paris fashion week endash dries van noten & nina ricci

It's Fashion Friday, folks, and today I'm giving you two opposites from the Paris Fashion Week: Dries Van Noten and Nina Ricci. Above you see Dries Van Noten's West meets East masculine tailoring and below Peter Copping for Nina Ricci's feminine and French take on dressing up.

The PFW is in full swing and there are so many designers to choose from. Of course I, the loyal foreign citizen of Antwerp, am featuring Dries Van Noten who showed his AW12-13 Collection on Wednesday. Let me add that I would feature him whether I lived in Antwerp or not, he's definitely one of my favourites. I almost prayed last night that The Sartorialist would post some photos from the show because I knew he attended it (yes, Garance Doröe9 was there too), and when I woke up this morning I saw that he had. His are the two bottom photos. However, I always find up-close photos from Dries Van Noten's shows much better because he is all about the details; they are one of his greatest strength. His show took place in the Hötel de Ville, which according to Tim Blanks of Style.com "has to be the most beautiful town hall in the world." That's what the man said and I'm not arguing with him! Just see for yourself by watching the video below. He also said in his review:

In its glory days, Antwerp was a crossroads of the world, a place where the exotica of far-off lands collided with the European familiar, and, like the good old hometown boy that he is, Dries has always had a knack for capturing that collision. Today, for instance, he weighed the fragility of kimono silks with the roughness of military khaki or the sturdiness of gray flannel. The master touch was a filigree of gold embroidery: Storks took flight across a belted military blazer; a phoenix coiled down the sleeve of another jacket. There were golden dragons elsewhere. These were clothes to spark dreams. But a man-tailored topcoat in burnt-orange alpaca wasn't far behind. Maybe not contemplative, but definitely serene. [black text, mine]

By the way, the make-up was in the hands of Peter Philips, the global creative director of Chanel Makeup, who is Dries Van Noten's fellow Belgian. More on that in this short video.

 Now let's move on to Peter Copping for Nina Ricci, a fashion house I've loved since forever. The AW12-13 Collection which he showed at the PFW yesterday was everything I expected it to be, feminine and also flirtatious. I absolutely loved the shoes and boots. Sarah Mower said in her review for Vogue.com:

What has the Nina Ricci girl been up to since we last saw her? Playing in her mom s closetemdash a French closet, full of tweeds, little black dresses, furs, lingerie, and jewelry, that is. Some of it might well have belonged to granny (with the falling-apart ball gowns and all) and, quite possibly, given the quite enviably sexy outcome of her playtime improvisationsemdash slit skirts, see-through this-and-that, a certain rumpled-hair dishabille lookemdash she s just on the brink of being up to no good.  [black text, mine]I think that pretty much sums it up.


Before publishing this post I was hoping that someone would put a video from the show online and ELLE TV came to my rescue:



During the fashion weeks season it would come in handy to have more Fridays in the week for my Fashion Friday posts. Today at the PFW we will see the collections from Dior, Isabel Marant, Sonia Rykiel, and Lanvin, just to name a few. Let me just add that I'm not skipping the Milan Fashion Week, just jumping over it for now.

On a personal note, this day started with yummy chocolate muffins, as it's our oldest daughter's birthday. I cannot believe she has turned 12. I've been saying lately that the world clock must have gone wrong, this simply cannot be right! 

Have a fabulous Friday!

photo credit:1-12: Yannis Vlamos for Vogue US13-14: Scott Schuman - The Sartorialist at Dries Van Noten
15-26 : Monica Feudi for Vogue US

YouTube: Style.com / Dries Van Noten
YouTube: ELLE TV / Nina Ricci