Just like the Oscars wouldn't be Oscars without the work of critics and their opinions about movies that are worth of seeing, fashion would not move forward without its critics praising or dissing it.
One of my favorite fashion critics is Cathy Horyn from NY Times who's fearless and colorful expression of trends and styles gets me each time. This season, the article that caught my eye was regarding the latest Bottega Veneta collection from Milan and her appraisal of their creative director Tomas Maier.
Cathy's style is always so refreshing and honest, that sometimes it might work to her disadvantage and get her in hot waters with some of the designers, but she always comes back as honest as ever staying truthful to herself like she can be. Her fashion "Jargon" is irresistible and comments like "Bottega Veneta is a big luxury brand, and as such, Mr. Maier doesn't have the experimental latitude of a Comme des Garcons, though some of his gestures suggest that he'd like to " make me secretly grin.
Some might find other critic's choice of words more descriptive, like for instance Rebecca Lowthorpe's from Elle UK, who described the collection in real fashion matter, but somehow boringly, "The silhouettes were architectural, with flat, square shoulders and skirts whose pleats folded outwards like cogs on an industrial machine. The colors were dark or intense: black, slate, smoke and pearl were punctured with red, yellow and curry-orange. And the fabrics ranged from heavy flannels to felted wools, leather, silk, satin and lacquered straw"
....whereas Cathy gave her words a whole lot of color and flare (least in my opinion), " A series of belted dresses or skirts featured pleats that jutted away from the hips, with the neat precision of an industrial filter (like the one in your vacuum cleaner), while a black coat revealed graduated layers of wool at the back that fluttered like petals as the model walked past"...
...and she continued with her more than honest opinion, " Along with these elaborate shapes, Mr. Maier included a few slim black dresses lightly mixed with black duchess satin, and one in black twill wool with a flat knitted bodice set at a slight diagonal. These dresses were more successful, to my eye, than the collaged or pleated numbers. Maybe that's because Mr. Maier can't help himself - he's a designer who inevitably seeks order and refinement, whereas someone like Ms. Kawakubo is completely comfortable with the opposite, and very often seeks it."
Comme des Garçons
by Rei Kawakubo
