Clements Ribeiro Colection | yohana
A Clements Ribeiro show is always a glimpse into the deeply serious yet dreamy and creative minds of Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro. For Spring it was one better: a glimpse into their studio-slash-home. "It's kind of a journey through our house," Clements said backstage. "There's toile de Jouy. We have lots of botanical pressed things, lots of plants, lace curtains."The close-at-hand inspiration didn't make for an enormous leap, but an evolution of ideas the designers have been pondering over a couple of seasons. That long midi silhouette to the calf became slimmer and primmer, the latter unavoidable when you're dealing with faded-wallpaper florals and lace. But something like a bright intarsia blocked twinset and striped lace pencil skirt was still far from being staid.
The duo seems to be in a happy and confident place. They know their strengths, and they're sticking to them. Topping that list: their techno-romantic digital prints. They figured heavily in the new pull-on-and-go athletic direction here of slim, printed silk pants and shorts with (chic) elastic waistbands and matching racerback tanks and boxy tees. "It's just what I'm in the mood for wearing," said Clements, sporting a version of the look from a recent collaboration with the Museum of Everything. That sort of easy separate is never a bad idea when you're looking to broaden sales. Still, pieces like a top with two florals engineered to look like raglan sleeves didn't seem like a cheap ploy to cash in. The show ended on a high note with a twisty op-art print thrown into the sweet mix: It had shades of Alice in Wonderland. Well, there's one girl who figured out that there's no place like home.
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It was inevitable that the epic Saint Laurent exhibition, which recently closed after a six-month run in Paris, would make its presence felt in fashion this season. It certainly put the man who holds the reins at the house that Yves built in a reflective mood. In a blazingly focused, tightly edited show, Stefano Pilati revisited the Yves Saint Laurent codes one by one: beginning with a trenchcoat and building—naturally—to Le Smoking, in crepe de soir. In between came bowed blouses, blasts of color, cabans, paysanne ruffles, clouds of marabou, long forties lines, exotica, erotica, and more. It was a comprehensive guided tour of the YSL universe. And the location—a Rothschild hôtel particulier in the eighth—was a simpatico venue, its gilded, frescoed salons instantly creating a more appropriate, intimate mood than the cavernous glory of the Grand Palais, where Pilati had been showing for a while.
Defining the Yves Saint Laurent man: That's the challenge Stefano Pilati said he was meeting with his new collection. This creature is elusive, possibly because Yves Saint Laurent himself gave little direction other than the clothes in his own closet. It's not at all like the prodigious legacy the designer left with his womenswear. But Pilati remains determined to pin down his target. He was feeling a more body-conscious silhouette for Fall. Accordingly, almost everything about the collection, including details like lapels, felt elongated and slenderized. Even a felted blouson was drawn in to the body. The exception was the oversize outerwear, although its volume had the effect of emphasizing the slimness of what lay beneath. So did the very substantial footwear, raised up on ridged, camo-patterned soles.
North Africa is the root of the Yves Saint Laurent saga. It's where Yves himself was born, it's the well he went back to time and again. Now it seems to serve the same function for Stefano Pilati. His new men's collection had a palette of sand and sky, while the mood of the clothes, alternately tribal and military, suggested a European gone native (it's the Paul Bowles reference again).
Gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac has a long history of collaborating with fellow creative types to showcase the work of Robert Mapplethorpe—Hedi Slimane and avant-garde director Robert Wilson among them. For his latest coup, the groundbreaking impresario—who has been showing Mapplethorpe’s work for decades—has brought a new light into the fold: Sofia Coppola and Robert Mapplethorpe.
It's electric! Neon pink is the color of the moment, as demonstrated by the wacky hairstyles worn by pop divas Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry at the American Music Awards. Fashion chameleon Nicki livened up her satin and lace Oscar de La Renta gown with a cascade of cotton candy-colored ringlets, and she accessorized the look with a swipe of her signature lipstick, MAC's limited-edition Pink Friday. (With her taste for vivid colors, we can only imagine what her forthcoming OPI polish collection will look like!) 
Gilles Mendel has prima ballerinas on the brain. Earlier this summer, he designed the costumes for the New York City Ballet's production of Call Me Ben; then he shot his Resort lookbook in the dance studio; and now his Spring collection finds him back at the barre.
Gilles Mendel's father was a collector of aboriginal art, and it was, of all things, the tribal body art of the indigenous Australians that inspired his son's Fall collection. The house's famously luxe furs in mink and fox featured "intarsia" patterning that looked like elaborate etched tattoos—or, Mendel noted, like the geometric patterns of Art Deco, or the architecture of Jean Prouvé.
There was something really fitting about the venue Christopher Raeburn found for his first London Fashion Week show. Raeburn's modus operandi is to source vintage and deadstock fabrics and garments, mainly military, and turn them into sharp parkas, anoraks, and coats; last night, the disused Aldwych tube station became yet another forgotten resource given new purpose by Raeburn. It's nice when a collection and the location where it's presented rhyme like that.
There was a lot going on at Christopher Raeburn's presentation today. Raeburn presented his new collection at the Museum of London alongside a minute-long short film and an interactive installation of his new pieces; when you touched the clothes, they made a sound, and when all the clothes were being handled at once, it created a kind of abstract music.
After a week of in-your-face colors and dizzying prints, Francisco Costa served up a palette cleanser for Spring. Of course, the Calvin Klein womenswear creative director has never really gone in for over-the-top anything, so the collection's subtle shades of nude, pale yellow, silver, and black weren't exactly a surprise. What was new was the softness and the femininity. Occasionally in the past, Costa's minimalism has erred on the conceptual side. He's been slowly moving away from the sculptural constructions that used to define his work, but he said good-bye to them for good this season.
Too ladylike, too precious, too little-girlish, too vulgar. Any of those outcomes could've befallen a show as laden with lace and flowers and embroideries as was Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri's latest for Valentino. But they didn't, not for a second. The designers turned out their best collection yet—one dress more seductively, calmly lovely than the next, many of them walking out on flat sandals or lace espadrilles that helped give the outing its fresh feel. "Fashion is a dream, and in this moment we need dreams," Piccioli said beforehand. The only thing that could poke a hole in the duo's fantasy is the fact that us girls don't have enough real-life occasions to wear these frocks.
On the face of it, Barbara Bui was ably ticking off the trends. Sporty? Check. Bold blocks of color? Check. Thirties drop-waists? Tribal motifs? Check and check. But her collection had its own crisp bounce. She cycled through all of the above and came up with a cohesive, commercial translation with pieces that garnered notice. Take the first look's jacket, made of thickly fringed leather—Bui called it "fur of leather"—that caused one oft-photographed young editor in the front row to lean over and express her stamp of approval. Elsewhere, Bui presented the unattainable brought within reach, like the creamy and crafty hand-knits and racing-cum-tuxedo-stripe trousers you saw on a major designer's runway last season, here made suddenly earthbound.
I've been the lingerie editor here for years, and I wish women would would think of undergarments as more than simply bras and underwear. I'd use this bodysuit under a semisheer blouse.
This sweaterdress is the perfect transition weight for early fall. And you don't often find one with such romantic detailing.
What a bang for your buck! You'd expect a necklace with his much visual impact to cost a lot more.
These leggings look like leather and fit like a glove. I'll wear them under dresses instead of tights on cold days.
Fall is by far my favorite season. I like getting cozy in jeans, sweaters, boots, and socks. And autumnal hues are easy to work with.
Three InStyle staffers give us the lowdown on what they're craving for fall. The catch? Each one has a limited amount to spend ($400, $2,000, $4,000). Over the next four months, you'll see just how they strategize to round out their wardrobes.
