Vogue Fashion Festival 2013- Alber Elbaz and Donatella Versace

Those of you that have read my previous posts will know that I promised to review the festival after I had been. So the following is my take on this very fashionable event.

On a slightly cloudy, gloomy Sunday afternoon I made my way to the 2013 Vogue Fashion Festival. Wearing a Giambattista Valli white skirt with sheer tulle panel paired with a flowery Zara blouse and my trusted Louboutins I felt pretty confident that I looked fashionable enough for Vogue.
My misguided notion of being well dressed only lasted until I walked in through the doors of the venue and literally crashed into the fashion brigade. They were definitely out in full force to support Vogue UK hosting the festival for a second year. Groomed to an inch of their life these women and (few) men looked like a sea of beautiful swans swimming in the elegantly transformed Queen Elizabeth Hall of the Southbank Centre.

As usual my attention went straight to the footwear. Everyone without exception wore beautiful shoes; it is unfortunate that I could not photograph them all without looking like quite the stalker. There were beautiful Chanel bags all around, so much so that I am afraid to say I got slightly put off by it all. Capes have definitely made a comeback as I saw several people sporting one.

There was an exhibition of sorts outside the hall for people to wonder around at their own pleasure. I had tickets for both Alber Elbaz and Donatella Versace which were one hour apart. I had also arrived slightly early therefore had time to have a good look at the stalls and exhibitions that were set up before and after my sessions. There was a Vogue beauty parlour set up where you could get you hair braided in different styles and have your make-up done. You could then proceed to the Vogue cover shoot stall where you could have your own Vogue cover shoot. They had all the accessories for you to borrow and I have to say I was tempted to have my own Vogue cover holding the Chanel's new Hula Hoop bag. In addition they were doing 'Vogue photoshop' on your cover shoot as well. It was a win win situation. But alas there were long queues and I didn't have the time nor patience to wait.

One of the walls of the exhibition was dedicated to past and present Vogue covers giving it a red carpet feel. Many people were getting their pictures taken with the covers as background. There were two cafe's on site, both very busy. The adjoining Vogue shop were selling the usual memorabilia sold at festivals (festival mugs, t-shirts as well as books by speakers).I bought a Versace black and golden t-shirt which turned out to be one of my best buys as Donatella signed it later in the evening!

First up for the sessions was Alber Elbaz. From YSL to Lanvin, I have always loved his work. After listening to him on sunday I became an admirer of him as well. Elbaz was just the right amount of funny and self-depricating during his hour long session. He was being interviewed by Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue UK who asked him questions  ranging from his experiences in the Israeli army to being the creative director of Lanvin for the past 10 years. Elbaz explained that his passion for fashion was 'never about clothes, it was women'. His aim is to design clothes for women that 'feel and look good on women'. It was refreshing to see a fashion designer talk about food quite as much as he did; at one point he referred to his new book as 'short and fat, just like me'. He also went onto admit that the only people he were jealous of were those 'that could eat forever and not get fat'. He was all praises for Victoria Beckham. Apparently Elbaz has always wanted to sing but due to being shy has never quite managed to take it up. He saw Victoria recently and told her 'Victoria if you can do fashion I can sing'.

On a more serious note he talked about how high fashion was moving into board rooms and meetings. In his words designers were now 'googling Africa rather than going to Africa' to be inspired. He left us with the words 'fashion is not about second skin, it's a fantasy. The fantasy of a dress'. Well his words sure made me fantasise about working with him (hey everyone should have a pipe dream!).

I did not envy Donatella Versace's task of following Elbaz after his incredible session. However, she surprised me. I expected her to be 'plastic-fantastic' but she turned out to be more 'fantastic-fantastic'. She was very funny and engaging with the audience. I had always dismissed her as a fashion designer who was more flash that fashion but she certainly proved me wrong.

Starting from her very close bond with her brother, to her first line for Versace, to loosing her beloved brother in tragic circumstances, she came across as a genuine, strong and very brave woman.  It must have been a very daunting task to take helm of Versace when she was still grieving. She explained that most of her arguments with her brother was regarding the lengths of skirts as she always wanted them to be 'shorter and tighter'. Unsurprisingly when asked what she favoured as her personal style she explained 'tight and figure hugging'. Really Donatella? We would have never guessed. She also seemed like an avid advocate for new designers. She had great things to say about both Christopher Kane and J W Anderson; both of whom worked for Versace. Incidentally they were also present during her session and sitting five rows ahead of me. How I held back my stalker self from going to ask for pictures I do not know. After her session was over she signed some of our Versace t-shirts; my only complaint was that though the queue wasn't very long she only signed t-shirts for the first 10-12 people. I understand that she has to go and get her private plane back to Milan as she is very busy but surely another ten-fifteen minutes wouldn't have killed her. But hey if Miuccia Prada is one of her close friends she must be doing something right.

Anyway, overall a very enjoyable day, I thoroughly recommend going next year. Just remember definitely dress to impress- these voguettes (is that a word?) take their fashion rather seriously.

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History and Influence of trousers/pants on Fashion

I recall being rather surprised when a friend informed me that it was only during the early 1900’s that wearing trousers in European cultures became acceptable. My surprise was partly due to the fact that Chinese and Middle Eastern cultures (Harem pants anyone?) have long been following this trend.  So why did it take so long for Europe to come round and how did trousers become our most essential wardrobe staple? Ok so maybe this is not the case for all of you but I certainly cannot live without my jeans and black trousers.

Looking into this issue I came across an early 20^th century French designer by the name of Paul Poiret who is cited as being one of the first people in Europe to design trousers for women. Inspired by costumes he had seen on the Opera Sheherazade which is based on a famous collection of short stories from the Middle East called 1001 Arabian nights, he created wide-legged and loose fitting trousers for women thus introducing Europeans to Harem pants. I’m sure his designs must have created some outrage at the time.

It is often said that Gabriel Coco Chanel loved her harem pants and we all know (only too well) that what Coco loves we love too. Chanel was into designing clothes for active working women. She made sure her clothes were practical so that women felt relaxed in the clothes that they wore. Therefore, trousers instead of corsets took a centre stage in her collections. She was rumoured to have famously worn her boyfriends’ suits and designed riding trousers for women, a novelty in the 1930's as women usually rode wearing heavy skirts forcing them to ride, rather uncomfortably I assume, side saddle. 

People continued to be equally fascinated and horrified by the idea of women wearing trousers throughout the 30's and onto the early 40's. It did help the cause though that Hollywood actresses such as Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich had started to wear trousers regularly. Even at the beginning of her career Marlene was known to single out masculine clothes to wear and garnered a reputation for having an androgynous quality. At the same time some people believe that Hepburn’s rebellion against wearing what was considered to be the norm at her time changed the perception of how women should dress.  

1950’s unfortunately dictated that women wear dresses rather trousers as trousers made them less ‘feminine’. Fortunately this trail of thought did not last very long and 1966 saw Yves-Saint-Laurent introduce Le Smoking tuxedo suits for women. Yves-Saint-Laurent was seen by many as having empowered women by giving them the option to wear clothes that were normally worn by men with influence and power. However, even so until the 1990’s trouser suits or pansuits were considered inappropriately masculine. In fact until the 1990’s women were not allowed to wear pansuits in the United States Senate.

Since the 1990’s though we have not looked back. Whether you are wearing jeans, pantsuits, shorts or jumpsuits I am sure you will all agree that we are ‘wearing the trousers’ more often than not. I find there is something liberating about wearing trousers in the 21^st century knowing that about 5 generations ago this would not have been considered appropriate. How do you feel about trousers? Do you find it empowering or do you think that only dresses and skirts doth a lady make? 

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CHANEL Paris-Bombay 2012/2013

I cannot tell you how much I loved the Chanel 2012/2013 Paris-Bombay collection. Though some people claimed that it was Karl Lagerfield's shameless way of announcing himself to the emerging Indian market it did not make any difference- the collection  was an instant classic. The beading, the beautiful embroidery, the heavily embellished jackets complete with classic Chanel tweed made for an enchanting collection. To add to all of this the jewellery was simply mesmerising. Accessories seemed to me to be inspired from mugul/rajput royals with a side of Lagerfield. Don't believe me? Check out the pictures for yourself and let me know what you think! 

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