I spent a little while yesterday looking through some of the Spring 2013 shows on Style.com (this was the first time I got anywhere near Fashion Week stuff since the week itself), and was frighteningly disappointed in the lack of originality I saw. I only looked through half of the A names, but based on all the excitement around this season's new trends and styles and such, I was dissatisfied. I had seen that stuff before. Few ensembles that I looked at gave me that elating feeling of, "Wow, that is freaking amazing, I want to stare at that forever," if any at all. Then I began the early stages of writing this post, and decided to peruse the official pictures of the Anna Sui runway show, because my shots weren't that great. And that's when my faith in fashion was revived again. Anna Sui sent clothing down the runway that have never been placed before my eyes until this point, but at the same time got my mind scrolling through a mental list of garments I own that could help me emulate the style. No black fishnets...lavender fishnets, though, that could work...Knee-length white lace leggings, that kind of fits the vibe... That's what a good collection does. It gets you thinking about something besides, "Okay, serious déjà vû."
Anna Sui's Spring 2013 collection was inspired by the French interior decorator, Madeleine Castaing, and the London and New York punk worlds. Castaing's work focused on the post-French Revolution, post-Napoleon chaos in the mid-nineteenth century. Anna Sui herself lived and thrived within the underbellies of the punk scene of the 1970s in some of the grungiest cities in the world. The unlikely combination of the two meshes (pun--there's lots o' mesh in this collection) the chaos of each time period together seamlessly. I know that if I try to explain this, it's just going to be confusing, so I'll just leave it to Tim Blanks of Style.com, who reviewed the show: "Her love of vintage casts her as a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, but there are few youth cults as riven by romance as punk, so Sui was simply bringing about a union that was written in rock 'n' roll's stars."
The brocade and zippers and chintz and pearls and ripped fishnets and multi-colored hair pieces and crazy head adornments all amounted to a nostalgic but refreshing collection. Looking at the clothes and Karlie Kloss (who opened and closed the show)'s moody pout make you feel passionate about what you're seeing--it's that delicate balance between anger and love. I don't even know what trends I could pull out of this collection, which further proves how original these garments are. All I know is that I need some brocade, some cut-off leggings, and a long sleeve mesh t-shirt.
[Photos by me.]
Metallic sunflowers and pink hair--sign me up.
This new dress-over-calf-length-leggings-made-of-a-weird-fabric silhouette is really growing on me.
Whoever said platforms are dead was clearly mistaken.
I can't figure out what it is that I love about this look, but I am diggin' so hard.
A denim jumpsuit over a torn mesh shirt is a genius combination that I never would have thought of.
See, it looks like a crown on her head, but it's more like funky bloated chintz ears in real life.
Vibe I am getting here: unicorn.
It's Aymeline Valade!! I never thought I would be in the same room as her. She is legitimately the sexiest person alive.
Lindsey Wixson was also there.
I KNOW.
Another solid look.
Hanne. Gaby. Freaking. Odiele. I had seen her looking distressed in the subway station a few days before--she turned around to face me, looking confused (it had nothing to do with me, just in case that was unclear), and when I realized who she was, my knees went weak. I kind of worship her, as you know.
Yo you flip that hurr, Aymeline.
Frida Gustavsson was present, aka one of the new faces of H&M, along with Joan Smalls (who also walked in the show.)
Karlie Kloss, working it like a freaking boss as she saunters down the runway in a pearl-adorned denim dress to close out the show.
The designer.
There is some very important news that I did not discuss before. ALEXA CHUNG WAS SITTING FRONT ROW. I WAS IN THE SAME ROOM AS ALEXA CHUNG. Before the show had begun, I had tried to walk up and down the runway to check out the front row as I usually did, and I noticed a huge crowd of people. I squeezed in, peeked under, and jumped over several peoples' arms/cameras--and caught sight of a familiar face. THE FACE OF ALEXA CHUNG. I couldn't get a good shot of her despite my efforts, so I walked away to wait until the clump of people dispersed slightly. That's when someone asked me if I was authorized to be on the runway right now, to which I replied no, and she said that I'm not allowed to be there then and I should go back to my seat, thank you. I was fuming. Too scared to try again (even after texting my mom to find out her verdict on the situation), I tried with all my might to get a photo of Alexa from afar. That is what you are seeing above. She is the one directly to the left of the blond woman with the green floral headpiece.
Also in the front row: Andrew Bevan of Teen Vogue, Derek Blasberg, and Joanna Hillman of Harper's Bazaar. I talked to Andrew after the show, and he was so so nice. He wrote his email address in my Hogwarts notebook and we joked about how burnt out we were from Fashion Week (it was Wednesday night by this point, and I'd already been to Milly a few hours before, and had to rush to Clover Canyon directly after Anna Sui).
On a separate note, here's a playlist to entertain you through Hurricane Sandy. That is, if the Internet doesn't go out...waaah wahhhh...
(Keeping with the 70s theme of the collection, there's some 70s music on the playlist.)
Enjoy the day off from school. Do something really, really, really cool.
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