To read more about how Balenciaga taught Amy to love fashion, click below:
On a personal note, Balenciaga Fall 2007 was the collection that made me fall in love with fashion. I was a junior at Michigan State University at the time and was just starting to seriously follow fashion. It was during this time that I discovered The Sartorialist. When I saw the photo of Kim Noorda (below) on Style.com it blew my mind. I understood the references, having grown up with an academic mother whose personal style was dominated by blazers, khakis, and other hallmarks of “scholarly” fashion. But here, “university cool” was deconstructed, infused with ethnic patterns and hippie-like graphic colors. With some silhouette experimentation it was transformed into a singular aesthetic, one that captured the essence of Balenciaga at the dawn of the 21st century.
Upon seeing this collection it was like kensho. I finally grokked the power of design. The feeling I had was of a sudden crystallization as though my fashion brain was a supersaturated chemical solution that had been primed for the experience by years of reading Vogue. Balenciaga Fall 2007 was the seed crystal that sparked a chemical reaction that has continued to this day, a deep and abiding passion for fashion. I was so blown away that I begged my mom to buy me the nearly identical J.Crew Lexington blazer, clearly modeled on the Balenciaga version but sensible for a college student like myself. It was her first true fashion indulgence for me, one we both justified as me needing it for job interviews since it was the beginning of my final year in college. But really, I just needed a piece of this collection, even if only the J.Crew version.
To this day, this is my favorite blazer and I wear it often during the cooler months. A few months later, during my family’s Thanksgiving trip to New York City, I purchased my first designer handbag on my first visit to a designer flagship at Balenciaga in Chelsea. How fitting, as this was the brand that sparked an unrelenting love of fashion via runway images, which I obsessed over on my tiny laptop computer screen in an East Lansing dorm room during a typically Michigan lake-effect snowstorm. I remember it like it was yesterday.
I know this is a “too long; didn’t read” post for a fashion blog that concentrates heavily on street-style images. I wanted to share with you all, my readers, how I fell in love with fashion and it seemed the appropriate time given that Nicolas Ghesquiere just presented yet another “game changing” collection. Now, the bets are on. Which pieces do you see as sparking trends across the fashion world from H&M up through J.Crew? I’m betting on those fantastic asymmetric white t-shirts and pleated voluminous jeans.
Visit: Balenciaga.com
I have never, ever swooned over shoes like I am with Prada’s Spring 2012 collection. I know that they’re tchotchkes in every sense of the word and guess what – I don’t care. Yes, they’re one note and totally ostentatious but that’s what I love about them. The sheer boldness of these shoes is unbelievable. Intellectually I appreciate the references as well. Flames streaming off the back of the heels allude to high speed pursuits, whilst the complimentary pairs featuring brake lights represent inertia as a counterbalance.
Perhaps it is the push/pull of automobiles, the duality of car culture, that the collection sought to explore. After all, the great irony of driving is that the vehicle is the one “doing” the moving; us humans sit stationary inside. The idea of designing heels to look like cars as a riff about feet as the “engines of motion” on the human body would be a very Prada move, now wouldn’t it?
Creating heels for the luxury fashion market that are literally modeled after cars is a risky move. A move that anyone but Miuccia Prada would probably be lambasted for, but as Garance famously said, ‘Everything Prada touches turns to gold.” In this case, it’s clear Miucca still has the Midas touch.
My personal favorite, the pair I hope to own, are the red and black wedges in the photo above. Which of these shoes are you liking the best? Do you love these shoes as much as I do?
