story by Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg and Wolfgang Wöhrle
With few exceptions, what we’re seeing in Milan and Berlin so far this season looks safe, and Les Hommes designers Tom Notte and Bart Vandebosch, despite being wild enough to have full gold chrome suits on the runway, seem to be playing it safe. … Continue Reading
story by Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg and Wolfgang Wöhrle
This is why we’re out here. This show is why modaCYCLE exists. Here is a storyteller showing a collision of fantasy, reality, and optimism. The wisdom and intelligence and style were all there in this show. … Continue Reading
story by Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg and Wolfgang Wöhrle
Ravarino, Italy-based C.P. Company showed their line of menswear at Milan Moda Uomo. … Continue Reading
story by Boris Marberg and Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg
Maurizio Modica and Pierfrancesco Gigliotti’s Frankie Morello menswear show at Via Palermo (their usual spot) was a great “spettacolo.” The theme was vampires and football (world championship soccer). … Continue Reading
story by Boris Marberg
photos by Boris Marberg and Wolfgang Wöhrle
Carlo Pignatelli Outside is the outerwear line produced by one of the world’s great designers of men’s formalwear.
This show opened Milan Moda Uomo and went right for the jugular on a classic winter image. My first impression was that this was deeply influenced by the idea of a Russian winter presented in the film Doctor Zhivago, and reflects winter in the time of the revolution against the Tsarist autocracy. In fact, the music played at the beginning of the show was the overture from that classic motion picture, an odd yet harmonious blend of subtle military themes with folk music. … Continue Reading
photos by Boris Marberg
text by Charles Beckwith
Ennio Capasa sent trim and boss looks down the runway at his CoSTUME NATIONAL show this past weekend at Milan Moda Uomo, the main Italian menswear fashion week where looks for Fall 2010/Winter 2011 are presented.
Check out the brown leather shirt worn over a black turtleneck and under a dark sport coat in the last shot. Looks great, but it is wearable? … Continue Reading
story by Freda Henry
photos by Boris Marberg
The John Varvatos Spring-Summer 2010 Collection was a series of clean cut, soft garments, and silky looks in black, red, silver, grey-blue, and yellow. Refined fits were on display, especially in the classically-inspired coats and jackets. The addition of light scarves and shades to several looks projected a “too cool” vibe. Wearing looks from this line will surely boost the appearance of confidence for young businessmen on the move. … Continue Reading
notes by Freda Henry
photos by Boris Marberg
Donatella Versace’s Spring-Summer 2010 mens collection show featured simple chic shirts, loose long pants, and leather bracelets and bands on the wrists which matched the belts. Lots of long-sleeve earth color shirts with open button collars. Every outfit sent down the line was made of more or less matching pieces, so it was a bit like seeing a series of young millionaires’ uniforms paraded out, but not costumes per se. Overall a rather rugged appearance for summer. … Continue Reading
photographer Charles Beckwith
models Jolita and Barbora from Models Plus Milan
A few months ago I had the opportunity to shoot this fashion editorial in the brand new Italian National Showroom of the Herman Miller furniture company. It features Herman Miller’s new Embody chair, which is the next generation of ergonomic office seating beyond their iconic Aeron. I love the spine on this thing, it’s such an interesting form. So are Jolita and Barbora in these fabulous summer looks.
story by Charles Beckwith
photos by Alexander Palacios
Burberry shows its colors, as hints and accents, in this diverse but uninspiring summer collection. … Continue Reading
story by Boris Marberg and Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg
A blanched hardwood runway, like a long pier, is lit as if by moonlight, setting off the warm pastel accent garments in Missoni’s predominantly sky (comfort) blue Spring/Summer 2010 men’s collection. … Continue Reading
story by Boris Marberg and Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg
CoSTUME NATIONAL designer Ennio Capasa has said about his new collection, “I wanted to bring a symbolic jungle into a metropolis; a jungle made of emotions that would take us back to our deeper, more authentic side; recharging us with harmony and joy.” We read the words, but we don’t see the execution, unless that organic metropolis is supposed to be represented by the junior partners at a post-apocalyptic architectural firm. … Continue Reading
story and photos by Boris Marberg
Ermenegildo Zegna opened Milan Moda Uomo, the Italian men’s fashion week for spring-summer 2010 collections in Milan, on a perfect warm summer day. Perfect for a fashion show and perfect for his new collection. … Continue Reading
story by Charles Beckwith
photos by Boris Marberg
My grandmother always had an interesting taste in clothing. She was a woman who wore color, who wore excitement. The last few years she was on oxygen for emphysema, always a little “out of it” since that started, and recently chemotherapy for stage 4 lung cancer. So, she slowed down, and wasn’t really the whole person I remember from my childhood. It has been a while since I felt like when I was talking with her, I was really talking with her.
So, a few months ago, when I saw a video clip of the last resort collection from Blumarine, it was a deeply personal jolt I felt. I saw a collection I knew my grandmother would have wanted to wear. Every piece that was coming down that runway was something she would have been crazy for. So, when I was in Milan in December, I made it a point to visit their showroom. There is an energy to these collections that you rarely see, where style and life meet and dance.
I’ve had this interview for a few weeks now and had not posted it because my grandmother was near the end, and the ideas in my head about her spirit and the Blumarine label are linked. She passed away two weeks ago, and I finally feel a release, because I know she is free to be herself again.
Here finally, is my interview with the famed Italian designer, Mrs. Anna Molinari, and select images from her most recent collection. … Continue Reading
photos by Boris Marberg, text by Charles Beckwith
More of the laser-cut leather we’ve been seeing lately, but this time also with highly-detailed hand-embroidery.
So here I am, sitting in my Italian hotel room in Milan’s Piazza Diaz, two blocks from Il Duomo, flipping through a book on French fashion by an American, and thinking about my green German umbrella that I bought to take to India, its black British replacement, and their tie to the color yellow.
Let me start at the beginning.
Nine and a half years ago I was in the Frankfurt airport waiting for a flight to India to make a documentary for Herman Miller. I knew it was starting to be monsoon season, and I had not packed an umbrella. My favorite umbrella was a beige compact Knirps model with a blue and brown geometric pattern and a brown handle, which my mother had bought in Germany at least 15 years prior. The button sticks a bit, but it still works today. So, I went looking through the airport for a stand-in, and found a selection of Knirps umbrellas on display in a gift shop. I picked a green one with yellow and orange squiggles. Fast forward February 2008 and New York Fall Fashion Week in Bryan Park, where I interviewed Reem Acra for the satellite radio show I was trying to get off the ground, in which she said her customer was a “woman of luxury.” Now jump to September of this year and New York Spring Fashion Week at Bryant Park, when modaCYCLE photographer Sandy Ramirez had commented that there was yellow in almost every collection. From Carolina Herrera to Zac Posen, at least one splash of something between canary and saffron. Now, it’s in the news, yellow is going to be big this spring, Sandy was quite right. Although, I think his “yellow is the new black” comment was a little overreaching. Black is black, and it isn’t going anywhere. So, today I was walking through Piazza del Duomo when the handle snapped off my 9 year-old umbrella. I was on the way to visit the Blumarine showroom in Milan. In speaking with the press agent, she described the Blumarine target customer as “a woman of luxury.” Déjà vu! After the interview, I wandered around Via Montenapoleone and its surrounding streets with a handle-less spike in my hand, looking for a replacement umbrella. I didn’t want one of the 5 Euro models being peddled by pushy street vendors; they didn’t look like they would last a week. No Knirps in sight, but there was Burberry, and I figured that the Brits have a lot of rain, so their store probably sells umbrellas (I went into Gucci first, but balked at the 370 Euro price tag on the compact). I was fairly upset that my umbrella had broken, and I asked if there was a warranty on the Burberry umbrellas. A one year guarantee, and after that maybe they’ll help you, maybe not. The salesman seemed confused as to why I thought an umbrella should last more than nine years. For what they were asking people to spend on them, I would think a 10-lifetime guarantee might be justified. My hand was starting to blister from holding the broken one, so I bought it anyway. We’ll see how it lasts.
On the way back to my hotel, I pondered the merit of our disposable culture. I had passed several shredded 5 Euro models on the ground in my search for a reliable model. What is a “woman of luxury,” I thought. Is that just a description of someone’s spending habits? The target customer is the person who throws everything out every 6 months and starts over? Perhaps that makes sense from a medium-term business standpoint. It doesn’t sound like sustainability though. Of course, Reem Acra and Blumarine’s Anna Molinari are designers who still use fur with a vengeance, so sustainability isn’t exactly their modus operandi. When I ask what is a luxury to me, it is peace of mind. To me, buying a luxury item should mean knowing that you have bought something that has value, beyond the brand name. Durability is my idea of luxury. Also, I think I’m personally a lot more interested in women of substance than these supposed women of luxury, whose luxury is perhaps a state of never having to really live with decisions about their purchases. Fifteen minutes after I left Burberry I found a Tumi store, where I could have purchased an umbrella with a better guarantee for half the price. If I hadn’t gotten the Burberry umbrella wet already, I would have taken it back and purchased the Tumi instead.
Back in my hotel room I continued reading Valerie Steele’s book Paris Fashion: A Cultural History. Specifically, I was in chapter four, where she talks about Balzac’s descriptions of his characters by their clothing, and how the “yellow was traditionally the color of treason and envy.” I thought green was the color of envy. That was the color of the light Gatsby covered over with his thumb, right? I wonder if this was in the minds of all those designers who dropped yellow dresses into their spring lines. How will it play in the context of the current global financial crisis, as the line between the haves and the have-nots becomes increasingly defined as desperate? Will there be people who specifically buy a yellow dress to be fashionable? This is certain. Are there really people who drop 370 Euros for a compact umbrella? I fear so. Was it yellow? No. Were most of the shredded 5 Euro umbrellas I passed laying in the street yellow? No, but in 12 months they probably will be.
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Here is a preview of some of the shows we are covering in London. Lovely.
. Specifically, I was in chapter four, where she talks about Balzac’s descriptions of his characters by their clothing, and how the “yellow was traditionally the color of treason and envy.” I thought green was the color of envy. That was the color of the light Gatsby covered over with his thumb, right? I wonder if this was in the minds of all those designers who dropped yellow dresses into their spring lines. How will it play in the context of the current global financial crisis, as the line between the haves and the have-nots becomes increasingly defined as desperate? Will there be people who specifically buy a yellow dress to be fashionable? This is certain. Are there really people who drop 370 Euros for a compact umbrella? I fear so. Was it yellow? No. Were most of the shredded 5 Euro umbrellas I passed laying in the street yellow? No, but in 12 months they probably will be.
