Dressful

I've written about how excited I am to wear coral red in summer; for me, coral red is mostly a seasonal fascination, though I think it complements sailor chic and white and dark blue stripes like no other color and should therefore be in at all times. The one idea that inevitably does come back to me every summer is wearing all white. Since I've been looking for people in such attire with a magnifying glass, I'll suppose all white takes a bit more guts than all black (though doing all black well - not because you want to hide or think it'll instantly make you look like you're Serious Business - is a science. Learn from the best: The Divinitus). Of course, the very practical reason behind us not wearing more white might just be that you get your white clothes dirty in one, two, three.

Here's my little prelude to summer. I'm going to resurrect this dress after it's been dormant in my closet for several years. Linen is funny, you iron your dress and then you realize it's most beautiful with wrinkles anyway. White suggests perfection and wrinkles break it. A contrast in a single garment.

Dress: Sisley
Bag: Marjeta Grošelj

In fashion, my primary interest is womenswear. I am admittedly still quite uninitiated in menswear, not because I'd think men's fashion is boring, it's just that womenswear is so rich and complex it consumes all my time and attention (there's still so much I want to learn about its history, it's an ongoing task that I've elevated to my no. 1 priority for summer). However, to me, signature menswear pieces make much more powerful statements than those of womenswear. Minimalism + tradition.

Missy Industry cufflinks

Perhaps I perceive menswear elements as more powerful because I don't wear them myself – unlike good old womenswear, they are foreign to me in practice and therefore more intriguing. Crisp white collared shirts, cologne, cufflinks, and let's not forget that somehow – I don't know how and why as I really don't believe that "clothes make the man" – a suit makes every man look dignified and respectable ... though I am aware all this is no less of an idealisation than male designers' vision of "the perfect woman".

Mary Katrantzou Spring/Summer 2011 collection

I've been wanting to write about Mary Katrantzou's Spring/Summer 2011 collection for a while and when I was reading about her work online, I came across her nickname: the princess of prints. I cracked up upon the discovery that fashion recycles not only trends but also nicknames, as designer Emilio Pucci was nicknamed the prince of prints all the way back in the 1950s.

Emilio Pucci, an aristocrat who had many other interests in life than fashion (he was a politician, pilot, sportsman ...), started out doing skiwear. His kaleidoscopic prints quickly gained enormous interest and in no time he opened boutiques in Rome and Capri, catering to international jet-set including Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.

Old photo of my Emilio Pucci skirt | by Nuša (http://mea-camera-obscura.blogspot.com)

... Notice how Pucci was doing color-blocking way, way, way before Spring 2011?

I've noticed a few interesting differences between Mary Katrantzou and Emilio Pucci's prints. Pucci's prints have a warmth to them that Mary Katrantzou's are lacking entirely. James Sherwood of The Independend once described them as: "Classic Pucci prints were wild, hot and madly stylised; a grab-bag of sinuous Art Nouveau blooms, Op Art graphics and Arabian exotica. The designer's bold colour clashes were always brilliant. But the shapes were the last word in ease: shift dresses, pyjama pants, tunic tops and billowing djellabas. Pucci had the soul of a modernist: there was never a superfluous seam or fastening."

Katrantzou is the antithesis of Pucci; the best thing about her Spring 2011 collection really is that all the (very colorful and intense) prints are of interior design, i.e. objects we know well because they surround us all the time, yet somehow they feel foreign and distant, far away from our actual lives. If Pucci's clothes are (were?) modernist, Katrantzou's are both surreal (in how they're portraying an irrational reality) and hyperreal (the details are highly realistic, giving a three-dimensional effect).

I love how Emilio Pucci and Mary Katrantzou, each in their own era, put a highly specific and individual spin on prints. It appears their nicknames are the only thing they have in common.

Fashion Week Mafia by Alexsandro Palombo

Trends are selected for you by people who have no idea about what you love about fashion. Even if you don't like a trend, you still have to look at it every time you surf a fashion-related website or read a magazine. Not to mention they're also preying on you in the streets!

Trends are like that: millions of dollars, countless jobs and if you don't like them, there's nothing you can do about it.

P.S. Check out my interview (in Italian) at Donna Moderna!

I see 4 major motives behind following trends:

• Guidance: Applies to people who don't pay much attention to their personal style and therefore don't know what suits them. They want an instant solution in the era of instant everything because they're either not interested in fashion and style (but they need to dress well, e.g. because of their social position) or they don't have time to think about it. "If it's trendy, surely it'll look good on me." This is often misleading and, in most extreme cases, makes you look like a fashion victim.
• Smoke and mirrors: People who want to impress others they deem cool, hip and "above" them. They believe they can reach their level by looking (and acting) the same as their "idols", as if clothes are going to work like a lucky charm. The world is very superficial, fake-it-till-you-make-it-y (that's not always a bad thing though), so they often do work like a lucky charm. Too often.


Fashion victim • From http://blogs.colette.fr/eikomaekawa

• Fitting in: This one mentally transports me back to elementary school years when you had to be the same as everybody else or you were scorned (I know for a lot of people the height of this sad phenomenon is high school, but thankfully it wasn't for me). In elementary school there was exactly one right model of sneakers, you had to have a discman to listen to during field trips, a Dakine backpack ... You'd have more fashion freedom if you worked as Anna Wintour's assistant!
• Playing with trends: You don't adopt a trend because it's a trend, you try it to see if it enriches your personal style. If it doesn't work for you, you just let it go.

I'm always excited about trends because they tell me a lot about the world and people. There are many trends I like on others, but I'm not interested to try them myself (prime example: jumpsuits). There are also trends I dislike, but what other people choose to wear is none of my business, so while I might express my disdain for a certain piece, I in no way mean to criticize those who wear it.

Do you follow trends? If yes, why?