with wide Oriental trousers and boots.

Teddy Boys

The style was criticized by contemporaries, and Amelia Jenks Bloomer – one of its main exponents – abandoned it in 1853. The idea of combining different cultures was taken up some decades later by Paul Poiret. Influenced by Diaghilev’s ballet, he brought together the Japanese kimono and the shapes of the Greek tunic and the kaftan, combining strong colours like orange, plum and black with the pastel shades of the Belle Époque. Later, in the 20s,Coco Chanel created the idea of “simple luxury” and by mixing basic pieces like cardigans, white sweaters and skirts above the knee, defended a straightforward take on luxury. Thanks to collaborations between artists like Jean Cocteau and Dalí with designers like Elsa Schiaparelli, Surrealism created a way of dressing freely, and in a way that was ironic and fun. After World War II, the Teddy Boys in Britain reinterpreted the American look, rock ‘n’ roll and the Edwardian era. They mixed jackets, velvet shirts, skinny pants, narrow ties and Slim Jim shoes, expressing their opposition to the values of the 50s. In the 70s, punk appeared as an anti-conformist movement that ran against the reigning ideology of the time.

It paired necklaces with ripped clothes, completing the look with shaved heads, Mohicans and piercings. Its main driving-forces were Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, who opened a punk shop in London’s King’s Road. During the 80s, cultural diversity and contact with African and Asian cultures party influenced ways of dressing. According to the work of the sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky, the continual need for reinvention has created sub-cultures in our hyper-modern age which use mix and match to bring individuals together in shared ideologies or lifestyles. One current designer who combines contrasting elements is John Galliano. As German designer Lutz, who is fascinated by blending different styles, said in Fashion Now 2: “I take things that are basic, integral parts of everyday life, and mix  them all together so in turn they stay familiar but at the same time become something completely different.”

Neptune's Great Grand Daughters

McQueen's Downfall

Flickering through the net and marveling at McQueen's genius I started to wonder what his worst collections were. Like any artist's body of work, some collections are burned into our psyche forever whilst others get lost in the mix. But did he have any? And should I be using the word 'worst' in the same sentence as McQueen?

After searching the web for some reviews,they were fairly mixed. For two seasons,Men’s: Spring/Summer 2006 Killa ,Fall/Winter 2005-2006 The Man Who Knew Too Much,  it seemed that Mr. McQueen had produced collections that are manifestly commercial - again, causing insiders to complain that the British bad boy has become lazy.

"I've done Victorian, I've done romantic," he said. "I wanted to bring sexy back. It's what is missing right now. And Alaïa was sexy for me. It was classy sex." He added, "I have so much respect for him, and I don't even think he will mind." Mr. McQueen is also someone who can get below the fashion surface. Despite the rightness of the minimalist silhouette this collection was all about surface. It grasped the notion of sexiness technically but not with feeling or belief.-Cathy Horyn of the New York Times

[NYT]

Azzedine Alaia

Is this the fashion moment for warrior queens in curvy tailoring as sharp as a compass point; or for Grecian tunics cinched with leather harnesses? Alexander McQueen thinks so. He carried his show of Glamazon models by force of energy. But turn the pounding music off and what was there? An image that Azzdedine Alaïa created in the 1980s when the power woman look was a challenge to spacey flower children and a genuine reflection of burgeoning feminism.

The collection, played out in black and white with touches of silver and gold, included taut tailoring with tiny, fluting skirts, gilded chains filling in a scoop front or a goddess gown suspended from a silver harness. But at a moment when women are reasserting their right to look simply beautiful, McQueen's premise went against the movement toward fashion grace.-Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune

[NYT]

Alexander McQueen has changed. The commanding impresario who once took delight in scaring and astonishing his audience with stadium-filling shows and designing at the brink of scandal has—if we're to judge by the past two seasons—joined the regular ranks of ready-to-wear designers who line up their models like soldiers and march 'em on out with the collection.For night, the part of the show McQueen said was inspired by Greek goddesses, things took a turn for the disappointing—tiny pleated silver lamé dresses, white crystal-beaded gowns and pieces made in bandage wrappings of white or gold elastic. The slot formerly occupied by his showstopping extravaganzas is now serviced by metalwork body costumes with all the finesse of something left over from an eighties sci-fi TV series. Gone, even, are the staggeringly made, couture-grade fantasy gowns that have brought so many brides banging on his door. Though some of his moves are clearly being made in an effort to sell—no criticism in itself—this show, from a designer whose capabilities have won such respect, was a letdown.-Sarah Mower of Style.com

[Style]

Versace S/S 2006

What made Neptune such an anomaly in McQueen's career was it's straight-forwardness both in the clothes and the presentation. 99% of the clothes were wearable. Like, off the runway and straight on your body wearable. No gowns and no real show-stoppers except for a white silk cape embroidered with a phoenix on the back. According to McQueen he wanted to bring sexy back. I think a lot of his 90's collections featured sex but it was raw, aggressive, in your face sexy. Neptune to me was like selling sex, like Versace and in that respect it felt hollow. I completely missed the Alaia references which I feel so stupid about now because they're so painfully obvious.

The commercialism of the collection was quite shocking too. He showed everything you would expect from a standard runway show. Day-wear, easy to wear separates, handbags, even swimwear. And no runway theatrics. No dress-painting robots, no impaled models or merry-go-rounds. I wonder what factored into this decision? Was it a financial decision? A push from Gucci Group execs to get some cash injected into the brand? I doubt it. Perhaps it was a psychological break? For many seasons people had an expectation that a McQueen show was going to be an extravaganza. And season after season he delivered. The Man Who Knew Too Much preceded Neptune and that too felt like a bit of an artistic breather. Instead of dark romanticism he opted for sexy Greek goddesses, not exactly a mind-bending subject.

Impeccable details on belts

After looking at this collection several times now I do like it. I don't love it, like his other collections but there's some beautiful pieces and it should also be noted that there's an immense amount of detail in the pieces that are really easy to miss. The beading and embroidery is flawless.

And the worst?  What appears to be a white silk crepe wrap shirt with obi-style sash was just boring. The same shirt appeared again in black but this time with silver sequined pants. The slinky-somewhat sloppy-beige wrap dress.

So while Neptune pales in comparison to McQueen's other collections I still feel that it has classic McQueen references such as harness-like details, leather, sharp tailoring and some ingenious draping.The show proved he was capable of doing wearable clothes and removing the typical McQueen runway theatrics forced people to focus only on the clothes instead of getting swept up in say, a video installation or what have you. The repercussion was that people felt ripped off. Most notably Sarah Mower who called the collection lazy. I agree with that statement to a point. I think perhaps it was mentally lazy and some of the pieces weren't structurally challenging. 

Pumped Up Kicks

The best selling item in the whole world and every person on earth has at least a pair of them. No one knows from where they came from, but everyone wants them and will be wanting them forever. 

No surprise,we’re only talking about shoes.Call them what you like: Trainers, sneakers,or Tennis shoes, but the concept is all the same for them,a rubber sole and uppers available in various kinds of material and color. Even in Ancient Greece, athletes were already wearing special shoes to help them during the Olympic Games. Indians used to cover the soles of their feet with latex from carving rubber’s barks. We would have to wait until the XIX century before a sneaker-like model was created. In that period, thanks to a clay mold, the shape of a foot sole was created with a rubber, the sole was put to the upper part of the shoe. Attracted by this  new experiment, Charles Goodyear  worked on rubber, until he would create a series of shoes.The very first people who benefited from this new type of shoe were tennis players, who swiftly embraced these shoes to play with.

1986 Olympic Games in Athens

That's why, they were called "tennis shoes" at first. Before long, the World Cup and the Olympic Games in 1986 in Athens would help in the spread of sneakers in the sporting world. But when the first basketball shoes came out in 1919, no one could ever have guessed their great success, even in time. Between teenagers and sneakers it was really love at first sight, and soon enough they became the symbol of young rebels. 

James Jean wearing All Star

James Dean used to wear All Stars, many rock bands were then photographed wearing sneakers from different brands and models, a symbol for emancipation which would become a mass phenomenon. As time went by, sneakers were used to match elegant office suits,showing an easy chic taste. Giorgio Armani himself, was the forerunner of this trend. 

In the US, the market was booming thanks to the overwelhming love American's have for a healthy lifestyle.Only in the 80's, over 30 million people have used them to run. That’s why in time studies have been carried out on sneakers, applying new and advanced technologies to make them even more fitting to every sport.

      

"I run with 600 Million Legs" Adidas Ad

In 1978, Nike introduced the Air technology that featured pressurized gas capsulated  in a cushioning between the sole and the upper of the shoe. Thanks to this innovation, and more, Nike’s annual sales are up to 10 billion dollars! If you love technology, this is exactly what you need: in 2005,Adidas started to the market Adidas One, a smart shoe capable to compress and decompress its sole every four steps you make, controlled by a small computer which is able to automatically calculate algorithms and adjust the soles of the shoe! Trainers at present not only belong to the sporting world, but are invading street fashions all over the world, and many shoe brands are born beside the most popular ones. 

Vintage fashion is showing a revised model of the past; new sneakers suggest a retro taste, but they will never be out of fashion.