The clue’s in the blog not the look!

“FRIENDS Anita, Fran and Lynne have Fashion coursing through their veins. They may spot Dior DNA, in abundance, in Maria Chiuri’s Ready to Wear collection, shown in Rodin’s Paris museum, this week” I wrote in 2017.

Since then Time has been playing more tricks than usual during Covid 19 pandemic. It seems such a short time ago that Maria Chiuri was the new girl at Dior. Yet since then my lovely sister, Ann, and my charming friend Fran have sadly died and are missed every day.

It wasn’t easy for me to find many clues in Chiuri’s Ready to Wear in the way my three friends were able to, but I thought maybe this black and white ensemble has a suggestion of Dior’s legacy in the darted waist, floaty skirt, peplum and tailored cuffs.

But here’s the rub: regardless of whether the critics like the clothes or see work as credibly linked to Dior’s back catalogue, sales are significantly up since Chiuri took over as artistic director.

Christian Dior Couture posted 2017 half-year sales revenue of just over €1 billion, up 17 percent from €893 million for the same period one year ago at constant exchange rates.

Already the avowed Feminist, Chiuri, has succeeded in attracting a much younger millennial audience — set to soon account for a large proportion of luxury spending — and her designs are reportedly selling far more briskly than the more critically-acclaimed conceptual work of her predecessor Raf Simons.

Critics and consumers are held in the thrall of  a direct-to-consumer reality where longstanding media and retail channels are being increasingly disintermediated.*

Show reviews were once scrutinised by wholesale buyers who curated clothing for consumers. Now questions are being asked about whether opinions of critics or buyers matter, when brands can connect directly with consumers online and via their own stores.

Fashion marketeers know that what you deliver is not only the product but the story about the product.

*The direct connection between social media communicators/bloggers and consumers and Fashion followers.

Belgium’s famous painter and other anomalies

Ceci ne pas Raf Simons Men’s SS 2015!

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They Might be Giants showed the world how much fun there is in Belgium.

Now I’ve been to Brussels I can confirm it’s true!

Lunching in the Hotel Metropole, I was surprised by door codes being the same for Hommes ou Femmes!  Mentioning this to a French speaking sharply dressed woman, I was told that this is the sort of thing the French are always saying is typically Belgian!

Was I seeing the springs of Surrealism at its roots?

Next day in the Magritte museum we heard that modern painters, including one or two James Ensors, would be found in the “Old Masters” rooms! I recounted the Metropole story to the British ex-pat on the desk and she agreed that there was something bizarre, rather Belgique, and similar to the door code oddness, in this curating arrangement.

The French can make as much comedy hay out of Belgian culture as they like! In the comic book museum, ‘Centre de Bande Dessine, each caption is written in the most exquisite version of four languages. My mobile phone was handed in within moments of losing it  and we learned that, instead of backwards-looking educational methods, graphic texts are used to teach reading across the age ranges.

In recent times this small country has produced the two most spell-binding, innovative, Fashion designers since Mori, Yamamoto, Miyake and Kawakubo.

Martin Margiela, who is about to put out a uni-sex cologne, uses the Art and influences of his country to help us wear our intellectual hearts on our sleeves.

Raf Simons has moved the worlds of music and apparel so subtly together we are already in the night club when we view his collections.

So three cheers for They Might Be Giants for putting my delight to music.

 

Artisanal 2011 by Maison Martin Margiela.