MAXIMAL MINIMALISM

who better carry minimalist pioneer jil sander's torch than the man responsible for bringing the clean aesthetic back to the forefront years before phoebe philo was a baby momma and no one wore celine. floor length peplumed skirts time traveled us back to fifties balenciaga, while plain white t-shirts and techno anoraks were pure utilitarian nineties. two decades and two schools mashed-up into something very much right now! proving once again that perennial underdog raf simons consistently delivers a massive (and this season, a surprisingly colourful) knock-out punch.



photo: style.com

YO LA TANGO

josephine baker leaves paris for south america, gets a humble job at a banana plantation and ends up in argentina where she learns to dance the tango. how does that impossible story become a prada collection? it has the energy of jazz, the colours of south america, the uniforms of blue collar workers, and the erotic charge of tango. simple innit? what's not simple is how madame miuccia made all those absurd references work cohesively with one another. it's almost like obviously you would pair a banana print skirt and a striped smock in the brightest of colours with basket weave tango shoes and bug eye goggles to shield your eyes from the sun. and if that wasn't enough just walk around with a giant sombrero obviously. if everyone was as smart as miuccia, the world would be a more intelligently put together place and we would've been spared of uggs and juicy couture.



photo: style.com

SUMMER OF LOVE

what do you get when you take the tie-dyes and liberty prints from the hippies of '67 and mash it with the baggy acid house rave scene of '89? j.w. anderson's summer of love 2011 of course! tripped out boho boys with petals growing out of their shoes will walk all over your heart. and if that isn't enough, he'll just hypnotize you with psychadelic embroideries on his t-shirt and then offer you one of the thousands of little flowers printed on his shirt. i expect your seratonin levels to sky rocket come spring full of hugs and make-out sessions.



photo: thefashionisto.com

EASTERN PROMISES

the thing i love most about london fashion is how much the city supports its young designers. there's fashion fringe, vauxhall fashion scout, and of course the grand daddy of them all, fashion east. you know this shit is legit when gareth pugh, richard nicoll, jonathan saudners and louise goldin all made their debut here. with three designers with their own very different aesthetic, from the grunge minimalism of heikki sallonen, to felicity brown's ruffle explosion, and finally the complex tailoring of simone rocha, there was just as much diversity as it had creativity. i wish fashion east could be like a franchise and set one up here in toronto. because like i've said many many many times, the toronto fashion industry is fucking brutal.



photo: style.com

GOTHIC LOLITA

remember the london era of westwood, bodymap, pam hogg, and leigh bowery? when it was all about being mental and rebellion. well thank god for meadhamm and kirchhoff for continuing the tradition of english eccentricity. its good that london has developed a reputation for not just being a breeding ground of creative talents, but to also have a commercial viability, but i found the past london fashion week to be missing a bit of punch. christopher kane doing lady-like, wtf? at least medhamm kirchhoff played on all the qualities that people regard as feminine such as chiffon and lace and interpret it in a brilliantly psycho and cartoonish way. i'm sure there were loads of japanese gosu roris creaming under their bustle skirts when they saw this collection. even though i love the resurgence of minimalism, i can totally appreciate an explosion of madness from these two designers who still has balls to do whatever the fuck they want. kudos!



photo: style.com