Paris Fashion Week Fall 2014 Round-up Pt. II

Irish designer Sharon Wauchob is by no means new on the scene. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1993 and worked for Louis Vuitton under Marc Jacobs in the late 90s. She launched her eponymous line in 1998 and has been delivering stunningly gorgeous collections ever since. Her style has often been compared to that of Belgian and Japanese designers. In her earlier collections, this seems more apparent. 

Two of my favorite earlier Wauchob collections, Spring 2006 and Fall 2006, bear rather strong resemblance to Ann Demeulemeester's work: 

(Spring 2006)

(Fall 2006)

source: firstview.com

Contrary to what the androgynous goth and warrior-like Ann Demeulemeester woman projects, Wauchob's woman is never afraid of being sexy, sultry and vulnerable. While in the early 2000s Tom Ford's immensely popular and often copied Gucci woman oozed similar qualities, Wauchob is now one of very few designers who holds onto that desirable image of a woman who wants to be elegant, alluring and sensual and not hide her femininity in any way. Maybe it is because she so stubbornly sets herself apart from the latest trends on runways that it feels like Wauchob is currently reaching new heights in her career. Since stepping down as creative director of ethical fashion label Edun in 2013, her collections seem to have become stronger than ever.

Her Fall 2014 collection, which she showed in Paris two weeks ago, was one of my absolute highlights of this Fashion Week month. 

source: style.com

Incredibly sexy and feminine in a nonchalant way which makes it hard for me to imagine anyone could possibly resist the Sharon Wauchob woman. A truly stunning collection.

Paris Fashion Week Fall 2014 Round-up Pt. I

Paris arguably always delivers all the highlights of a Fashion Week season. This time around, Paris seemed to offer particularly strong collections. Admittedly, I am full of biased love for many of the designers presenting their collections in Paris every season. But I daresay I am open-minded enough to look at every collection with a critical eye. I almost always find things to love in a collection by a designer whose work I am not usually fond of. I almost always find things to dislike in a collection by a designer I adore. 

For Fall 2014 there were a couple of designers who wowed me with collections despite me showing little love for or simply never paying much attention to their previous work:

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen 

While I always had massive respect for Sarah Burton for following in the footsteps of the brilliant Lee Alexander McQueen, I never quite managed to warm up to what she did as the creative director for the label. Her vision seems to be somewhat limited and she she seems to be stuck creating designs around the same few silhouettes every season. Regardless, this season I fell head over heels in love with her Fall 2014 outing. Dark, atmospheric, whimsically cute (those adorable tacky costume-y boots!) and awfully intriguing. Yes, her designs are always full of lush details. But what usually strikes me as an attempt to add pomp to otherwise mediocre designs seems to be a genuine completion of the whole idea behind the collection this time around. The interplay of materials, details, accessories and styling is nothing but gorgeous. The beautiful set design is an added bonus.

source: style.com

Yiqing Yin for Léonard

Léonard is one of those labels that one may vaguely remember seeing on the Paris Fashion Week calendars before without having a clear picture of what their clothes actually look like. I can assure you, if you haven't paid close attention to their collections yet, you didn't miss much. Their clothes were mostly garish, in loud colors, the designs rather simple and sexy. Comparable to Blumarine. But not looking at the latest collection, designed by the newly appointed Yiqing Yin, would be unforgivable. Why? Because the whole collection is just effin' cool! 

source: style.com