Cutting Edge
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 18, 2009
NEW SEASONING Get ready for pre-fall, the latest season introduced to an already crammed fashion calendar. As the designers want you to keep buying new stuff, they're now making a big thing of the stop-gap summer collections once shown to buyers who needed fresh stuff in the stores between the spring drop and the introduction of the winter woolies. In New York and Paris, at least 23 pre-fall collections were launched last week, from Oscar de la Renta (above) to Chanel, and they'll appear in foreign stores between May and July. So think of pre-fall as high summer: imagine summer clothes introduced now, during the heat wave, rather than during our arctic spring. Could catch on.
THIS YEAR'S (OLDER) MODEL Why is Louis Vuitton splashing raunchy pictures of 50-year-old Madonna all over its latest advertising campaign? Like many other expensive labels, the luggage titan is finally pitching to the customers most likely to buy its stuff: cashed-up boomers. That would also explain its use of older notables such as Keith "leather-face" Richards and Mikhail Gorbachev. This year finds older models such as Jerry Hall, 52, and Linda Evangelista, 43, fronting campaigns for Chanel and Prada, while the very lovely Helena Christensen, 40, is the new face of sexwear merchant Agent Provocateur. SUITS YOU, MISS Ever since he invented Le Smoking, Yves St Laurent has had a way with menswear for women. Next month, the label's current designer, Stefano Pilati, will launch the brand's first unisex collection, made for men and women happy to share high-end androgynous threads. Think silk shirts, fishnet-weave jumpers, sparkly cardigans and tailored navy blue suits. Expect to see these his'n'hers outfits on celebrity couples throughout the awards season. -- Michelle Griffin
© 2009 The Sunday Age
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