H&M Mens Fall/Winter 2011

The pants!









And I think the time is ripe for M to get a tuxedo. I've been wanting one ever since I saw one in Zara back in 2003. That one had a sharper, Victorian cut, and staring at the showcase I let slip something to the effect of 'Oh...I wanna be buried in this outfit!...", which was understood too literally by my mother. Um, anyway, I think this one would look alright with a whole bunch of stuff, including a backpack and a long, stuffy, fringed scarf.



Of course, the usual rub with H&M is the poor quality. Yet for all that, I've had things from H&M that have kept up with my reckless wearing habits for as long as five years. From my experience, their expensive stuff (expensive by their standards) tends to be decent and wears pretty well with due care. It's still good value compared to similar styles in classier shops.

This is a squee post.

So, Chanel's Fall 2011 rtw. Cormack McCarthy's "The Road" and the works of Kaspar David Friedrich keep coming up in runway reviews as the inspiration for this collection, and while that accounts for the color palette, I don't see 'post-cataclysmic world' written all over these clothes. I mean, those low-heeled pumps and rolled up trousers are way too perky to connote struggle with natural and hobbesian calamities. Yes, combat boots...but seriously, they look cozy rather than fierce. No, that's not quite right: you could battle dragons dressed like that, but you'd feel very cozy while you're at it, and even look elegant, to boot.

Last year I was complaining the Channel collection wasn't weird enough. This one isn't weird at all, and I like it because it's the opposite of weird. It reminds me of Sigur Ros videos. It makes me want to climb into the picture and live there. Warm fuzzy wearable Chanel:
























So, just for statistics: is there anyone who finds these guys' outfits gladiatorial? As far as I'm concerned, they look like very huggable creatures. In fact all those pockets make me think these guys would make wonderful fathers. No, I don't think I can explain that connection:




Now look what's become of the rigid Chanel skirt suit. It has a pouch!




"Look, Karl, I hate dressing up. Can you to design me some pyjamas that I could wear to the Oscars?"

"Oh sure, there you go."

Seeing Snape in Gareth Pugh's Fall 2011

geometric, robust, disciplined tops and triumphantly billowing hems, capes, and trousers, which were indeed inspired by robes. Priest's robes, but no matter.







This looks a great deal like Snape's swirling cape as he spins out of sight in the latest DH2 trailer:



No, I am not implying that Severus would wear any of this. Now that personal obsessions have been dealt with, let's talk about Gareth Pugh. While I didn't think he was ready to fill Alexander McQueen's shoes last year - a possibility rumored at the time - Pugh's collections, though not as brilliant, reflect a certain facet of McQueen's style that we have not seen much of in Sarah Burton's work. The present collection is not Pugh's best sample of McQueen-imbibed stuff, but his earlier work definitely intertwines with McQueen's, theme-wise: the harlequin motif, the black and white outfits, the dark-costume-drama-on-acid dimension, like for instance in McQueen's fall 2008 and fall 2009. Oh, and I'm not implying anything about who influenced who. Nor am I reducing the value of Pugh's design to their degree of resemblance to Lee's work. The dissimilarities are more significant than the similarities anyway, which this collection makes quite clear.








I keep getting the sense that he's been interested in making fabric look like metal. His sleek spring 2011 collection seemed like an effort to make us believe those coats have been forged by an effeminate blacksmith. Here, to the contrary, we see metal hanging down in folds, like fabric.






An enfant terrible whose taste for sensationalism is receding in favor of sophistication. He's progressed a great deal.