Miuccia Prada is known as one of fashion intelligents because she always manages to send some savvy cultural reference into her collection. She’s also the reigning queen in reinventing something basic in a man’s and a woman’s closets into something luxurious and coveted. This time she does it once again with a collection, that has been dubbed as one of her best in years. In this look, the blazer and the pants might be, well, quite normal. Yet, the “wow” factor here lies on the sweater which is cut very short and comes in such a bold fuchsia color. Besides this one, there are also some cool new takes on topcoats and knits. A Prada man knows that his look is different (and sometimes quirky) but he knows that he’s the best-dressed in the room.
Bottega Veneta Fall 2010
Under the direction of Tomas Maier, this fashion house has become on par with Hermes, luxury-wise. Maier, known for his minimalistic approach, hit the right chord once again by showing us quite a more casual and low-key (yet still expensive) collection.
This look above seems to evoke the laid-backness of a man on his weekend. There’s a simple cardigan and t-shirt in tonal blue, and I love how the jeans are rolled up (my favorite look nowadays). Yeah, maybe the crocodile (or alligator?) briefcase is a little bit too much, but our man here has earned it and he just wants to have fun.
It might be a little shallow to talk about fashion especially in the midst of a horrible catastrophe that the Haitians face right now (my deepest condolences to those affected). But sometimes we need a little of escapism from the sort of gloomy world we live in right now.
Enter Milan Menswear Fashion Week. From yesterday until about one week ahead, the best menswear designers in Milan will show their Fall 2010 collections. Yes, it's still wintertime, but designer being designer, they always live in the future. These are the highlights from Day 1.
Dolce & Gabbana
(Photo: Andrew Thomas/gq.com)
As usual, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana bring down the house by showing one of the most interesting collections in the city. For this season, it seems that Dolce shows that Italian—or more specifically, Sicilian—farmers can pack quite a luxurious outfit. This being winter, there’s a lot of knits with dark palette going on, like in this coat over here. And that silver sneakers make me drool. But there’s one unique thing here: longjohns as outerwear? Hmm… Maybe the underwear-as-outerwear trend from women’s collections has also invaded menswear. Overall, this collection is Italiano at its best.
Burberry Prorsum
(Photo: Andrew Thomas/gq.com)
Since Christopher Bailey became the creative director of Burberry in 2001 (in 2009, he became chief creative director), he has injected style into the British fashion house, well-known for its signature plaid pattern and trenchcoats. As far as I'm concerned, Bailey's menswear collection always has rock 'n' roll feel to it, which is evident in the edgy boots donned by this model. Speaking of model, it looks like the Burberry guys are always rail-thin with shaggy hair, which seems to be the scene on London streets. But never mind, it's the clothes we're talking about here.
The star of the collection is, of course, the outerwear--something that Burberry is famous for. The overcoat here has some military influences, what with the army green color, the epaulettes, and the brass buttons (once again, menswear designers apparently take a lot of cues from womenswear where military trend is huge right now). All in all, this season, Christopher Bailey has successfully managed to make his venture to the military world without ever leaving the British roots of this fashion house
It’s my first post in 2010. I know, it’s been a while since I made the last post due to my holiday laziness syndrome or whatever it is. Well, not anymore. I’m kind of confused about what to write here. This is supposed to be a fashion blog, initially—although not exclusively about fashion. But then looking at my new post here, I’m not even talking about it. Maybe it’s just my multidimensional self (like my multidiscipline university major).
ANYWAY, as an avid consumer of magazines, I’m interested on how people have their own preferences when it comes to weekly news magazines. I reckon there are three major international newsweeklies: Time, Newsweek, and The Economist. Here’s my assessment on these three great publications:
Time
The first thing I like about this magazine is its sharp yet delightful design—not to mention its signature red border on the cover. Its writers are great, and especially I like to read the last page (“Essay”) where you can find interesting opinion about current affairs. The photography is also breathtaking. The other thing that Time has to offer is its special double-issue editions—“The 100 Most Influential People,” “Person of the Year,” “Heroes of the Environment”—which are always a great company for rainy Saturday afternoon (Why do I get all melancholic like this?). It is a well-edited magazine: 50% politics and economy, 50% human -interest topics, which means fun for me…
Newsweek
As its name suggests, Newsweek offers analyses about what happened throughout the week. What I like the most from this magazine is its editor, Fareed Zakaria. His article and opinion page are always insightful and witty, yet he never comes across as being aggressive. He’s simply a pragmatic. I recently got its “Interview issue” where they held conversations with “people who matter,” like Hillary Clinton and Hamid Karzai, and it’s fun to read. Overall, if you’re looking for straightforward articles and sharp analyses, get a copy.
The Economist
This is my International Politics lecturer’s favorite magazine (he’s talking about it, like, every week). A little different from the aforementioned two, The Economist doesn’t really offer much opinion pages, but rather, it has news analysis. And more interesting thing is that it rarely mentions the writers of the articles, so I can’t tell if there’s any writer I like from this magazine. Since it’s an English publication, it’s nice to read the British spellings which add a sort of London vibe to it. The other thing that also interests me –although this is not what you can find inside the magazine—is the “Economist Debates” section in its Website, where two experts are arguing over a certain topic (if you’re a debater, this is a must-see).
Of all those three above, the one that I buy frequently is Time. I’m a sucker for great layout, and I think Time’s is the best. But don’t get me wrong, I also like it for (obviously) its articles that span from serious (Joe Klein et al.) to hilarious (Joel Stein, hands down). I also think the entertainment section is better. It’s just more—how you say it?—pop culture-esque.
Postscript:
Honestly, right now, if you want to get a piece of new information, thanks to Google, you can just type and click your way to it. But there’s another sense of satisfaction when you are reading a great magazine in the corner of your room. There’s Kindle and all other e-book readers, yet I think print publication is still here to stay…
