More than ever, people are discovering fashion through their phones. In “Screen timeFashion writer Emilia Petrarca shares all the screenshots, double taps and swipes she’s taken this week.
Best thing I did this week was watch Ariana Grande Sweetener tour documentary on Netflix, which is called Excuse me i love you. I know… I’m as surprised as you are. I turned it on thinking it would feel like eating a fluffy bag of cotton candy, which he did, but in a way that tickled all my senses instead of making me comatose.
Ariana Grande is pop personified: she’s sugar, spices and everything is nice. She sucks on lollipops and throws them in the audience with a whip from her signature ponytail. Most of the film is bathed in a pink-purple glow, as if it had been filmed in an Easy Bake oven. But unlike cotton candy, the show is actually substantial. Ariana Grande can sing. She is also good at telegraphing raw, unfiltered emotions. His music makes you feel both love and loss, lightness and darkness. Sure, it looks like a Valentine’s Hallmark card on the surface, but after about a minute you’re like, Wait, why am I crying?
It might seem like a leap, but the best Fashion Week collections so far this season have been made from similar ingredients and have had a similar effect on me. When I put Dries Van Noten’s short film on my TV screen Wednesday night, for example, I was just as thrilled. I couldn’t get up from the sofa, but my heart was exploding in my chest.
Below, my week in scroll.
This week, spring started to feel less of a distant fantasy. Joe Biden said we would all be vaxxed by May, and I started texting my friends about what we were going to wear when we could go out again. Our go-tos are obvious: I want to wear tight clothes that show off my body and little short mini skirts that free my legs after a year of resting on my butt. I want to wear sheer, sultry fabrics that make me feel like a fry dipped in a milkshake. None of this is very deep, and that’s okay. Everyone is allowed to indulge in some sort of flashy Versace-type lifestyle this summer. (As long as that doesn’t turn into a Suitsupply orgy.) But the Dries Van Noten fall 2021 collection tapped into something much calmer and more intimate, and made me realize: I want to this too much.
Photographer Casper Sejersen shot the film and the accompanying lookbook with models dancing around an empty theater in Antwerp. “A Call to Passion” is the first line of the show’s notes, and the emphatic, cowardly body movements remind me of people dancing alone in the audience at an Ariana Grande performance. Looks like they really and really are to feel, and it’s a pleasure to watch. Ah, the fun. You remember it?
I couldn’t quite put my finger on what, exactly, was so nice about the Dries Van Noten collection until I found the right word for it: marabout, the down filling that resembles a soft tinsel. It rolls its tongue, doesn’t it? Marabout. It is used to make feather boas and to embellish “sex-kitten” mules, like those worn by Marilyn Monroe. The seven year itch. I could use more in my life.
From the left: Photo: Casper SejersenPhoto: Courtesy of Dries van Noten
From the left: Photo: Casper SejersenPhoto: Courtesy of Dries van Noten
As Cathy Horyn mentioned in her review, Prada had similar attributes to Dries this season, but instead of marabout it was all about false fur. It went beyond clothes. Rem Koolhaas and AMO designed a fuzzy backdrop with walls I’m dying to run my hands over. This deep purple below made me realize that I have none of the color in my wardrobe, and that it would go great with all the green and black that I have. do have.
Photo: Courtesy of Prada
So now of course I have to buy more purple. I think I’ll start small, maybe with a pair of purple sunglasses (see below).
Photo: courtesy of Sun Buddies
I’m very inspired by the way Miuccia Prada wears her mask on her arm, instead of crumpling it and stuffing it in her pocket like I do when I’m not using mine. It’s like a nice little handbag or a piece of jewelry. In fact, now that I think about it, its shape somewhat resembles the Prada triangle, which has been puffed up and made into arm pockets this season, as well as the white geometric handbag designs worn on the catwalk. Coincidence?
Photo: Prada / YouTube
Not much was happening, fashion-wise, in New York this season, but Bed on Water, a New York-based line by designer Shanel Campbell, is catching my attention. (And not just because of all the feathers and bangs.) This is Cambell’s second collection since graduating from the Parsons MFA program in 2017, and she said username that it’s “supposed to feel like a party rather than something developed from a single idea.” Even though the clothes are mostly displayed on models in the lookbook, they are full of life, personality and sex appeal. That said, there is clearly more to them than just surface level tips. “There is a heaviness disguised as beauty in my work, it reflects my baggage and the traumatic tensions I have to release,” Campbell wrote in the notes to the collection.
From the left: Photo: courtesy of Bed on WaterPhoto: courtesy of Bed on Water
From the left: Photo: courtesy of Bed on WaterPhoto: courtesy of Bed on Water
Along with the marabout and garlands and all those other Party City trimmings that I see on the catwalk, I’d also like to add more fringe to my post-pandemic wardrobe. I bought this long top (left) from Helmut Lang on sale about a month ago, and sometimes I put it on after work and dance in my bedroom. It makes moving around a million times more fun. The Missoni top to the right is also still available from Arcade Vintage, if that interests you.
From the left: Photo: courtesy of Net-a-PorterPhoto: Arcade Vintage
From the left: Photo: courtesy of Net-a-PorterPhoto: Arcade Vintage
I’m so ready to swap my black inverted sheepskin Birkenstocks for a flashier pair of outlet shoes, but luckily the brand has invited the fashion students of Central Saint Martins to spice up the classic slip-on shoe this year. Below are the new styles from two of the ten finalists, cool enough to wear with a fringed top.
From the left: Photo: Courtesy of BirkenstockPhoto: Courtesy of Birkenstock
From the left: Photo: Courtesy of BirkenstockPhoto: Courtesy of Birkenstock
I joked that bandage dress brand Hervé Leger will be making a comeback in 2021 as we (hopefully) start hitting clubs again. But I find it hard to imagine shaking the Sweet Sixteen associations I have with this name. What seems more plausible is that Alaia’s bodycon dresses will make a comeback instead. With Raf Simons’ former right-hand man, Pieter Mulier, soon to take the helm, I can see the brand becoming a benchmark for flirty dresses that make you feel like a teenager without looking like one at all. Below, Naomi Campbell in town in a vintage Alaia, just to give you an idea.
It is an Irishman named Killian who “reviews” the mundane aspects of the countryside like the hedges and stone walls. He has a cunty sense of humor (his word, not mine) and, of course, an Irish accent. I receive Hot Priest energy.
Up 56% from last week. It’s embarassing.
