Fall 2006 Prada

The thing is we really like Miuccia Prada. We love her sense of line and proportion, the ideas that she comes up, and the influence she has others in her industry. So we know that some of you (and believe me we read the comments as well, so you know who we are talking about) are going to dismiss this collection with a “ughh ugly skinny models” “they look stupid with those helmets on”, and my favorite “somebody please those boys a cheeseburger”. So if you are so inclined to do that please scroll along. Get a move on…

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Fall 2006 Paul Smith

Leave it to Paul Smith to add new life to a tired old horse, that of the Wild Wild West. Smith is a master of tailoring which is purely English. It should come as no surprise that he was able to combine with seamless effort the world of the cowpoke of Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman with that of King Edward. In other hands we would be extremely worried of the outcome, but Smith keeps it simple by pairing a plain white shirt with the simplest details with a finely tailored down dark-gray flannel suit.
This was a collection meant for one thing: to sell at the retail level of Smith’s branded shops as well at other menswear stores. Big chunky cardigans with western motifs, the easy fit boot-cut jean, and the large cowboy style belt buckle.

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Fall 2006 Neil Barrett

We really have a hard time explaining why we love Neil Barrett and his fall 2006 collection so much. Could it be the mix of subversive elements? The army fatigues that were paired with some of the best pieces of evening wear perhaps? Or was it the elegant tailoring that defined the whole collection? Or maybe it was the feeling that we were watching the casting call for the extras in 1997’s Gattaca by Andrew Niccol? Whatever the reason maybe the collection presented on the catwalk was sublime, surprising and very chic.
The collection was rooted in the idea of the military overcoat, and from there the ideas came forth; epauletted overcoats, field jackets with tails, camouflage-patterned shirts (with general’s three stars no less), olive trousers with fine-satin stripes with the crispest of creases.

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Fall 2006 Narciso Rodriguez

“It’s everything I want in my closet,” Narciso Rodriguez said, reflecting on the 11 men’s outfits he had just shown with his women’s collection. “A black cashmere coat, a nice tie… and you can’t have too many white shirts.” But because this was what Narciso wanted, that cashmere coat was paired with the baggy, below-the-knee shorts that are one of his own style signatures. Maybe there won’t be too many men following him there, but the rigorous cool of the other clothes on offer should find its share of takers.
Using a palette reduced to black, white, and gray (or silver, as he called it), Rodriguez presented clothes that were as meticulously constructed as his womenswear. Seams were emphasized on a black leather blazer, cut with his signature body-consciousness. The same spirit dictated the nipped-in waist of a gray suit and a wool twill coat. The show music—by new L.A. band She Wants Revenge—had the harsh, angular drive of early-eighties Anglo groups. It complemented the New Wave aerodynamics of a sleeveless cashmere top, with sleeveless white shirt and tie underneath. Sleeves are clearly superfluous in the streamlined world of Narciso’s men.

Fall 2006 Miu Miu

David Sylvian’s sonorous tones crooned the dark, waltz-timed Night Porter on the soundtrack, invoking images of a Mittel Europa-isch world out of time. It’s a place Miuccia Prada has visited before. This trip, however, she opted for a more monochrome approach than usual. “This is my childhood,” she stated after the show. “I grew up wearing Tyrolean clothes.” But there was little sense of youthful playfulness in the outfits—the worn-looking gray suit, the loden coat and trousers, the high-waisted houndstooth jacket—that made their way down the catwalk. The models, on the other hand, were so young that some seemed to be having trouble mustering the strength to raise feet shod in huge studded hiking boots.

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Models, Guns and Knives Oh My!

A British watchdog agency criticized Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana last week for ads that showed models aggressively brandishing knives.
The Advertising Standards Authority said the company acted irresponsibility and breached standards of good taste (excuse us while we comprehend the fact that we just said good taste and Dolce & Gabbana in the same sentence), which showed male models waving knives while surrounded by glamorous female models, in poses inspired by the French romantic artist Eugene Delacroix (and here you thought we were only experts in porn). One man was shown lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head.
The ruling amounts to a girly slap on the wrist and doesn’t ban the ads.
The independent authority, which regulates the industry, issued the report after 166 people complained that two ads which appeared in The Times and Daily Telegraph last October, glorified knife and gun crime.
It upheld complaints that Dolce & Gabbana had shirked its social responsibility (?) and breached standards of decency. Now if you ask us their last two collections under the Dolce & Gabbana banner breached standards of wearablity, but that’s just us. The watchdog dismissed a complaint that the ads would encourage people to harm themselves.

Fall 2006 Michael Kors Video and Backstage View

For all his name recognition and accessibility, Michael Kors has had a tough time making money in the 21st-century fashion business. This is in part because he started his empire at a time (1980) when big department stores, which had been so crucial to other designer businesses, were becoming less dominant in the retail universe, and in part because Kors’s love of classics is at odds with a trend-driven industry.
In 2003, Kors was acquired by fashion financiers Lawrence Stroll and Silas Chou, who intended to spread the name across multiple categories and make it a billion dollar brand. Fragrances and accessories did well, but other categories—menswear, lower-priced lines—didn’t. In summer 2006, the company began opening the first of a planned 100 Michael Kors stores that would mix all his various products in one space. “Everyone says it’s all about the mix, and that she wears couture with denim, or sable with flip flops,” he told WWD that August. “This is how a lot of people want to shop.” Clich HERE for our coverage of the men’s Fall 2006 collection.

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Fall 2006 Marc By Marc Jacobs

The runway was a cement sidewalk, and the boys and girls who marched up and down it were the urban magpies that Marc Jacobs always imagines in the clothes he makes for his second collection. A little vintage, a little military, a little grunge—they pick and choose across a gamut of thrifty options, then layer it all together. That’s how a gray flannel pajama shirt ends up as the partner for a worn suit in a deep brown, or how an officer’s coat gets thrown over a herringbone waistcoat over a Henley over a pair of air-force-blue trousers.

In the end though, it wasn’t about the dressed-down student that other designers seem to have in mind with their second collections. His target customer is way more adventurous than your average college boy. For instance, Jacobs injected a healthy whack of the volume he’s been toying with in his signature collection, so his trousers were as floor-sweeping as the skirts the girls were wearing. There was also a new sophistication in outerwear. A paisley shirt worn with high-waisted trousers, meanwhile, had a dandy edge, but don’t say we didn’t warn you that wearing this combo will label you “fug” and rightly so. And, to top it off, there was even a satin-lapelled tuxedo.