Friday, May 22, 2009

Falling forward with Yves (despite the sunshine)

As the sun streams through my office turning it in to a sauna it feels so wrong to be ogling the AW09 collections but recent magazine issues make it impossible not to. I've still not managed to pick up a copy of VMAN but its contents has spread like wild fire. The latest offering from the issue is the Fall Forward editorial. Photographed by Terry Tsiolis and styled by Jay Massacret, the spread showcases the highlights from the thirteen designers who are helping to define the future of menswear today. Step forward and take a bow Stafano Pilati.

“The collection is a story of hybrids in proportion, function, and construction. It is centered around finding balance through contradiction.” Stefano Pilati.

There was so much fashion around during the AW shows. Menswear traditionally takes small small steps and it more about pieces than complete collections, but so many shows had big bold moves. Yves Saint Laurent was in my opinion the best show, and this view was shared by Charlie Porter. In fact a Twitter proclamation by the deputy editor of Fantastic Man read "just got slapped in the face by Stefano Pilati. In a good way. Oh GOD. YSL did curved fronts on oversize jackets and cut strict. Best show so far!" Charlie is rarely wrong and despite raising my expectations to a ridiculously high level, the show did not disappoint and the VMAN spread has reignited my excitement level.

Pilati's vision for the cold months contained clothing that was uncompromised and advanced in its thinking. What pleased me most about this collection was that it was made with with same spirit in which he does his womenswear shows. Pilati experimented with the male silhouette, not to the extremes of the Raf Simons for Jil Sander collections but undoubtedly more successfully - cropped jackets were paired with wide trousers, settling the boxy shape of jackets. I will continue to enjoy the sunshine but my day dreams might just return to this YSL collection from to time, the cold months looks less bleak with this YSL collection.

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