Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Armani Prive haute couture sp 2013



This is one of those rare times that I find myself at a loss for words.  I am just not sure what to make of this haute couture collection from Giorgio Armani.  Yes I can see some of the Armani DNA and yes even some of the vocabulary that this designer has been building on for decades.  What I cannot see to find or see is why he has chosen to go so far afield and seemingly so singularly visioned with this collection.

Yes there are his signature well-tailored, to a fault, slim pants but apparently that is the only way he would like to see his customers … in pants.  My question is simply that if haute Couture is played by the client’s rules, will many of these outfits result with skirts rather than pants?  Will the magician wand disappear from the necklines of so many pieces? And does any one really care about the odd millinery?
Another force flowing through  the collection is the linear prints which suggest art deco;  but as anyone will tell you, prints are a very prickly point when it comes to buyers on any level as they are so personal, so why the concentration? 

I do have a question, how do you suppose he got all those models into those gazar and silk pants without creating a crease?  Were the models lowered into them by some huge mechanical device like a fork lift or crane?  Okay, so I have more questions like what the hell was he thinking when the past several collections have been so dress-centric and the Armanisims were so much more blatant and beautiful? 

This collection usually “shows’ as so luxe and so impeccable that I find it disturbing that there seems to be something askew here  ... from start to finish!  Peculiar designs like the supposed “gillet” and the seemingly clumsy draped or ‘folded” short dresses…. Very little had the usually light handed touch that is usually so prevalent in this collection.



The bottom line is that I am totally flummoxed by the collection and I really can’t say I hate it and know I can’t say I love but I am just unclear about its point of view and raison d’etre for the Armani ladies.  I am sure it will remain one of the many unsolved mysteries of fashion which will be forgotten in about 3 weeks when the next Armani show is scheduled in Milan.

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