September 11th. Lower Manhattan. The mesmerizing twilight sky outlining the Freedom Tower. An exquisite delivery of "Ave Maria". The emotion all but overwhelmed.

Few expect a fashion show to be a contemplative experience, yet this is what they got from Riccardo Tisci on the night he brought his Givenchy show to New York City, coinciding with the 14th anniversary of 9/11. With the aid of performance artist Marina Abramovic and a staggering sunset across the Hudson, Tisci approached the show as a moment for reflection. He acknowledged the resonance of September 11th not by drawing inappropriate parallel to fashion, but by noting the importance of fashion as an expression of self and an outlet for emotion.

There was also a serene sense of celebration. Tisci marks his tenth-year milestone at the house of Givenchy and a Givenchy store opens in New York City. 

The show’s major themes were lingerie and tuxedo dressing, often worn in resplendent contrast, and always with lyrical grace. The play of feminine against masculine.

White laces and silks wrapped, tied and floated over fluid black trousers, some looks finished with languid robes and others, mannish tails.

Tisci incorporated sensual couture gowns with intense constructions and surprised with a significant showing of men’s wear.

Tisci subscribes to the value of ritual; the religious references in his work are well-known. He also revisited last season’s facial decoration, now more exaggerated and ritualistic.

A different kind of performance art unfolded during arrivals, a dazzling celebrity showing — Julia Roberts, Christina Ricci, Steven Tyler, Liv Tyler, Nicki Minaj, and of course, Kim and Kanye. Representatives of New York fashion turned out as well: Michael Kors, Tory Burch, the Proenza guys, Alexander Wang, Joseph Altuzarra.

Image Sources: vogue.com   nowfashion.com

Text Sources: wwd.com  vogue.com

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Alexander Wang

It was Alexander Wang's 10-year-anniversary show. Wang says he wanted the models to look as though they were wearing their own clothes to a casting. In other words, models off-duty, the catchphrase of his early work, a shorthand for effortless cool.
 

Alexander Wang

Alexander Wang

Alexander Wang

Nicholas K

Nicholas K siblings Christopher and Nicholas Kunz channeled BASE jumpers for spring. “We call it ‘Terminal Velocity’ because it’s really high-energy, really adrenaline-packed.” The brand’s signature draped, hooded and layered silhouettes had even more fluidity this season when executed in parachute and ripstop nylon as well as silk, conveying a feeling of weightlessness.

Image Source: vogue.com

Text Source: wwd.com

Dolce and Gabbana chose Portofino as the location to launch their new haute couture ( alta moda in their mother tongue) on the world. Not just alta moda, but alta sartoria and alta gioellia: womenswear, menswear, and jewelry, a world of one-off splendors, essentially showcased in their own homes. Their sixteenth-century hilltop fortress Castello Brown was covered in twinkling fairy lights.

It is not every day that a couture show is staged by moonlight with the sound of the sea lapping against rocks and the lights of the clients’ mega-yachts twinkling in the near distance.

Guests converged from all over the world to participate in the designers’ weekend of “at home,” deliberately surreal entertainment‎s. By the time the music of Verdi’s Aida had filled the dusky sky, the show had already lived up to what Stefano described as an experience “between fantasy and reality”.

“The fashion system is more than just labels,” he said, to explain the significance of Alta Moda. “You have to offer a sensation and an emotion – you have to tell a story.”

The event was one of those moments of enchantment, transporting fashion into a magical world of suspended disbelief, while still resting on a firm art and craft foundation.

Patchworked multicolored fox fur brocade Poiret coats and fur in offbeat colours from lichen green to dawn pink was worked into the clothing.

“We don’t count how many hours it took to make an Alta Moda piece. We don’t say, ‘how much was the fabric? How long did we spend screen-printing the tulips onto that silk to make them look as though they were hand-painted, or how many thousands of hand-sewn sequins are on that dress?’” said Domenico Dolce. “We do this from love, and for love of couture.”

Corseted ballgowns galore, black lace wicked widow see-through dresses, Maharaja bejwelled turbans and lushly sweeping silk kimonos.

The show was rich in intensely decorated and magical patterns, but also included a wardrobe of body-conscious dresses and sleek black tailoring that fulfilled the reality requirements.

There were the show-stopping ballgowns with their vast trains of painted feathers or tulle, studded with thousands of hand-stitched silk daisies, embroidered peacocks or printed with parrots and squirrels.

In total the designers sent out 94 outfits – an array of fairy-like and magical garments with exceptional decorative handwork.

“I love Shakespeare!” proclaimed Stefano, to explain flowered hoops held by male servers in Tudor dress, while a woman with a harp played “Greensleeves”, and the melody drifted into the sunset.

Dolce & Gabbana Castle in Portofino

Clients clinked champagne glasses from the rustic ground, while overhead two acrobats swung like Shakespearean sprite Puck from the trees.

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 Portofino Setting

A Roman centurion and Renaissance pages were holding flower-garlanded arches over the heads of arriving guests, trees sprouted ceramic Majolica apples, nymphs with filigree wings and Puck-like figures suspended from branches.

Dante, Homer and Shakespeare coming together in the designers own version of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'. Lewis Carroll also played a part in the mise en scène that transformed Dolce’s garden into a hybrid paradise: grapes on a palm tree, watermelons on an olive tree, orange trees with chestnuts, and a massive upside-down oak, roots waving in the air. “What’s real, what’s fantasy, you won’t know,” Gabbana teased before the show.

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 High Jewellery

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 High Jewellery

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 High Jewellery

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 High Jewellery

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 High Jewellery

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Fall 2015 High Jewellery

To produce almost one hundred pieces of such sartorial perfection made this Dolce & Gabbana collection seem out of this world.

Or, as William Shakespeare put it so poetically: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.”

Image Sources:   style.com   en.vogue.fr   Telegraph.co.ukLuxurystyle.com    vogue.com

Text Sources: vogue.com   Telegraph.co.uk Luxurystyle.com    en.Vogue.fr/ Suzy Menkes   style.com   

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