Paris menswear makes way for couture

PARIS - Lanvin headlined the last day of the Paris menswear shows on Sunday with a rock-and-roll inspired collection billed as anti-uniform, before Versace kicks off six days of haute couture.

"Freedom to choose" was the byword for menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver, with pants both slim and wide, waistlines high and low, and classic tailoring and streetwear paired with coloured sneakers and chunky-knit scarves.

"It's not about a single look, or a single man. It's about individuality," said Lanvin's creative director Alber Elbaz after the show, where the actor Will Smith sat front row.

Elbaz took the uniform as starting point for the line.

"It's the opposite of what makes people happy," he said. "You have to be yourself."

Shows by Paul Smith and Saint Laurent were to wrap up the Paris men's fashion, before a late evening show by Versace which opens six days of haute couture collections -- showcasing jaw-dropping creations aimed at A-list stars and the world's richest women.

More than 40 years after the death of its founder, Italy's legendary house Schiaparelli makes a much-anticipated comeback to haute couture Monday, under the Italian designer Marco Zanini.

Elsa Schiaparelli, who died in 1973, was among fashion's most prominent figures between the two world wars and became Coco Chanel's biggest rival.

Haute couture is a legally protected appellation in France subject to strict criteria such as the amount of work carried out by hand, and the size of a house's workforce.

Altogether, 15 French houses including Dior and Chanel will be showing couture collections, along with six foreign labels and 10 guests including Britain's Ralph & Russo and Belgian designer Serkan Cura.

source: interaksyon.com

Makeup for menswear-inspired outfit: Be a girlie girl or a tomboy

If you're slipping into a tweed blazer, an oversized cardigan or a sleek women's tux this fall, the right beauty look is the perfect accessory to complete your menswear-inspired outfit. The choice is yours to do a 180-degree turn and go with hyper-girlie, or stay strictly tomboy: Either can complement the more masculine clothing silhouettes.

Makeup with menswear is a little more important than other styles because with a neutral, muted palette of grays, blacks and browns, "you want to have a little life to your face, a little health and vigor," says Linda Wells, Allure magazine's editor-in-chief.

When suiting up in this fall trend, women have choices for their beauty look, she says. "Are you going to exaggerate the menswear look and play it up fully, or are you going to offset it with something feminine?" Wells says.

To soften menswear staples like gray flannel and houndstooth, which are so often fashioned into tailored items, add femininity by playing up the eyes or lips, experts advise, but not both at the same time so your features don't compete.

"You want to add feminine flair throughout the face if you can't have it on the body through the clothing," says Myiesha Sewell, a Sephora Pro makeup artist.

For a ladylike touch, Wells envisions soft hair with a little wave to it falling over the forehead along with a rich burgundy lipstick, or dark, smoky eyes featuring gray eye shadow, eyeliner and lots of mascara. "Who doesn't want to be a femme fatale?" she says of the "sexy androgyny" combination of feminine makeup and menswear.




If you want to keep the menswear feeling consistent from head to toe, Wells recommends a simpler style that doesn't draw attention to the face: Hair is slick to the head and parted on the side "so it looks boyish," and styled in a low ponytail or bun. Keep makeup natural looking, with clear or pale lip gloss, taupe eye shadow, mascara and a darkened brow to give strength and definition to the face.

However, Wells prefers the feminine face: "It's taking men's style and making it feminine. It's the masculine-feminine — that conflict is always interesting. That tension is what makes it exciting."

Sewell likes to add a shot of bold color while keeping the rest of it neutral to help soften the straight lines and sometimes boxy shapes of the clothing. For the eyes, try a bold blue liner along with a neutral brown or peach eye shadow. After mastering blue, Sewell says move on to experimenting with emerald or eggplant liner. "One of the easiest looks and colors to wear with a neutral eye is navy blue or a cobalt eye liner," Sewell says. "It really pops the whites of your eyes."

On the runway, man-tailored suits often are paired with classic red lipstick, but Sewell likes purples and magentas and berry shades, largely because she thinks they're an easier color range to pull off. "It's very feminine and it's going to make the lips look shapely and the eyes will gravitate toward them. It's a modern Technicolor, Marilyn Monroe."

With so much power to the menswear-inspired clothing, why not bring that strength up to the face as well? Says MAC senior artist John Stapleton, who helped bring to life the Victoria Beckham fall catwalk that turned tuxedos and trenchcoats into seductive silhouettes.

He favors a minimalist tomboy makeup look featuring strong eyebrows and cheekbones, which is what he did on the Beckham models.

"If you're going to go for it, you might as well go all the way," Stapleton says. Adding color to the faces would have distracted from the fashion. (If you really want that girlie contrast, do it through accessories, he suggests.)

This more masculine face features eyebrows that are brushed up and over and set with gel; natural-looking, contoured cheeks with an ashy or taupe blush; and muted, nude lips in a shade close to your own lip color or created through concealer and lip balm. Mascara darkens the root of the lash line but does not get applied to the ends to lengthen them.

"It's very chic looking," he says. "It's strong. It's commanding. Showing up to a meeting like that, it looks like someone who is going to take over the room and be in control and garner a lot of respect. You don't want to mess with her."

source: philstar.com

Tuxedos meet sportswear at Dior fashion show

PARIS - Dior Homme's Kris Van Assche on Saturday created a hall of mirrors mimicking the glinting Miami skyline in a collection the designer said would give men flexibility to dress for both the "boardroom and the beach".

The "shorts suit" with many pieces featuring part-satin patchwork ran through Van Assche's collection for summer 2014.

"It all started in Miami where I felt really ridiculous in a tuxedo on the beach so I really wanted to mix the formal and the informal," the Dior Homme creative director said backstage after the show.

"The idea is that you can change pants and jackets through the whole collection. Some of them are boxes, some of them are fitted, some of them have sleeves, some of them don't... the challenge was to bring a lot of variation," he said.

The collection mixed lightweight leathers and wools with nylons and knits.

Van Assche, who also has his own label, summed up the patchwork as "tuxedos meeting with sportswear".

"In the patchwork I mix both to make it cool and evening. The patchwork is really like the buildings in Miami. It's patchwork but in a very minimal way," he said.

The Belgian designer, who also has his own label, added in a statement that he wanted to avoid the rigid rules and regulations that frequently stifled fashion.

"Above all I wanted to build the human and the fun element back into a collection," he said.

"Menswear felt desperate for a sense of fun, something light. At the same time, if something is light, it doesn't mean it isn't serious in its intent."

Chanel couturier Karl Lagerfeld who attended the show praised the collection as "very elegant", in particular pieces in smoked grey and aubergine.

Five days of menswear collections wrap up on Sunday when they give way to four days of haute couture.

source: interaksyon.com