HYÉRES 2007

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Festival of Fashion and Photography

Festival from April 27 to 30. Exhibitions till June 3.
The Festival is where creativity is exhibited. More importantly, however, it is also a unique opportunity for creatives to meet one another. And here in this very special house known as the Villa Noailles, making new friends is particularly delightful.

For the 22nd consecutive year, emerging creatives are brought together with professionals and seasoned actors on the world's fashion and photography scene. Formerly themselves contestants in the Festival, Christian Wijnants, Daniel Stier, Estelle Hanania, Jaap Scheeren as well as Anthony Vaccarello return to Hyères for the second, third or even fourth time. This year, they have all been invited to exhibit the fruit of a past commission, a stylistic study or have simply been given free rein. Our guests have established their quarters throughout the Villa. Each room has retained its original function--at least in name--as if to inscribe the profoundly intimate spirit that permeates this place.

Jaap has chosen the Pink Salon, Anthony is staying in the guest room and Marc has gained access to the private room of Monsieur and Madame. Viviane has established her territory on the squash court, Christian is in the dining room while the other Christian, Lacroix, is making himself comfortable in the pool area. You shall undoubtedly bump into our guests somewhere in the Villa, along the corridors, on the terrace, or in Bless' hammocks...

MISS-EN-SCÈNE

Sara Rochas and Inês Golçalves are sisters and the designers behind Coq.Luxe, a new Portuguese brand of shoes. Coq.Luxe started as a conversation between the two sisters at the table of a café, from where it jumped to the red carpet, as they say, referring to the Storytailors fashion show in Paris, last January. For this event they created exclusive shoes.
Coq.Luxe was born mainly because, as shoes addicts as they are, they need to find a solution for a very serious problem. Sara and Ines needed to know how they could manage their salary in order to feed the shoe addiction. The solution was…. Working with the items that gave them pleasure. So Coq.Luxe was born.
After getting the attention of a factory in the north of Portugal, Helsar, the first collection came to the world, this Spring. It’s inspired in the Cinema Divas,they all nave the Diva´s names, the Miss-En-Scene collection presents nine high heels platform pair of shoes.
At this time, the next collection is ready to hit the stores, the second of two Portuguese designers that want to make Coq.Luxe a Five Star brand.

HIGH TIMES

There’s more to high-waisted jeans than the question of ‘how high?’ We consulted the experts…

As if the perfect pair of jeans wasn’t elusive enough, trends that seesaw from acid-wash to organic, and from straight-leg to boot-cut and back again, make the search that much more confounding. When the skinny jean became the jean of ’06, Nylon Magazine narrowed options down by measuring a few brands to find the skinniest. But when it comes to this season’s high-waist hoopla, they realized that there’s much more to the resurrected classic than the question of how high? Here’s how some denim experts envisioned their styles.

J Brand is to blame for some of the déjà vu you suffered flipping through US Weekly last year—everyone and their mothers squeezed into the denim label’s ultra-low-rise Jett Black jean. Well, now you can breathe a sigh of relief (and they can just breathe). “As much as we love our skinny jeans, we gals always want options,” explains J Brand Co-founder Susie Crippen on going to the other extreme—a high waist and wide legs. Made from premium Japanese Pima four-way stretch denim, “The Malik is perfect to go from a tighter jean to one with movement that still looks clean, sophisticated, and stylish.”

“They make your ass look like a juicy peach,” says Judi Rosen of the high-waisted jeans and jean shorts that she designs for her label, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. (Now that’s what we want to hear.) “And it’s no mystery—I have been developing the pattern forever!” Rosen’s Lower East Side boutique that shares the label’s name has had ’70s-inspired Elephant Bells—and high-waisted double-ruffle prairie skirts and trompe l’oeil lingerie too—hanging from macram hangers since 2001. “I remember when I first designed a low-waisted jean… eew,” she reminisces. “From Fredericks of Hollywood to Faded Glory to Gloria Vanderbilt, clearly the high-waist is here to stay.”

Cheap Monday has a rather creative competitive nature. The Swedish brand became famous for its 65-dollar denim, while never skimping in the style department. So, naturally, its high-waisted jeans are the highest we've seen yet. “After ten years of low-rise jeans, I was tired of them,” says Cheap Monday Founder and Chief Designer Örjan Andersson. “I wanted to see more art-inspired fashion becoming popular.” Inspired in particular by the couture styles that graced the catwalks in the early ’90s, Cheap Monday’s aptly-named Eiffeltower and Skyscraper jeans certainly reach sartorial altitudes. But even with all that extra fabric, they’re still as affordable as ever.

Built by Wendy Designer Wendy Mullin is always thinking outside the box. For spring, she adapted her favorite leather boots into a mini-wedged, breathable-canvas ballet flat. She also just designed a board for skate-art exhibition, Untitled, featuring a patchwork of vintage apron pieces. So it comes as no surprise that her high-waisted jeans aren’t really jeans at all… “I wanted to make a slim pair of pants that work well with longer tunic-type tops. Regular jeans sometimes give that muffin-y top look, so I thought of making stretch denim leggings that feel like a jean. Dyed a deep indigo hue and with a simple side zip, Mullin’s leggings achieve a smooth silhouette under anything. Specifically, she recommends, “with a fitted cardigan and ballet flats for a ’50s Laura Petrie good girl look.” And now you know where to get the shoes.

Aussie label 18th Amendment only recently made its U.S. debut, per a denim trunk show at the Elizabeth Charles’s eponymous boutique in downtown New York a couple of weeks ago. The label’s name is already a nod to the roaring ’20s—in particular, Prohibition—and as for the new jeans, 18th Amendment Creative Director Rebecca Dawson affirms, “There are no rules.” Still, these styles live up to their sassy namesakes: “A true-high-waist (the Bacall) can be very elegant and dramatic, but if one finds this too extreme, a high-rise (the Lollobrigida) can be just as sexy.”

From: Nylon Magazine

Bandana Tewari, Voice of Modern India

Every city has those women who act as both intellectual heavyweights and style arbiters. In New York, there's Plum Sykes; São Paulo has Alexandra Farah; and in Los Angeles there's Lisa Eisner. India's equivalent is Bandana Tewari, a long-standing voice of fashion and style as a contributor to Elle and Marie Claire magazines, among other publications, and as an international social force to be reckoned with. As the recently appointed Fashion Features Editor of Vogue India, set to launch in September, we sought out Tewari's keen wisdom and insider vantage, and asked her to weigh in on the pulse of the new India.

JCR: There's much talk about a style revolution in India; when do you estimate a visible shift in Western influences having widespread impact on Indian style?

BT: The impact is very perceptible already. Indians have quickly learned to appropriate ethnicity in traditional clothes and wear designs that are Indian but have strong Western nuances that cross borders effortlessly. The hemlines of kurtas (typical Indian tunics) have gone up and are being worn increasingly with international designer jeans, saris have become sexy and draped in the manner of Grecian dresses, and dresses with empire-line and blouson silhouettes, amongst others, have also become quite popular. But here's the interesting part: instead of wearing them say as dresses, they are teamed with the traditional churidaar (Indian tights worn under the tunic), so it is not too big a jump for the fashion initiates to partake in global designs. It's also a telling tale of our times, even with urbanization and in a world consumed by Hilton-esque sensibilities, Indian consumers are still tied to a quaint sense of modesty that perhaps stems from their refusal to be completely internationalized.

JCR: Sum up modern Indian fashion tastes.

BT: Modern Indian fashion tastes are as varied as our curries! The hierarchy of consumers is baffling to say the least, given the sheer numbers of consumers in our socio-economic structure. Old moneyed consumers — very affluent, globe-trotting, and educated — are no less sophisticated than the affluent European consumers to whom taste is a matter of discretion. The nouveau riche will soon outnumber the former and are ostentatious, aspirational, and believe in one-upmanship of their neighbor for anything from the right recipe to the right bag. And then we have the middle-class, educated youth who are challenging old norms and readying themselves to become the kind of spenders their parents never were.

JCR: We made our picks of the worthy Indian designers, who are some of yours?

BT: Manish Arora for the pure cacophony of creativity, if I may say so! Behind all that color and drama are pieces that are ingeniously designed, using the best that this country can offer: impeccable craft, beautiful textiles, and popular Indian iconography that make his clothes a visual narrative of our times. Then there is Anamika Khanna, whose use of indigenous crafts is rendered so painstakingly in modern silhouettes that each garment has the touch-and-feel quality that any "evolved" consumer from any part of the world is ready to spend money on. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, with his intelligentsia-chic look, has brought back handicraft, archaic prints, and a witty take on the British Raj that continues to influence our day-to-day perceptions. There is Tarun Tahiliani, the designer who perennially upholds Indian classicism by giving us the best of Indo-Western fusion-wear. The Young Turks of Indian fashion like Gaurav Gupta, Aki Narula, Namrata Joshipura, and Varun Bahl all impress with their idiosyncratic understanding of what it is to be an Indian designer in a global arena.

JCR: Mega-wealth is not new to India, but with Forbes magazine naming more and more billionaires in the country, the logic goes that they will need outlets to spend their new money, is that enough to deem India a major emerging market?

BT: Absolutely. Here are just a few statistics that should convince the world that we are certainly emerging! There are some 600 malls under construction or under planning in India right now. Modern retail in India could be worth US$175-200 billion by 2016. At the moment, it is said only four percent is organized, so you can imagine the sheer potential! Last year Indians traveling overseas spent $7.5 billion, and per capita spending of Indians traveling overseas is growing by 28 percent every year. But whilst millionaires and billionaires will always have the option of traveling and shopping overseas, there is a huge population that is getting increasingly wealthy and want to shop in the comfort of their home country. The wedding industry, for which Indians are known to shop mindlessly, is worth $10 billion. And top that with this country's colossal youth population (55 percent of the population is under the age of 25) who are hungry to consume and you have one hell of an emerging market! Embedded within all these numbers however, is an unmistakable sense of Indian pride that wants this country to be no less a provider of all things new and beautiful as any other country in the world.

JCR: At the recent Hindustan Times luxury conference, major international brands aired their strategies for breaking into India, which luxury categories do you see taking hold early?

BT: In my opinion, without a doubt, accessories from the international labels will do best, as Indians still need to make that leap of faith into buying clothes that they are sometimes culturally uncomfortable wearing. But fragrances, timepieces, and luxury homewares (more Indians are buying bigger, better homes than ever before) are some obvious ones.

JCR: In addition to the products that these luxury purveyors can bring to India, how else can they impact the region?

BT: India has serviced the world for decades, whether by providing the best doctors or the best embroiderers. With the luxury labels now in our own domain, I hope they teach our indigenous fashion industry how to market itself better! We need to internationalize our operations, learn marketing savior faire, and access corporate funding in order to make the "made in India" label one to reckon with worldwide. By sheer proximity of these international luxury labels, I hope they will impact our fashion business skills!

This interview was conducted by Jason Campbell


Source: The JC Report

FASHION

Looking forward in fashion is looking back in time.
This is exactly how I feel and what happens in fashion. We are looking for a new balance in a confused world. History is our new toy for inspiration.
This (fashion) world is over flooded with look-alikes, which are earlier on the market than the originals, and which give more and more power to only a few players. It is time for a moment of resignation, a fashion pause instead of real innovation, to go deeper instead of going one step further, to see a more contemplative vision than quick trends, cults and hypes.
The memory fever, the nostalgia trend of today, we have to take it serious. Just like in politics, a neo-conservative wave of ‘good old values, norms, discipline, class and style’ is clearly visible in fashion too. Channel’s motto inspires us now: Style is never out of fashion!
For instance if we think in the trend for this summer, metallic, we’ve seen this before, or the 60th look, or the 80ths look.
Nowadays only a little group of people can be called, stylish people, Kate Moss and Madonna are two, but even Kate as already a pseudo-clone, Sienna Miller. I’ve seen all that before, that attitude that love for vintage.
The real problem is that if things continue like this, I a few yeas we all will look like little soldiers with no personality, no style, just a uniform.
So if style is never out of fashion let us consider that and create our own.