'FIGURE' OUT THE FASHION TREND: Spring/Summer 2015 Designer Collections

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-to-Wear

MaxMara

From Wikipedia

Max Mara Flagship store Beijing Avenue de Luxe

Max Mara is a luxury Italian fashion house belonging to the group of companies under the Max Mara Fashion Group holding.

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-to-Wear

MaxMara

Vogue.co.uk

The Seventies is shaping up to be a point of focus in Milan. Yesterday, at Gucci, and again this morning at MaxMara. The house took it's cue from archive campaign imagery of Angelica Huston, photographed at Milan's Grand Hotel in 1971.

Naive, micro floral prints were scattered over Seventies secretary blouses and midi skirts, even extending to cloche hats and knee high boots for a total head to toe look. It wasn't entirely convincing - those hats are a tricky thing to pull off.

Florals bloomed bigger into painterly prints, which morphed into an abstract camouflage, that military mood continued into khaki georgette blouses with D-ring buckles yanked at the cuff. Of course, MaxMara's strength is in outerwear and the best looks were played out in luxurious stone coloured suedes and printed calfskin duster coats - great fabrics - isn't that what women look to MaxMara for?

Sarah Harris

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-to-Wear

MaxMara

Alessandra Rich

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-To-Wear

http://www.oliviapalermo.com

“Not only is lace very feminine, but I love that you look at it once, then you realize you don’t understand, so you have to look again.” As stated regarding her Fall collection, Alessandra Rich provided a perfect riff off of those ensembles with her latest installment for Spring 2015 except this time, rather than heading off to a party, Rich‘s girl was more likely off to the opera.

Fabrics were sophisticated as looks were made from primarily head to toe vintage chantilly lace or double-faced satin in a palette keeping in the antique realm – various creams, faded pinks and black. Accessories were kept simple, metal-tip pumps in brass and large round pearl studs, allowing the drama to lay entirely within the clothing itself.

There were certainly fun surprises like tiered fringe skirts and tweed trimmed seams but it was the over-sized lapels, long hemlines and circle buckle leather belts that cinched the waist that were repetitive, providing a couture retrospeck of the 1980’s – an alternative to the mainly 70’s throwback featured on most other designer runways this season. Although these details in addition to bows and fabric like velvet and organza with glittering colorful florals providing an additional nod to the most “rad” decade ever, the silhouettes and necklines provoked a vintage feel, more 1940’s, providing a one of a kind collection that stood out amongst its peers.

Alessandra Rich

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-To-Wear

Alessandra Rich

Chalayan

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-To-Wear

AT a time when technology and fashion combined are in the limelight, Hussein Chalayan is very much a designer whose name springs to mind - such is his preoccupation with making his clothes more than they first appear or more than one thing at a time.

He opened his show today with a series of sunglasses that were built into scarves bound around the head: scarf-glasses. It set the tone for his series of ninjas, as he referred to them, and a collection that took its inspiration from North Africa, Spain and Morocco, trees and irrigation channels.

The trees - bitter orange ones to be exact - made for a lovely and very feminine motif. "Naive" and "charming" were words Chalayan used backstage as he told us how much he had enjoyed the texture and shadow balance of this collection.

As always for him, it was an exploration into how to utilise and manipulate space. "I like the idea of the clothes becoming part of the wearer," he said. And so there of course came said performing pieces: a jacket atop a dress that when taken off became part of the skirt; caped backs that were actually jackets, hanging as they would on the back of a door; spliced suiting that looked like it was levitating around the space (no doubt exactly what Chalayan had in mind); and a bathing suit with an entire tux piggy-backing its wearer.

It was precision, as always, and right on cue in terms of where fashion's ongoing discussion with technology is going right now.

Jessica Bumpus

Chalayan

Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-To-Wear