Couture.

Last week's Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week... for the super rich, the super famous and for the super green-eyed. And me.

Nothing quite gets my juices flowing like haute couture. An opinion I’m sure most of you reading this will share.

Gazing at images of Valentino's masterful and exquisite creations on show at PFW last week caused some kind of physiological condition that I can only describe as the feeling that at at any moment my bones may actually melt and I would turn into a big heap of jelly on the floor.

Perhaps I should see a doctor. Or perhaps, that's just couture.

Sure, if I were a hardened industry professional maybe I'd walk away from viewing Chanel couture thinking about my next meeting or how Miss Vogue has arrived about twenty years too late. Sad face.

As it is, I’m constantly moved by fashion, and thank heavens for it. Of course, fashion can be about words: Chanel, Prada, Dior or images: Cara, Kate, Louis Vuitton’s Edwardian train (PFW 2012). But the best fashion is more importantly about a feeling.

 

Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture offering for autumn/winter 2013 epitomise the word “creation”. Ensembles of Off-his-rocker, eclectic, magnificent, jaw-dropping creations. If God were on some hallucinogenic drug when he created man, and decided, against his initial thoughts, to clothe them, I think he’d have come up with something a little like JPG’s haute couture collection.

Tribal printed enough to ensure survival, fur-lined enough to stay warm (and ultra glamorous should Adam wish to whisk Eve away on a pre-historic getaway) yet divine enough to remind us all that his creations were heaven sent.

Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture autumn/winter 2013 Images from Google

I’m as old-fashioned as one could possibly be at 26 but I do have to praise Sir Tim-Berners Lee for doing whatever futuristic, techy stuff he did to form the World Wide Web. Why? Because last week I settled down on my sofa with a cup of tea and watched the Valentino autumn/winter Haute Couture collection live from Paris.

And if that weren’t pleasurable enough, I then, for the next 13 minutes 17 seconds, barely breathed lest I somehow miss one drop of the visual dream that was Valentino Haute Couture in the Rocco suite of the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild.

Intricate lace was worn high to the neck in fairytale gowns of black, stark white or crimson red; soft enough to portray the most delicate of femininity but plentiful enough to evoke drama and heart-pounding romance. The iron-gate embroidery, intricate beading and sumptuous antique florals were nothing less of exquisite. 

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli are fast becoming two of my favourite people in the entire world because their designs, in addition to being ju-ust beautiful, are perfect examples of quiver-at-the-knees couture that is best appreciated with the most simple yet euphoric sigh.

Valentino Couture, Paris 2013  Images from Google

As much as fashion is about the words, the image, the concept, it is that most important of things that keeps us yearning for more. That feeling.

That couture feeling.

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How the boys do.

So in the process of thinking of another blog post I found myself asking my other half what I should write about. Of course, the inevitable... "Write about me." Said he.

Of course, I laughed off the proposal. Not that I wouldn't love to tell you all about my beloved; his funny little ways and lovable nature, but that's not really the purpose or intention of this blog. "Hmmmm, I don't really write about men's fashion." I replied, dotingly.

Which got me thinking. Why don't I write about men's fashion? Is it because I'm a woman? Is it because it's just not as interesting as women's fashion? Am I close-minded? Never.

Women's fashion is itself never-ending, an engulfing black hole of astounding creation; do I have time for men's fashion? My brain constantly whirs with fashion's transient images and starry names. Isn't the draw of women's fashion already too much to fathom? 
 
The answer to that is yes. But, that said, it is in my very nature to find out more; to immerse myself in new wonders of creativity and style.

So, I took delve into a world of testosterone, quiffs and chiselled bone structures. And what with the men's collections in London taking place just last week, what an apt time to embark on such an astute and exciting learning curve.

I started with the London Collections: Men. Autumn/Winter 7th to 9th January 2013. Here's a little of what I found, stay tuned for more:

I thought I'd start with familiar territory (you know, because new things can be scary, so best to stick with what you know) and perused Christopher Kane's A/W offering for our friends with extra body parts.

Putting a bloke in a skinny jean or aristocratic smoking slipper can be problematic... a dash too girly, or a tad too gaudy. However, Mr Kane has totally rebuffed any notion of over-feminising the collection with gothic colours of sewer grey and bat black, not to mention the use of classically scary Frankenstein and Dracula amid animalistic prints.

Nicely done too, because the collection, as Christopher Kane manages so wonderfully with women’s clothing, is wearable. A little geeky, dark and gothic perhaps, but casual and toned down enough to transfer to the high street. Topman will be jam-packed with literary horror references come Autumn 2013 without question.

Scary monsters at Christopher Kane London Mens Collection AW 13/14

And me, I'll be secretly hoping the other half buys his very own snake-skin clutch and monster-print hoody, so I can borrow them. And wear black lipstick. And totally rock.


And if like me, you need to know more about how the other half dress, watch this video from the London Collections. Interesting and David Gandy makes a cameo. Nuff said.

http://www.londoncollections.co.uk/men
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