Jewel & Jewel

Model present creations by designer John Galliano at Christian Dior Fall 2008 / 2009 haute couture show in Paris.

Model showcased creations by fashion house Christian Dior during the presentation of their Men’s Fashion Spring-Summer 2009 collection in Paris.

The Paris menswear collections kicked off with a focus on individual style, reflecting a downturn in the global economy which has taken the shine off status dressing. The new mood sweeping men’s fashion this season has produced some unlikely style icons.

Models wear a creation by French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier during the Men’s Fashion Spring / Summer 2009 collection, in Paris.

Models dispaly the creations men`s spring / summer 2009 fashion collection by fendi.

Model wear outfits by Calvin Klein, as part of the men’s Spring/Summer 2009 fashion collection, at Milan fashion week in Milan Italy.

Italian designer team Dolce & Gabbana kicked off Milan’s fashion week in a relaxed style, taking inspiration from oriental kimonos to kit out men in silk evening pajamas next summer.

Asian-style prints such as dragons or butterflies decorated robes and shorts in black, white, grey, sepia or ivory for the duo’s signature line, with Naomi Campbell modeling one of their designs as part of the spring/summer 2009 menswear collections.

Evening jackets, teamed with black trousers, also sported the prints in the collection which overall was said to reflect “the relaxed lifestyle of the modern man.”

The look was colored by a variety of light and dark blues, as well as natural hues from beige to brown for both formal striped suits and casual wear, topped with models wearing dark-rimmed glasses.

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The latest designer to launch into the foreign cruise runway moment is Diane von Furstenberg who staged a charming show in a beautiful Florentine garden, as celebrity and sports greats mingled with enough Italian aristocrats to elect a new king.

 
Few things summed up Diane’s drawing power better than her front row where Tony Parker and Eva Longoria sat between princes and princesses of the Corsini, Torlonia, Borromeo and Pucci family, along with Western Europe’s greatest dandy Lapo Elkann.

It being Diane, this cruise also attracted the great and the good of fashion media: Vanity Fair’s Elizabeth Saltzman, Suzy Menkes and Hamish Bowles, plus a smattering of designers - Christian Louboutin, Eva Cavalli and ever elegant Eric Wright.

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The sources for Vera Wang’s inspiration are never merely passing, superficial references. Whether it’s a painting, a novel or an intangible memory, they form an integral part of the design. Wang distills their key elements, whether a color palette or a narrative theme, into clothing that quietly evokes the artistic core of the original work.

Thankfully, this process of translation never feels forced and the delicate balance between high-minded concept and actual design remains spot-on. In other words, you don’t need to know the reference to appreciate the clothes. Wang’s designs aren’t fussy or precious, rigidly following their muses so as to be unwearable. Though couture-like in their construction, with complicated draping and pleating, ultimately the collections feel effortless. In Wang’s universe, you don’t want to look as though you’re trying too hard.

Wang’s 2009 Resort collection, shown on Thursday, June 12, in New York, took inspiration from Francoise Sagan’s 1954 novel “Bonjour Tristesse,” a coming of age tale about a French teenager in the south of France, on the Cote d’Azur. Taking the book’s motifs of the sun and the sea, “the former representing a paternal sign of power with the latter representing a daughter’s poignant longing for her deceased mother,” according to Wang’s program notes. Wang focused on two-tone pieces throughout most of the collection, with bright yellow symbolizing the sun and shades of blue for the sea, contrasted with grays, plums, greens and corals.

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