Valentino...T-shirts?

What do you think of when you hear "Valentino"? Maybe big, poofy ball gowns. Elegant couture. The color red. An extremely tanned little elf of a man. Well, now Valentino is making T-shirts.

 Valentino/ The Business of Fashion

According to Christina Brinkley of the Wall Street Journal, the couture house started to make extremely high-end T-shirts. They are simple jersey T-shirts, but they are adorned with all of the signature Valentino trimmings: lace, sequins, silk. The shirts range from $395 to $3,000. The company's co-designers, Maria Grazia Churi and Pier Paolo Piccioli, have introduced ten of these shirts to the market and plan on creating ten new T-shirts each season.

In a way, the T-shirts make sense. As one can easily infer from the 2008 documentary about Valentino's last runway show and eventual retirement, The Last Emperor (which I just realized I haven't reviewed yet. Hmm, I guess I'll have to go back and watch it...), after Valentino retired and the company was sold, the new owners are far more interested in the bottom line than any integrity to art or to the house's legacy. And this isn't to say that Chiuri and Piccioli are bad designers, or that the T-shirts aren't secretly awesome, just that this very commercial decision is a sign of the times. The T-shirts have been selling very well, and they are a clever mix of not only the high-low sensibility of the moment, but also, in some ways, the green movement (the embellishments are all made from fabric scraps. Thing extremely high-end American Apparel). Even though the house's legendary gowns are extremely expensive, it is clear that the owners of Valentino want to turn a bigger profit more quickly by entering the world of sportswear.

This post originally appeared on Contrast.

American Woman

The fashion world is all abuzz; that wonderful time of the year has come again: the Costume Institute Gala and the accompanying exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute. This year, the exhibit is called American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity (May 5, 2010-August 15, 2010).

The exhibit itself has a pretty interesting history. The Brooklyn Museum could no longer afford to maintain its impressive costume collection, so in 2009,  the Met agreed to take charge of storing and maintaining the collection while the Brooklyn Museum still has access to it. As if to prove that point, American Woman does not have its own exhibit catalog. Instead, it is sharing a catalog with the Brooklyn Museum's sister exhibit, American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection (May 7, 2010-August 1, 2010).

The Met's own exhibit seeks to define the American woman as she presented herself at the beginning of the 20th century. According to WWD, the exhibit is divided up into several sections--the Heiress; the Gibson Girl (a Victorian prelude to the flapper); the Bohemian; the Suffragists; the Patriots; the Flapper; and the Screen Siren. The last room has videos and photographs devoted to America's style icons past and present.

Kyle Ericksen/ WWD

The categories are a somewhat curious choice, considering that some of the styles presented in the exhibit--most notably the Suffragists and the Bohemians--didn't affect the majority of American women. Obviously, the curators, as well as sponsors Vogue and the Gap, want us to draw connections with today's fashion trends (with varying degrees of success). The exhibit comes with the inevitable discussion on what, exactly, makes American style American. And who personifies American style? 

Most agree that American style is defined by a certain functionality, simplicity and independence, which Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton hopes each section of the exhibit encompasses. As for the quintessential American woman, he says that it's Sarah Jessica Parker (who narrates the audio guide tour).
"She is such a style icon, but apart from that, she is very adaptable in terms of the clothes she wears,” Bolton said. “She is somebody who costumes herself into roles. When you think of Sarah Jessica Parker, you almost think of a flapper, because she has this remarkable joie de vivre about her. Michelle Obama represents this idea of a democratic way of dressing high and low and is a contemporary patriot or suffragist. Chloë Sevigny may be a Bohemian, and Scarlett Johansson the Screen Siren."

The fact that you can't really name one perfect example of American style, or that all of these women are celebrities in some way, speaks volumes about how we as Americans treat fashion today.

This post also appeared on Contrast.

Spring Summer Fashion 2010

It might seem like a million billion years away, but spring is coming! And soon. Judging from the runways, here are some trends to look for in the coming months (all images Style.com. Click to enlarge.):

General: The general silhouette is similar to past seasons: volume concentrated at the shoulders and a small belt at the natural waist. This season, we're seeing some new twists on the big shoulders--out with the 80s and in with the girly, there are transparent sleeves, puff sleeves, even slashed sleeves, which should stay in style forever and ever because they're pretty and medieval-y. This season's colors are also in a more muted palette, thanks to Dries Van Noten's wonderful Fall/Winter 2009 collection, which pleased the eye with its slightly off pastels and tan.

 

aquilano.raimondi

 

Celine

Transparency/ lingerie: Fashion is beginning to move away from the tough-girl 80s look of the past few seasons. It's still around, but we're also looking at lots of lace and sheer layers for the spring.

 

John Galliano

 

 

Donna Karan

Denim: Early 90s denim is back, guys! Take that as you will. I myself will shake my fist at the uncaring heavens.

  

 

Stella McCartney

Bondage Warrior: Yep, she's still here, but with a more futuristic edge. Thanks, Gucci. Balmain also continued its widely successful military streak, bootleg versions of which you can now find at your local Zara.

 

Gucci

  

Balmain

Prints: Computer-generated prints are going to be big this season. These prints, mostly digitally altered images, were first introduced by Alexander McQueen (and, if I may say so, were used spectacularly in his Spring/ Summer show. Yay fractals!) but other houses are using them too. Tribal prints are also "back." It always makes me laugh when fashion editors proclaim that "ethnic" is in, because when is it not? But here we are.

 

 

aquilano.raimondi

 

 

Dries Van Noten

Cross-posted on Contrast.