Fall 2014: Déjà vu, Balenciaga

Fall 2014 has been an interesting season thus far, and for me this is primarily due to the apparent 'references' from a variety of designers' past collections. In this post I will focus on the 2014 obsession with the house of Balenciaga under the tutelage of director Nicolas Ghesquiere.

It started in New York with Prabal Gurung's collection. See the boldly draped black and white capped sleeved tops and the tight grey knit, long sleeved jerseys paired with gathered skirts from Gurung; there is no denying 'inspiration' from Balenciaga's Fall 2008 collection.

Yesterday in Milan, Fay presented a bold collection which I believe pays more than just homage to Balenciaga's Fall 2011 collection. What fashionita could forget Balenciaga's super large hounds-tooth jackets? Well, in case we did, Fay is reminding us (?). Fay even mimicked the styling of the oxford shoes as well as the black & white  AND black & grey hounds-tooth print  jackets with black sleeves displayed in the Balenciaga collection.

Not that Nicolas Ghesquiere isn't cut from the same cloth, so to speak, as far as  taking inspiration to the extreme. In his Spring 2002 show he did admit to lifting a key look from Kaisik Wong, a brilliant costume designer of the 70s.

vest by Kaisik Wong

And Ghesquiere did it again in his 2010 resort collection where he clearly must have loved the groovy "parrot jacket" by East West Musical Instruments:

Is there a difference between "taking inspiration" and flat-out copying? When do references become almost criminal? Yves Saint Laurent won a lawsuit against Ralph Lauren in 1994 for 'stealing' the design of YSL's famous tuxedo dress from 1966 (Read more from the New York Times here).

We all seem to recognize the wrongfulness of mass-manufactured fakes in the fashion world such as handbags, sunglasses, perfumes and shoes - but somehow high fashion designers seem to get away with letting their 'inspiration get the best of them'.

Julien Macdonald Fall 2014

New:Follow my blog with Bloglovin!

On day 2 of London Fashion week, Julien Macdonald unleashed a fury of sexy, red-carpet ready dresses for his Fall 2014 collection. Although I found this collection questionably reminiscent of the work of Mark Fast (his skin-tight knitted outfits) and Zuhair Murad (Murad's penchant for transparent gowns adorned with detailed embroidery, sequins and bead work), I loved it anyway.

Photos: style.com

Clover Canyon Fall 2014

Clover Canyon is known for its prints and for designer Rozae Nichols, the fall 2014 collection certainly didn't stray from his colorful reputation. Flowers, stained glass and plaid all played their part this time around.

When I think of  graphic, hyper colored, brilliantly executed prints designed perfectly to fit every curve and contour of the female body, I think of Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto and Clover Canyon. Seems I just can't get enough of these designers or their aesthetic.

photos from style.com

Rodarte's Star Wars

It's New York Fashion week and Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte took once again to cinematic inspiration for their Fall 2014 RTW collection, this time around with the film Star Wars.

In 2011, Rodarte presented a stunning collection with inspiration from the Film "Days of Heaven" (you can see my blog post here) symbolized mainly with the film's beautiful art direction focused in the sun-drenched hues of rural vistas. They combined the color story from the film with some prints from Vincent van Gogh and the effect was remarkable.

For  Fall 2014, the Star Wars reference is more of a "hey look everyone, its Star Wars!" than a reference. It doesn't seem that Star Wars was the general theme of this collection in terms of color palette or silhouette - in fact, the huge prints of Luke Skywalker, Yoda, the Deathstar, C-3PO  and the double suns of Tatooine were presented as the last pieces down the runway. I love Star Wars and always enjoy a good reference or pun, but I am left wondering what these pieces held in common with the rest of the collection.

Rodarte Fall 2014 below:

Getty images

Lena Dunham and Hamish Bowles Vogue

Indie darling Lena Dunham of Tiny Furniture and HBO's Girls fame stars as Vogue's cover girl for February 2014. Do I personally think of Ms. Dunham as a beacon of style synonymous with high fashion? No.  But the quirky and affable writer/director/actor does speak for a generation of intellectually angst ridden young women and Vogue certainly didn't take a risk by featuring Lena Dunham on its cover.

What really delighted me most about Dunham's turn in Vogue is its adorable video, "Cover Girl" with Vogue contributing editor Hamish Bowles teaching Dunham how to pose like fashion's most legendary models - in dance. It is charming for me to see Hamish Bowles participate in this as I've only been able to admire him through his witty writing. Let's face it, he'll never get to perform a cute skit with Jimmy Fallon or dance on air with Ellen Degeneres; he's fashion famous, not "famous-famous" (although for me he's as famous as it gets!).

Forget about Madonna- think of this as the real "Vogue-ing".

Click image below for Vogue video:

Hamish Bowles and Lena Dunham in  Vogues "Cover Girl"

... and here's the February Vogue cover: