PARIS FASHION WEEK: NO, IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE CLOTHES

Workers rights, protecting the environment, ethical choices - these are just some of the issues being discussed during Paris Fashion Week, alongside the 90 runway shows.

Tansy Hoskins, the author of the polemical book Stitched Up, will be in town at the venerable Shakespeare and Company bookshop to give her views about the failings of the global, trillion-dollar fashion industry.

On March 9, she’ll discuss its impact on the environment and on employee conditions in some developing countries - where factories churn out garments for Western companies without safety concerns for workers.

Nearly two years ago in Bangladesh, more than 1,100 workers died and 2,500 were injured when a factory building collapsed, after safety warnings were ignored. The workers made clothing for brands including Benetton, which only recently announced that it would contribute to a compensation fund for the victims.

That agreement followed a campaign in which one million people signed an on-line petition calling for the company to do the right thing.

For Hoskins, “ethical fashion” are two words that don’t mean much when huge luxury concerns own most well-known brands and care mainly about profit.

Still, representatives from the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI) will also be in Paris this week, working to drum up support from more designers. The EFI is part of the International Trade Centre, itself a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation.

According to founder Simone Cipriani, the Ethical Fashion Initiative wants fashion to help to lessen poverty by connecting top designers with artisans in regions such as East Africa and parts of the Caribbean.

Another goal is the “eradication of exploitation, hardship and environmental damage from the supply chains to the fashion industry and the practices of fashion businesses”.

Designers including Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Italy-based Stella Jean are active in the project, and a growing number of international stylists show interest.

“The many hands behind fashion goods are often ignored and forgotten. This is wrong. The lives and work behind fashion products should be cherished and celebrated,” says the EFI.

When one keeps this in mind, one can’t help seeing fashion shows in a different light, which now brings us to Paris’ Ready to Wear Fall-Winter 2015 defilés. The week started on Mar. 3 with shows by Christine Phung, Each x Other and Sofie Madsden, among others.

Phung staged her show at the gleaming Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) and offered elegant costumes of purple, blue, grey and black, worn by a multi-cultural cast of models. Phung called the collection "Glitchology", saying she was inspired by the digital malfunctions that can cause both frustration and a certain kind of beauty. She gets added credit for including models of different ethnic backgrounds in her shows.

Each x Other

The Parisian brand Each x Other used “digitalization” as inspiration as well, but in the sense of perhaps rejecting it for art - with designs of muted colours and clean lines, used for dresses, trouser ensembles and flowing coats.

Danish designer and illustrator Anne Sofie Madsen was distinctly more outre, with her unpredictable pairing of materials and shapes: fur draped over silk, ruffles and fringes, a body-hugging dress highlighted with her own drawings. She and other Danish stylists are rapidly setting trends in Paris and other capitals. (See previous article on Nikoline Liv Andersen.)

One looks forward to what the rest of the week will bring, and wonders which designers will join the debate about ethical fashion. - Tasshon

DANISH DESIGNER GIVES DIFFERENT VISION OF FASHION

As the exclusive Haute Couture shows get underway in Paris following five days of men’s ready-to-wear, the French capital has been hosting numerous other fashion displays, but those in the know recommend one event in particular.

Ready to soar? Art by Andersen.

On the Champs Elysees, the Maison du Danemark is the venue for a fascinating exhibition of works by Nikoline Liv Andersen, a young award-winning Danish designer who brings art, fashion and crafts together in unexpected ways.

Andersen’s creations immediately strike one with their colour, artistry and theatrical scope. But it’s on closer examination of her garments, or more precisely installations, that one gets to appreciate her original take on fashion and haute couture.

“I don’t think about trends or targets,” she says. “In fact, I try to keep all of that outside my awareness. I prefer to allow myself to be inspired by other things such as divinity or nature.”

The exhibition, which runs until March 15, comprises artwork that underscores this approach; Andersen plays with the theme of angels or sprites in some of her designs, adding wings and other-worldly elements to the garments.

Andersen at work.

She also uses unusual materials such as drinking straws and industrial metal rivets to produce items that deconstruct the idea of couture, making one think about consumerism and the state of the world while still wanting to try on the clothing.

“A lot of it is made more for the expression, than for the wearability,” Andersen told Tasshon. “I’ve always loved to try to change the feeling of a material, and I love working with objects not normally seen in the fashion industry.”

She transforms these materials into delicate items that “look organic”, according to critics. Dresses made entirely from drinking straws, cut to different sizes, seem fairy-tale like - something one might dream of wearing to an Alice-in-Wonderland kind of ball. One billowy, flamboyant gown required 45,000 straws, she said

Another stand-out piece is the dress she designed for Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest, the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest winner who wore it for a performance at the Grand Finale of last year’s competition held in the Danish capital (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNdrYzZ55gI).

This dress combines metal, plastic and reclaimed fur for a chic yet cutting-edge item. At the exhibition, one clearly sees how much work went into its creation. 

Besides Paris, Andersen has presented her designs in her native Copenhagen, and in Berlin, Brussels and other cities, since her graduation from Denmark’s Designskole in 2006. If this exhibition is anything to go by, everyone will be hearing a lot more about her soon, and not just during Fashion Week. (Text: McK-DeC)

THEY CAME TO PARIS WITH NEEDLE, THREAD AND A DREAM

Fashion and immigration. What could the two have in common? For the answer, a visit to Paris’ Museum of Immigration History (Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration”) is a must this year.

Dresses from the first fashion immigrants.

Until 31 May 2015, the Museum is hosting “Fashion Mix”, an enthralling exhibition about the contributions of “foreign-born” designers to French couture. 

Many countries have produced great or aspiring designers who lived in Paris at some point in their career, and the exhibition takes viewers on a journey through the history of this particular migration.

From the Briton Charles Frederick Worth to the Tunisian Azzedine Alaïa, from the Italian Elsa Schiaparelli to the American Patrick Kelly - they all enriched as well as learned from French expertise, and helped to build Paris’ status as the world’s fashion capital.

The cover of the expo catalogue.

Subtitled “Mode d'ici, créateurs d'ailleurs” (French Fashion, Foreign Designers), the exhibition allows viewers to experience the journeys of selected stylists. It presents private and public archive documents such as passports, letters and naturalisation applications alongside the striking garments, headwear and accessories that the designers created.

The show is done according to nationality or “schools” and so manages to categorize the roles played by the fashion artists from specific countries or regions, such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Asia, northern Europe  and the United States.

The “British School”, for instance, is headed by Charles Frederick Worth, who is considered the father of Parisian haute couture. The story goes that he arrived in the city without a penny to his name (perhaps only with a needle) in the mid-19^th century, when he was 20 years old, and went on to conquer with his crinolette and “princess cut”.

Worth’s peers included Henry Creed and others, and the exhibition draws a line to later British designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Lee Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Stella McCartney.

A Balenciaga dress from the Sixties.

The “Spanish school” includes Cristobal Balenciaga, who fled the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and set up shop in a Parisian hotel; and Paco Rabanne, who also quit Spain for political reasons, studied in France and took the fashion world by storm in the 1960s with his iconic metal and plastic dresses. Their creations are among the most striking of the items on display.

But designs from the “Japanese school” also create a buzz. The members of this group shook up the couture scene in Paris in the Seventies and early Eighties, and their names have become intrinsically tied to French fashion. Kenzo Takada and Issey Miyake are undeniably the leaders, but the group comprises Junko Shimada, Henae Mori, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, among others.

Then there are the innovative Belgians and the fun-loving Americans.  The exhibition highlights the contributions of the Antwerp 6 + 1 (particularly Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela) who made a noticeable impact on French couture in the 1990s with their iconoclastic designs, and it also details the birth of “Belgian fashion”.

The colours of Issey Miyake.

Members of the “American school” are said to have realized their dream by being able to live in Paris, and many have become household names, such as Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors and Tom Ford.

But according to the curators of the exhibition, no other American designer expressed as much love for Paris as Patrick Kelly, the first American designer and first person of African descent to join the exclusive Chambre syndicale du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode - the fashion trade union that dates from 1868.

The love apparently was reciprocal as Kelly gained numerous fans with his playful and audacious designs. He lived in Paris for just over a decade, from 1979 to his death in 1990 (at the age of 35), and he’s buried at Père Lachaise cemetery. His tomb bears the epitaph “Nothing is impossible”.

Olivier Saillard

What’s nearly impossible for some visitors to believe is that besides Kelly, the only other designer of African descent listed in the exhibition is Mali’s Lamine Kouyaté, creator of the Xuly Bët clothing line.

Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera, or Paris’ Museum of Fashion - which co-organized the exhibition, said the curators would have liked to include more African designers but that very few have taken part in the official Fashion Weeks. He said he hoped that would change.  (Text & photos: copyright McK-DeC)

ITALY, AND THE ART OF ENJOYING BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH

Florence shows the colours of Tuscany.

So you've decided on Italy for this month's holiday, but you can't make up your mind whether it's going to be North or South. Your friends tell you that Florence will be the trip of a lifetime, yet you're kind of intrigued by that saying: "See Naples and die". 

Your pals aren't being of much help, however. Those who've been to Florence tend to wax lyrical about the charms of the Tuscan capital, known as the birthplace of the Renaissance and home to the largest concentration of art in the world, but when you ask them about Naples, you draw a blank.

Still, you should know that Naples has its own devoted fans, who love the rough-and-tumble atmosphere, the great pizza restaurants, the striking views of the bay, and the no-nonsense demeanour of residents. Even devotees, though, are aware of the seedier sides of the city, notorious for its history of organized crime and garbage piling up in the streets because of corruption in the waste disposal industry.

A view across the Bay of Naples.

The two towns are a study in contrast, offering very different "attractions" to travellers. Art lovers will find their visual feast in Florence, which seems to have a statue on every corner, often surrounded by hordes of photo-snappers. The city has palaces and historic buildings galore, with art on the ceilings and walls, in the courtyards and gardens. But you will have to brave the crowds to see some of the treasures as Florence generally has more tourists than residents in the high-season months of April to October, and sometimes in December.

Naples, meanwhile, attracts those who don’t mind, or may even enjoy, a certain form of realism: the roar of scooters, the bustle of people who don’t live for tourism, the view of a volcano in the distance, sturdy landmarks of a rich history, and an edgy ambience infused by illicit activity. North or South? The art of travelling is to appreciate both, and while most people might give the nod to Florence, here are some images to help you decide. Our tip: see Naples while you can walk without a cane!

Art on the piazza - a common sight in Florence.

Naples: a culture of litter?

Florence, with Il Duomo as centrepiece.

Yes, Naples has castles too, both historic and neo-Gothic.

Florence's Ponte Vecchio, Medieval  bridge with shophouses.

One of Naples' charming, challenging streets.

Florence by night.

Naples at dusk.

(Text and photos, copyright McK-DeC)

THE 'ISLAND OF ENCHANTMENT' LIVES UP TO ITS PROMISE

Puerto Rico has proclaimed itself the Isla del Encanto (Island of Enchantment), and this is no empty boast. Despite a number of social problems, as elsewhere, this eastern Caribbean island is a country of stunning landscapes, spectacular beaches and generous people.

The license plate tells the tale.

What one will remember most is the unexpected kindness of total strangers - such as the motorist who gave his own brand-new road map to lost travelers, and the lady who got out of her car to give directions and then said "follow me", leading one to one's destination.

Certain sights, smells and tastes will also linger: images of the hills in the distance, the scent of sweet, fried plantains (or plátanos amarillos, guaranteed to bring on the salivation), and the taste of mofongo, the typical dish of mashed plantains filled with meat or seafood.

Traveling around the island, away from the frenetic atmosphere of San Juan, means passing through postcard-type scenery, evocative of other Caribbean countries, but still somehow unique. Waterfalls, mountain views, historic towns and colourful bird-life make sight-seeing a true pleasure. And one mustn't forget to visit the markets, where heaps of fruit such as papayas, pineapples and guineps are displayed like art installations.

Below, Tasshon offers a photo essay on this singular island, whose Spanish, Caribbean, African and American parts make up a fascinating whole. Sí, let the enchantment begin. 

Tired of flying? Walk like an egret.

Some of the biggest papayas you'll ever see.

Water massage, anyone?

They call me "el chango".

Mind the falling coconuts.

The charming pueblo of San Germán.

A quiet day in San Germán, after the weekend bustle.

The beach in Condado, San Juan. Be careful of the undertow.

The hills are ... everywhere.

(Text and photos, copyright McK-DeC, with thanks to L. Collins Klobah)

PARIS FASHION WEEK: A UNIVERSE OF COLORFUL HEROINES

A Ground Zero design at Paris Fashion Week 

An outlandish kind of joie de vivre has been the order of the day since Paris Fashion Week began Sept. 23, with designers seeming ready to spring a new race of playful superheroines on the world.

Ground Zero's 'comic' creativity

From the very first day of the Womenswear Spring/Summer 2015 collections,  the London and Hong Kong-based label Ground Zero set the tone, with designs that could have been inspired by a childhood spent reading Marvel Comics.

The label's Eri and Phillip Chu, brothers, delivered a show that an onlooker described as “X-Men (or women) leisure style” for a day out in the sunshine.

Later in the week, one of our favourite designers, Manish Arora, also went in for that otherworldly heroine look, with characters in gladiator cyber sandals waiting beside their spaceships to welcome you into a pastel universe.

Arora can always be relied on for creating a buzz during Fashion Week, and with this exuberant collection, he didn't disappoint - as long as you were ready and willing to enter his "kaleidoscopic lunar world". 

Manish Arora: peace, love and pastels despite the gladiator look.
(Photo by Y. Vlamos)

NEW FESTIVAL LINKS FILM AND FASHION IN MILAN

For some, it’s just a natural fit - film and fashion - and Constanza Cavalli Etro is among those who believe this. She is the founder and director of the first edition of the Fashion Film Festival Milano, held at the start of Milan Fashion Week in mid-September.

Escandalo: A Cruise, by Dean Alexander,
won for best editing

With sponsorship mainly from the Italian Fashion Council (Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana), the hugely successful festival was the first event of this kind in Italy to showcase fashion movies from around the world.

According to Etro, famous feature films such as Prêt-à-Porter and The Devil Wears Prada indicate the  public’s interest in the world of fashion, and the festival wanted to take things further.

The long-term aim is to become a “meeting point for designers, video makers, directors and artists, who share great talent from all over the world”.

The event, which took place on Sept. 14 and 15, comprised two sections, a film competition and an exhibition. The competition featured  30 finalists selected from more than 300 submissions, while the exhibition portrayed the top fashion films from well-known directors and established brands.

Poster for the festival, with inspiring quote.

A panel of five judges selected nine winners in categories such as best fashion film and  best Italian fashion film, among others.

Cavalli Etro described the initiative as a means of combining her love and respect for fashion and her passion for cinema. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she lived for many years in Mexico where she  became the fashion editor of Fashion Week Mexico and co-founded the first Latin America Film Festival. She now lives in Milan with her husband, the designer Kean Etro.

Her Fashion Film Festival Milano joins the ranks of other festivals devoted to the art of fashion. In Paris, A Shaded View on Fashion Film (ASVOFF),  was launched in 2008, and this year’s edition will take place in November, after Paris Fashion Week (Sept. 23 - Oct. 1).