Sheguang Hu, and why The Hunger Games' Capitol should've looked more like Beijing Fashion Week.

Beijing Fashion Week rarely makes it to mainstream American/British fashion magazines and blogs, and coverage outside of highlight galleries seems to be nigh-on impossible to find. Which is too bad, because if you enjoy truly out-there couture (which I do) then Beijing is streets ahead of Paris at the moment. Although designers like McQueen are still regularly turning out excellent couture shows, I've found that many of the major fashion houses on the London/Paris/Milan/NYC circuit have been noticeably lacklustre over the last few years.

photos from here.

Autumn/Winter 2012/13
Last month's Sheguang Hu show in Beijing was gothic and alarming, and filled with expressive and over-the-top millinary.

Chanel Fall 2012: Geological reports from the Fortress of Solitude.

Previously on Chanel: Karl Lagerfeld, Lord of the Sea addresses the proletariat via harp and conch-shell, and Karl Lagerfeld has never been to India but let's just gloss over that, shall we?

"Diverse" isn't a word that springs to mind when thinking of Chanel, but this collection was extraordinarily varied. The 68 looks ranged from billowing, translucent dresses to armour-like metallic suits, so it was just as well that the theme was easy to pick out: gems. A perfect opportunity for writers to start in on a seemingly endless wave of puns like so many Carrie Bradshaws. Look no further than this review, which summarises the show as "A gem of a collection... Solid as a rock." Just let me get my geological hammer to break into this treasure trove of -- oh, never mind.

Aside from the eyebrows, makeup was minimal. Having Vulcan brows made from tiny rocks glued onto their faces gave the models an especially stern look, adding to the typically aloof Chanel mood. I can just imagine Karl backstage: "Eyebrows are the true source of expression, but why should a Chanel Woman tempt wrinkles when she can communicate directly via the resonance of crystals? The Chanel Woman does not WEAR the diamond, she IS the diamond!"

Fall 2012 shows: David Koma, MaxMara, Donna Karan, and Duro Olowu.

David Koma

Business casual by way of Blade Runner? That's what I got from the earlier looks in this collection, anyhow. Unfortunately I was dead wrong, because Koma claims one of his primary inspirations was the art of Thierry Poncelot who, first of all, has the awesome name of Poncelot, and secondly... well, google him. Thierry Poncelot's work is exclusively portraits of dogs wearing human clothing. Perhaps I'm just not smart enough to see how that intersects with the various themes exhibited in this collection, but I doubt it.

While not exactly peculiar-looking, this wasn't a very ready-to-wear RTW collection. The majority of the show was taken up with full-outfit looks that would look decidedly odd if broken down into separates and combined with clothes from other sources. On a more positive note, Koma's structure design was appealingly retro-futurist, with several of the outfits entering Space Race flight attendant territory thanks to fabric and colour choices.

London Fashion Week, Fall 2012: Mary Katrantzou.

Digital prints have been on the rise for a while now, but Katrantzou is still queen. She's been on the radar for less than four years, but youth and the fact that she runs her own label give her liberty to pursue her strengths. And what that means at the moment is that she's producing entire shows of unique digital-print clothes season after season. Thanks to a combination of critical accolades and publicity for her new Topshop line, Fall 2012 was her true breakthrough London Fashion Week show.

pics from Style.com

Mary Katrantzou shot to the top of my favourite-designers list as soon as I saw her Fall 2011 collection last year. She deserves her good reviews for a multitude of reasons, but most importantly to me, she's creating clothes that are drastically different not only from the current fashion zeitgeist but from anything I've seen before. She's the sort of expert that creates itself -- an artist who has been developing her own visual brand for years, waiting quietly for the rest of the world to catch up. I have no doubt that there are other, lesser-known designers who don't have London Fashion Week slots who have explored prints in equally innovative ways, but Mary K is the only designer in mainstream fashion whom I'd describe as a true master of the art.

NYFW Fall 2012: Calvin Klein, Aquascutum, Proenza Schouler, and more.

Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein is my fashion nemesis. The label is a household name and yet his actual catwalk shows have, for the past few years, been entirely focused on showcasing some of the least interesting clothes in the history of ever. So this season my low standards were more than satisfied to see two whole dresses that didn't make me languish into a coma.

The seemingly-inappropriate juxtaposition of suit fabrics, conservative necklines/hem lengths, restrictive metal belts and breast-bearing sheer chestpieces was a welcome change from Calvin Klein's Spring 2012 collection, which as I recall consisted of around 50 near-identical beige shift dresses.

NYFW Fall 2012: Ralph Lauren, Alexander Wang, Badgley Mischka, Creatures of the Wind, and more.

Ralph Lauren

As someone on twitter put it, this is like looking into my brain. Ralph Lauren's Fall 2012 show was heavily influenced by pre-war British menswear, included multiple flavours of tweed, and was soundtracked by the Downton Abbey theme music. At least half the collection was made up of Edwardian/1920s trouser suits for ladies, about which I could not be happier.

catwalk pics from Style.com

This was one of those situations where objective criticism falls by the wayside. I love early 20th Century suits, especially on women; I love knee-length trousers; I love Downton Abbey and continue to masochistically watch it despite the fact that I spend most of each episode shouting obscenities at Julian Fellowes' soap-opera hack style of screenwriting. Yes, this is something of a pastiche collection, but I think it plays around enough with 1910s/20s style (plus being genderswitched) that it doesn't fall into the category of directly-copied period costume.

New York Fashion Week, Fall 2012: Marc Jacobs, A Détacher, Charlotte Ronson, Doo.Ri, and Helmut Lang.

Marc Jacobs
"Dickensian" is one of the adjectives I've seen bandied about with regards to Marc Jacobs' latest collection, although I'm not sure if I see much of that myself. The loose fit of the coats and the oversized hats may suggest the look of a Victorian street urchin, but I suspect that many of the Dickens comparisons are thanks to the fact that the runway show was soundtracked with extracts from Oliver!

Slightly suspect concept work aside, this collection was absolutely brilliant. Marc played around with texture even more than he has done in the past, to the point that it often seemed more couture than RTW. He clearly has no qualms about putting on a big show for the Fashion Week crowd -- sets, music, the whole shebang.

There was a lack of conventionality that one doesn't often see in ready-to-wear collections from major mainstream labels. The silhouettes were all wide-hipped, often ignoring the contours of the body entirely -- a brave step away from current trends both on and off the catwalks. On paper this wasn't a look that should have worked for me, but I found myself surprised and impressed again and again by the beauty and wearability of outfits that eschewed the waist entirely and padded out the hips to near-comical proportions.

NYFW Fall 2012: Jason Wu.

This season Jason Wu decided to explore his Chinese roots, giving the fashion community ample opportunity to partake in one of their lesser-known hobbies: mildly racist commentary. Sorry, guys, "mysterious" and "ethnic" are not synonumous with "Chinese" in any way, shape or form. Go directly to Vocabulary Jail; do not collect 200 Fashion Dollars.

The show was divided into three themes, the first being the military of Mao-era China. The colour palette was obvious: the green-grey of military uniforms, and the red of Communism.

A lot of the time a designer's original inspiration is so obscure (cf. Gary Graham's Iranian wrestling tunics/Manchester Film Festival inspiration for his recent NYFW show) that it adds relatively little to my interpretation of a collection. In this case it added a certain coherency that might not otherwise have been apparent since it was genuinely helpful to see the demarcation between Wu's favoured three periods of Chinese history

New York Fashion Week, Fall 2012: Rag & Bone, Rebecca Taylor, Tess Giberson, Jen Kao, and St. John.

Rag & Bone
Rag & Bone have come a long way from their original starting place as one of the jeans-and-jackets brigade of Ready-To-Wear designers. This season they went for a slight (very slight, since RTW shows at New York Fashion Week are not generally a place for wild experimentation) Indian influence, which mostly made itself known in the shape of dhoti-inspired pants and skirts. For instance, the stylised, dhoti-like folds on this skirt were sleek as fish scales, and the otherwise street-friendly jacket and accessories edged it firmly into wearable RTW territory.

New York Fashion Week, Fall 2012: Gary Graham and Tadashi Shoji

NYC Fashion Week is impossible to keep up with unless you have a Time Turner, even if you're actually at NYC Fashion Week, so here are my favourite two shows of... the first half of the first day. Likelihood of me being able to look at more than a two days' worth of shows before Fashion Week ends entirely: slim to none. 

Gary Graham

pics from Style.com

Gary Graham hasn't really been on my radar before, so this show seemed to me to have leapt out of nowhere: the ideal Ready-To-Wear line. Comfortable and wearable, but distant enough from current highstreet trends that it doesn't look like the jeans-and-trenchcoats collections so many designers churn out during RTW season. Gary Graham has created a collection of everyday clothes that look unusual without involving the full-on intensity of a couture collection.

Fall 2012 Menswear: Agnes B., Damir Doma, Dior, Lanvin, Miharayasuhiro, and Thom Browne.

Agnès B.
I'm impressed that this is even possible, but: Agnès B. managed to create a denim miniskirt -- in a menswear collection, even -- that looks at least semi-dignified. Aside from the ankle-socks over the tights, this outfit is perfect casualwear.

Fall 2012 Menswear: Givenchy, John Galliano, Ann Demeulemeester, Berluti, Commes des Garcons, and Walter van Beirendonck.

Givenchy
The title of this show was The American Dream, but before I learned that I assumed it was more of an American sports theme than anything so metaphysical. The striped shirts were close relatives of the rugby jersey, and the skirts reminded me of cheerleading skirts thanks to the star patterns. "Leather sweatshirt" isn't really a look that works in real life, but by and large I approve of this show since it avoided the obvious red-white-and-blue stereotyping of a typical USA-themed collection. As is typical, the skirts were balanced out by heavily masculine touches over the rest of the outfits -- clumpy shoes, bullish nose-rings (inspired by the Minotaur, because apparently that's a thing that people are inspired by), hints of sportswear, and a lack of close tailoring. The concept of designers feeling the need to compensate for skirts in menswear collections is one that I find irritating, but easy enough to understand.

And no, this isn't a kilt. Kilts don't have pleats at the front.

The progress of man-skirts from the far outer reaches of high-end menswear to everyday high street fashion is slow-going, but I'm heartened to see more of them on the runways every year. The stigma of wrapping some cloth around your waist is idiotic -- especially since skirts or kilts can often be more flattering than trousers to certain body types.

Fall 2012 Menswear: Yohji Yamamoto, Burberry, Etro, Moschino, Gaultier, Umit Benan, Cavalli, Kris Van Asshe, Paul Joe, and Versace.

Yohji Yamamoto

Many designers take a stab at the loosely-tailored casual suit, but in my opinion none of them ever measure up to Yohji Yamamoto. I rarely post other designers' attempts because they tend to look like ill-fitting pajamas, but with Yamamoto there's always a real solid elegence to his menswear, highlighted by his model choices. Yamamoto is a great proponent of using "real"-looking models, something that's always more common in menswear runway shows than in women. He's right, as well... a sylphlike 18-year-old wouldn't look nearly as good in outfits like this as this guy:

Another thing I count in Yamamoto's favour is that like Vivienne Westwood, he creates clothes that are authentic to his own wardrobe. One never has any doubt that Yamamoto would wear almost any look from his menswear collections, to the extent that he could easily blend in with his models on the runway.