Thursday, March 4, 2010

Versus Fall 2010: They're Snorting Kool-Aid !

Donatella couldn't be happier, now that Christopher Kane has been hired to cover her skin tight, leather clad butt. This, his second season with the label, finds him still applying pressure to it's sunken chest and breathing what must be cigarette smoke into its collapsed lung. That's right, lung, singular. I was awoken in the night by a ding sound emanating from my IPhone alerting me to an email update. Leaving for Savannah today, left me in a light agitated sleep so I woke up and reached for the phone. I thought it could be that message informing me that my new glamorous life, filled with excitement, brilliant fashion show invitations, con-fabs set up back to back with some of the most influential movers and shakers in every business of interest, even invitations to sit at the head table to the right of Tavi, BryanBoy, Susie Bubble, but to the left of Scott Schuman, The Snotorialist*, and yes down near the end of that impossibly long banquet table out of Anna's sight line. But it wasn't my salvation email, it was a sad update on Versus, Christopher Kane and Dame Anna's machinations to maneuver him into some new and unrealistic position. It was a report on the Queen's favorite. After reading it I couldn't go back to sleep thinking about the strong arm mafia tactics of the Conde Nasty Gang. They should be on that cheese ball show "America's Most Wanted".

I dragged myself from bed with a king sized headache and sat down to my crystal ball (MacBook) and decided to gaze into the standing water drainage ditch that is Milan and dig around for Versus. I found it and I must say I was supremely confused. How is it that Anna sees something so marginal in this guy. I can understand Donatella's confusion, she's an addled mess. I guess Anna is just an old mess. Looking at Kane's eponymous collection for London's Spring season I was baffled at all the hoopla. I went back to a collection he did for his own collection for Spring 2009. I saw really fantastic things there. Imagination, wildly ambitious technique and excitement that would surely elicit interest and even suggest sales... what a novel concept. I've included pictures from that collection to illustrate my point. These suggest big things for his future. The Versus outings negate that brilliance. They appear to have come from another source. I wonder how taste , an aesthetic rigor and conviction can just simply escape one. Is it the 'take the money and run' syndrome?

Well Versus looked like a $10.00 retread of tired , musty old Versace. Every single dress was a redo. They were so abbreviated and entangled with straps and bras that it seemed that Donatella announced over the cafeteria loudspeaker that there was a 1.5 meter limit for fabrics on all dresses. It was signature satin everywhere and dresses were repeated verbatim or the 2 styles that were the collection were bred to produce a hybrid 3rd style. The only part of the collection that looked fresh were a couple of very fitted leather jackets that were great. The pleated circle skirts under them were so Lolita and so oft repeated that I didn't notice them any more. Color was pretty. He used a beautiful blue and green and a rich shocking red, but otherwise there were a couple of unexplained mud shades. The shoes were hideous, a close friend's FAVORITE adjective, and the make up was street walker subtle. Deep red lips that seemed to whisper, "For a nickel I will....."

So back to Anna's big plans for Kane. I say, "Good for him!" God knows there's not that much out there to be gotten, but why does it go to the ones that don't really have the cojones to work it? Well, that's life in the break down lane.

*Snotorialist, because he's not a particularly pleasant character, especially if you make the horrific faux-pas of complimenting his work. Some people just don't know how to accept a compliment gracefully. I get the feeling that graceful isn't an adjective that describes Scott.....




No models were abused or starved, just bored stiff.

9 comments:

Dandy said...

I'm in Savannah. It's been cooler than usual. Bring your sweaters and umbrella. The town is brimming with news of Obama's visit. :)

Anonymous said...

what a hideous post!!!

g

Anonymous said...

Ouch Fluff, just ouch. LOL For some reason, Donatella seems convinced that Kane is what she needs. Frankly I never understood the Versus line even when Giannni had it, but she has her heart set on Kane so there you have it.

I take it you read the link I send about bloggers? "Snotorialist" you have a way w/ words bb, but just remember those words as medicine words for yourself, OK. The blogging world makes stars and divas, so remember that on your journey.

brooksie

paula said...

These styles all need HEALING, and lots of it. IrisFlax has it all!http://irisflax-healinghairstyles.blogspot.com/2010/03/feng-shui-or-fogna-sciupare.html

Robert said...

I always am disappointed when a sense of bitterness seeps into your posts, and it takes away from an otherwise thought provoking blog. Don't sit in judgement of other bloggers or designers --- you are not infallible in your career as either.

Anonymous said...

Fluff: Say what you will about Anna and all the fashion bloggers but "America's Most Wanted" is not cheesy! Seriously, that show has put away some very dangerous people.

x said...

Fluff,

I didn't find anything particularly bitter about your post and would love to see you continue on the same wavelength.Bang on target! Only problem is many times truth in itself is bitter! CFDA has become a bigger joke by including BryanBoy and Tavi as part of their panle of judges, I pity the designers who would get those awards! What exactly is the talent/credential of BryanBoy except being famous for being famous? Anna puts in her signature on a piece of scrap paper and he is like "A Note to Me From Anna Wintour of American Vogue". Except from being a braggart and exibiting extreme vulgarity I don't see anything else in him.And would like to know whether you were invited to be part of that panel.At least then I would know not all is lost and there is still some fairness left in the system, until then God save fashion!

Anonymous said...

I agree that you should continue posting your opinions, PC be damned. This site is not for the timid. But you call them as you see them and my long years in high end retail cause me to give you very, very high marks for having a keen eye and a no BS attitude toward so-called "fashion icons".

So keep it up. Keep it up.

Lulu

Anonymous said...

The Sartorialist was interesting at one point but has become full of himself, reading his own press releases?

His On the Street photos can be quite good - and then again many would have been at home in Vogue's old Fashion Victim (FV) feature.

I am glad that Fluff is interested in the beautiful (a word almost unknown in today's fashion world) as well as well as the innovative, the original.

Lulu