Percy Parker and Amy Molyneaux are the brains behind PPQ. Archive photo.
NEW York shuttered yesterday and London Fashion Week opened a few hours ago (through Tuesday, 19 Feb.). Scheduled for 5 p.m. (noon New York time)London time and going on in minutes is PPQ designed by Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker.
WHEN Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week folds up its tent at New York, the action travels across the pond for London Fashion Week, which cranked up on Friday with Antoni & Alison (http://www.bit.ly/QvZBPu). Milan follows (http://www.cameramoda.it/en/), then Paris (http://www.modeaparis.com/en).
For those in the fashion world all thoughts of The Big Apple are forgotten until February. Nevertheless, over the last nine years, another fashion extravaganza has called New York home (Palm Beach and a few other cities, too.)
It is known as Couture Fashion Week and it goes down at the Waldorf-Astoria this evening through Monday. CFW brings together lesser-known couture and luxury designers from around the world, including Spanish designer Isabel Zapardiez. She shows at 6 p.m. Luxury brands and fine arts are exhibited during the three-day showcase; performances figure in the mix, too. (See highlight reel above from 2011 edition and video of IZ's Fall 2012 show below).
Most of the designers are not household names, therefore wrongly perceived as amateurs and dilettantes; many show attendees must purchase tickets, rather than receive complimentary invitations in the post or at check-in. Celebrities known to U. S. audiences are not omnipresent. Absent are blockbuster sponsors disseminating swag. While there is at least one after party/reception after each day’s shows, there is often no open bar. Talk about a buzzkill!
These are among the major reasons that CFW has suffered the designation as a country cousin to New York fashion week. Major U.S. fashion media outlets simply ignore it. That's too bad.
Still, CFW soldiers on and may be on to something with this latest edition. Instead of starting the day that New York fashion week ends or the day after, it is starting two days afterward.
Whose to say what kind of traction CFW will get from this alteration?
Visit http://www.couturefashionweek.com to learn more about Couture Fashion Week, including ticket and show information.
The Made in Africa: By Arise Magazine Spring 2012 edition showcases work of seven designers from the Continent. Photos by Mark Von Holden/Getty Images.
HEAD’S UP: I repeat, it is officially a tradition at VEVLYN’S PEN. The plan each day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is to give a roundup of the best (and worse where applicable) and most interesting Yours Truly witnesses, from shows to trends to sightings to the rather unusual/bizarre. It should go without saying, but it shan’t – this won’t be a comprehensive list simply because a body can’t be everywhere. But, of course, depend on one’s best effort. Drum roll, please …
Day 8, last day (SOME of the players at the tents and elsewhere): Bill Blass, Calvin Klein Collection, Elene Cassis, Guli, Isaac Mizrahi, L’Wren Scott, Made in Africa: By Arise Magazine, Marc Jacobs, Naeem Khan, Sergio Davila, Stephen Burrows, Threeasfour, Vassilios Kostetsos
THE final day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York Spring 2012 was marked by rain, wind, falling temps, a plunging designer and protests.
The latter first. Protests are nothing new at Fashion Week. For years, PETA was a fixture at Dennis Basso or the show of any designer using real fur. But in what has to be a first, Human Rights Watch and others, including children, were assembled outside Cipriani 42nd Street in time for the Guli show to bring attention to human rights abuses in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan.
What gives? Here’s the deal: Guli designer Gulnara Karimova is the daughter of Uzbek ruler Islam Karimov. IK, who has been in power for some 32 years, is accused by groups who monitor such events of blocking democracy and child labor abuses, among other outrages. Normally, someone like GK would be given a pass because of her accident of birth.
But her case is different because in addition to her talents as a designer, she is also the Uzbekistani ambassador to Spain at the United Nations in New York and the ambassador for her country at the United Nations in Geneva. In this role, the perception is that she supports her father’s policies. While GK is not new to Fashion Week, her pedigree and employment situation are, hence the hue and cry.
The show was initially scheduled for the Studio tent at Lincoln Center. However, whether bowing to pressure from HRW&Co. or not wishing to see unfold even more of a circus atmosphere outside of the tents, Fashion Week sponsor IMG cancelled the show.
“… In light of safety and security concerns due to the heightened security threats in New York City this weekend, IMG and GULI decided that it would be in the best interests of the safety of guests for the GULI show not to proceed as planned at the Lincoln Center,” a spokesperson said in a press statement. “GULI will proceed with the show at a location to be communicated to the invitees ...”
Naturally, the show of 30 ensembles, featuring fabrics native to Uzbekistan, went on. (See snippets in video above.)
The Spring 2012 Sergio Davila collection is informed by a few seminal moments in the Americas. Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images.
In other developments on the last day of Fashion Week, Bill Blass, Calvin Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren and Stephen Burrows put some clothes on the runway outside of Lincoln Center by choice. Made in Africa: By Arise Magazine showed on site at Avery Fisher Hall in what has become one of the most anticipated shows of the week in only its fourth season. Yesterday, Arise's late start probably caused many to miss Elene Cassis in the Studio tent. Arise gets a notice for Most Important Acknowledgment for its series of shows dedicated to clean water, a commodity that is in very short supply on the Continent.
In what could have easily been a tragic moment during Fashion Week and which earns the distinction, Breathing a Sigh of Relief, Lanre Da Silva Ajayi fell through an opening on stage-left inside the theater at Avery Fisher Hall as she was making her way out to take a bow after presenting the strongest of the seven Arise shows. Several people managed to fish her out of the maw. Mortified and embarrassed, but thankfully in one piece, the Nigerian designer was able to take her turn on the A-shaped runway to deserving praise.
More shortly from Day 8, last day, including Best Overall Show.For now enjoy photos from some of the day’s shows.
Calvin Klein Photos by Peter Michael Dills/Getty Images.
Elene Cassis Photos by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Marc Jacobs Photos by Peter Michael Dills/Getty Images.
Naeem Khan Photos by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Ralph Lauren Photos by Peter Michael Dills/Getty Images.
Next Stop on the Fashion Express – London! For Spring 2012, designer Paul Costelloe is inspired by a classic Hollywood film. Photo courtesy of Catwalking.
JUST as the lights go down on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York, they rise today on London Fashion Week.
First up is Irish designer Paul Costelloe who has shown in London the last six or seven seasons. He's gotten good notices, not so surprising considering that he cut his teeth at La Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Of course, this is the outfit that decides who shows at the couture shows in Paris.
For Spring 2012, PC is channeling the Bette Davis-Joan Crawford film, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"
London Fashion Week shutters on 21 Sept. with Savile Row's venerable Hardy Amies, which is thriving under award-winning (E.Tautz) designer Claire Malcolm. She is presenting her third collection for the label.
Percy Parker and Amy Molyneaux are the brains behind PPQ. Archive photo.
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