Fall 2012 Couture

DONATELLA VERSACHE

by Sarah Mower

http://www.vogue.com

Take it as a sign that Donatella Versace got her mojo back. After nearly ten years’ abstinence from full-force runway presentations for the Atelier Versace haute couture collection, Gianni Versace’s little sister found the courage to take the show back to the original stomping ground of some of her late brother’s glitziest hits: the covered swimming pool of the Ritz Paris. Since Gianni’s death in 1997, Donatella has chosen to release the couture collection in a private manner, continuing seasonal updates of the house made-to-order enterprise by appointment only. For spring 2012 couture, she took the tentative step of presenting on a tableau of girls on a golden stage in the École des Beaux-Arts. But this time, yes: She was properly back, no-holds-barred, with a runway show opened by Lindsey Wixson, a 2012 descendent of the glamazonians who roamed Versace shows back in the day. Donatella has been buoyed up to this new level of confidence by the popular enthusiasm for last year’s H&M collaboration—finally, she’s been saying, that push from the low end made her believe she can dare to reclaim the Versace high ground, too.

FALL 2012 COLLECTION

VALENTINO

by Sarah Mower

http://www.vogue.com

There is beauty in simplicity. That’s one of the lessons this haute couture week has taught us, or rather, reminded us of. Or, alternatively, if you’re too young to have taken nineties minimalism to heart, it sprung out of the blue: the idea that you can also stand out in a crowd by wearing something restrained and undecorated. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli are lending a hand in this reappraisal at Valentino. “We also think couture is about pure shape,” said Chiuri, as she and Piccioli were working on the finishing touches for their fall lineup in Paris. You can see what she means by flicking through to the points in the show where the midnight-blue dresses appear. One is in liquid silk with a high neckline, long sleeves, and a slightly blouse-y waist, trailing a long, fluted skirt. Another, with a new arched shoulder-line swooping into a curved V-neck, is in velvet. Impeccable, reserved, dignified—and youthful. Four adjectives we’re not used to seeing strung together in this day and age.

FALL 2012 COLLECTION

Giorgio Armani

by Sarah Mower

http://www.vogue.com

In a season in which pants are making such a strong comeback, it made perfect sense for Giorgio Armani to remind the world what an authority he is on the subject. His couture collection was based around the image of nightfall, the colors of daybreak, sunset, and finally, the starry night skies. But it was the emphasis on trousers that first caught the eye as his models began to walk out, gracefully, on flat, pointed shoes. The cut of the pants, fluid and based in menswear without being mannish, served as a reminder of the revolution in soft tailoring for women that Armani set in motion in the eighties. It’s not that this show had a retrospective feel about it—just that the timing of that reintroduction is serendipitously in sync with the way a new generation happens to be feeling. Mr. Armani might not know it, but young designers are currently lionizing his early collections; this summer’s graduate portfolios have been crammed full of Armani inspirations.

FALL 2012 COLLECTION