Well Shod, Well Imformed

PARIS, I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU!

With life around the Palace of Despotism unravelling at breakneck speed, Imelda again begs forgiveness (from her beloved Imeldettes) for these lazy image dumps. I’m hoping to resume normal transmission tomorrow. 

JOHN GALLIANO

VIKTOR & ROLF

LOEWE

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

THE PRIDE OF PARIS...

Imelda's too busy tanning thus I'm phoning in a the slew of wordless catwalk reports below.

As expected, we’ve seen a plethora of interesting trend developments (and confirmation of trends first seen in Milan) coming out of Paris, including the geta sandal at Galliano, Juun J. fusing futuristic moulded soles with sportive inspired uppers, gender-bending Ziggy Stardust platform wedges at Rick Owens and Raf Simons’ boxed toe Velcro monk strap. I’ll brb with a comprehensive overview, once Yum Yum figures out how to pry me off the sun bed.

RAF SIMONS

 

DIOR HOMME

 JUUN J.

RICK OWENS

 DRIES VAN NOTEN

 

image credit / Sonny Vandevelde

VIKTOR & ROLF

 

JOHN GALLIANO

 JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

 COMME DES GARCONS

 GIVENCHY

 

THE PRIDE OF PARIS - PART ONE

I’d like to believe that nothing gets in the way of Imelda giving good shoe, but over the past 3 days that hasn’t been the case.

When you’re in the eye of a cultural shit storm (and it's chewing up your inbound traffic) an astute blogger once told me, to pull back, horde your content like Edie Beale and wait for it to pass. Since menswear is already under reported and with people glued to news-a-tainment sites E and TMZ, why (as Wendy Brands tweeted) “waste the content”.

Despite designers presenting some of the most exciting footwear innovations seen by the Despotic Queen for several seasons, no one (except maybe my dire hard Imeldette’s) was interested in reading about men’s footwear. I might be a couple of days late with my rent but I'm always good for it...as you're about to discover. 

DIOR HOMME

LANVIN

PAUL SMITH

MIHARA YUSHIRO

JOHN GALLIANO

I’m trying not to short shrift chu but with about 20 collections to churn through, I’m going to pull out my highlights and then comeback with for the wrap post.

GALLIANO’S TRANSYLVANIAN TRANNY HAUTE MESS!

Ok so we’re on the home stretch but that doesn’t excuse John Galliano for this morning’s parade. After keeping photographers waiting outside the venue in the sub zero temperatures and choking front row twitters with the pungent chemical fumes of artificial snow, Galliano presented his A/W 09/10 collection that was inspired by Ukrainian virgin brides. I think after four weeks of non-stop fashion coverage my bull-shit-o-meter has finally synced because those pompom trimmed platforms were more Transylvanian mail order bride than Ukrainian virgin bride and Imelda says ‘Return to Sender’.*

Galliano doesn’t have the same luxury with his eponymous line as he does at Dior. At Dior he can present prêt e porter trussed up as editorial bait and rest assured a legion of Dior-ette’s will be mesmerized by his genius but opt for the brand’s bread and butter ‘classics’ range. But one imagines at (the LVMH funded) Galliano the bean counters have their razors sharpened and are eye balling the bottom line. So I ask Galliano (and my Imeldette’s), why in such a diabolical economic climate would you present a collection of shoes that only a torch song Tranny could wear?

*Apologies to those who are following the Despotic Queen on Twitter but it was too good a line not to reuse J

CLEAR CUT

Imelda says T.G.I Friday (or Saturday in some parts of the world) and it mean’s it’s high time we get down to the business of spring/summer 09 footwear trends.

Side note for Imeldette’s who are new to the Order - every Friday Imelda takes a look at one key (or micro) trend that will impact what you’ll be wearing next spring/summer and I dish up (or dumb down) a post, high on pictures and low on text – it’s known as a ‘win win’.

My despotic eye first spotted PVC / Perspex in London, and of course the more I looked, the more I saw. Oft (unfairly) associated with strippers and more recently, Erin Brockovich, Perspex has been bogged down by bad PR.

With the likes of McQueen, Lagerfeld, Giles, Westwood and McCartney all tripping on the light fantastic plastic, PVC/Perspex undergoes a bad girl gone good makeover this spring/summer.  Used everywhere from trims to straps, right through to heels and even sole treatments (Celine), it looks like we’ll all be getting our Nomi Malone on next Summer…just remember if anyone asks you ‘bought ‘em at Ver-sayce’.