prettypouf
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Oh so gorgeous, I could go without the shoes but the colours and flowy nature of the dresses is stunning <3
The decline and fall of global economies has not stopped Christophe Decarnin from charging $1,500 for a Balmain T-shirt. That's his cheapest T-shirt. As in a cotton T-shirt, the only distinguishing characteristics being some artfully placed holes. Sparkles will cost you $3,000.
A fashion director from a top New York specialty store, shopping the Paris collections this month, questioned the wisdom of stocking up on Balmain after visiting the company's showroom, where the price range of fanciest dresses is $12,000 to $22,000, and jackets are priced at about $5,000. Like pretty much every other retailer, she wanted to carry one of the hottest labels in town, but really now, an entire outfit would cost modest 401(k) holders the equivalent of their losses during last week's market chaos.
//Eric Wilson, iht.com
I could totally see someone like Rhianna wearing these looks.
I'll probably get a lot of flack for saying this because people are going to say that I'm insulting their intelligence to make an opinion based strictly on the clothing. But...
If this was under Dolce, Versace, or Cavalli..Most of the comments would say how this is trashy, unimaginative, and cheap.
I like this but it looks very Cavalli/Versace 2002-05. The mesh, the chiffon are Versace signatures and I'm not saying that noone can use them but he used them in a way that Versace has already done.
^yeah you would never see cavalli doing shoulders like that.
I really don't see Cavalli, Versace or D&G in any of this, or in Decarnin's work period, save for the surface elements of crystals and animal prints. The difference to me is the silhouette, and it's enough of a difference to draw a distinct line between what Milan shows, and what we see here.
And in instances where silhouette does match, the detail and the styling of the garments are completely different. Decarnin has a way of working a dress that in my opinion, is sort of a young Tom Ford. Cavalli may load on the prints and the ruching, but he has never made a lace cut-out dress with zippers and crystal shoulder pads (I'm thinking of Kate Moss in Balmain on the cover of Purple), he simply does not reference glam and rock & roll in the same way. And that is the beauty of Balmain to me, the understanding of glam and rock in an imperfect, off center way.
^is that anna s? i thk she's made to wear balmain...
you got a good pointTo me, the HUGE different between Balmain and Cavalli/Versace (Donatella), is that he's not about cleavage and vava voom, but the legs and the atmosphere of sexiness from the clothes. There's something French about Decarnin's Balmain, not chic, no; but the French conservative and tackiness, yes, French tackiness exists, don't deny. What conservative? You see a lot of his gowns are not overtly revealing, but just right. Lara's dress was a crew-neck, com'on. One key take that he cleverly uses is the clean face and undone hair style, something nonchalance and utterly French, sets him miles away from Donatella and Cavalli. Decarnin's woman is not portrait as a flirt or dirty tarts that woo men like Cavalli's, but a grown up French femme fatale with mysterious and dark. BTW, Cavalli and Donatella don't know how to bondage like this.
All 3 designers share one common subject - sexiness, but in different context. Decarnin reminds me of Gianni Versace, whose work was slaughtered when alive, Decarnin's tutu gown was totally channeling Gianni's screen-printed silk gown circas 1992-93. Colin McDowell described Gianni's outfits were often seen as for hookers, he released the animal side of women, whereas Decarnin's ability of exuding the same desire in a French manner set him apart. Don't we all praise how the great master managed to walk on the fine wire between good/bad taste or vulgarity/demure after his death? Giving the fact that he's not one of those vava voom designers, or desperado a la Giambattista Valli, but a shy and timid one.
Zac Posen? gimme a break! I am not going to drag Dolce into this class, simply because the duo is more about Northern Italy, Sicilian etc etc; They didn't play hard on sexiness, but more about heavy Italian femininity and androgyness. Someone hinted that FW08 was more edgy? to me, this is a much better collection to both 08 collections, they were too much alike, too American, too Alexander Wang, but not this one. He pushed it much uncompromisingly further. Not for everyone and so what? MMM doesn't make clothes for everyone, so does Galliano, McQueen, Ghesquiere, Tisci; fashion is not for everyone- PERIOD. And that's the reason why we like it. Decarnin's Balmain is the long lost rock chick since the talentless Stella McCartney's Chloe in Paris. Cherish it when last. This is a gift!
I love alot of pieces in this collection, but im not going to pay 15000 euros for that green mini dress, and def not paying 6500 euros for a pair of jeans with embelishments...i mean are you joking me? the pricing of balmain turns me off...no matter how much i like the clothes..i can just go to a nice vintage store and find jeans and dresses from the 80s and early 90s....Gianni versace's old dresses....