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28th-Jan-2008 08:12 pm
dance detail

 COUTURE SHOWS : SPRING 2008 : GIORGIO ARMANI Privé ...

As a complete contrast to the Flights of Fancy that is the Dior Collection, I turn my attention to Giorgio, who is a Total Master of the inventive understatement, when it coms to Red Carpet Dressing, whose main income comes from actresses, singers, and otherwise famous people, and, of course, most of the contenders for a gold statue of Oscar...he is one of the most elegant designers for the Red Carpet Set, and this Collection was no exception...





He was, at the same time experimental, creating jewellery, to go with certain dresses, like this marvellous little winged-hand choker, and using large chunky bangles, and using chiffon fan-pleating in great swathes of fabric, all fluffed up around the face, or draped down diagonally from the shoulder, or adorning the entire skirt of a floor length gown...wonderful stuff !!


I have decided that for this Collection, because he did such a great job with them, I am going to include some of his beautiful cocktail dresses, along with the gracefully elegant, floor-length dresses that are the usual fodder for this website !! The reason for this, is that increasingly these days, actresses are opting for the short option instead of the long one...whether this is just a passing phase of fashion, I don't know, but I have to adnmit that many of the short dresses are quite as beautiful as the long ones, and if someone feels more comfortable with the short cocktail length dress, then I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be a viable option...

Look at these, for instance :-

He went all out for frills, and deliciously delicate ruffles of fan pleating, to marvellous effect, both in the short and the long dresses...

Long fringeing, large roses of fabric, and lots of fan-pleated layers...and a huge jaunty bow !!

I have always loved all this detailing, especially when it involves fan-pleating in circles of chiffon...is there any more delicate way of decorating a Red Carpet dress ?!!

Some of this detailing really is exquisite...


Cobwebby gold embroidery coupled with strips of appliqued metallic leather...



Swirls of white fan-pleated chiffon coupled with silver metallic waist fastenings, which had more than a touch of Sci-Fi about them !!


Other details included rosettes of pleated fabric, imitating frilly, white Mallow flowers, running diagonally form the shoulder to the waist in one continuous swoop, to be met at the waist by circles of metal, surrounding a huge green stone in the middle !!

'Chunky' doesn't even begin to cover it, where his bangles were concerned !!!


  For his Eveningwear, Giorgio created a whole run of beautifully elegant dresses, which breezily flared out in all directions, as the models glided down the runway...



Some of the models sported unusual black headpieces with their dresses, which were for the most part fairly monochromatic, using mainly white, black, and a whole gamut of very pale shades, that wouldn't exactly qualify for the term 'pastels', as they are very greyish in their tones, with hints of blue, green, and lilac...


Circles of palest blue-grey... and shades of black, and jade-green on the white...

Of course, not quite everything was so monochrome....there were colours too, coming in at the very end...


Grey-green silk layers wafting down the runway...and ruffled lilacy-pink silk, in a tight column design...very sexy !!

These are my two favourite dresses of this Collection...I could see Uma Thurman perhaps,  wafting around in the lilac-pink number, as she is so tall...and maybe someone like Kate Winslet in the greeny-grey dress ?!!


Layers of beautiful, shiny fan-pleating in brilliant electric blue...with specially-made jewellery in the shape of a jewelled heart motif ...how romantic !!



His Collection ended on a beautiful orangey-red dress involving layers of ruffled petticoats, all in red...

 This was Giorgio's own Tribute to the King of the Red Carpet, who retires with his own Collection this Spring - Valentino, for whom this is the very last sashay down the runway ...

This was Giorgio Armani's Spring 2008 Collection...and I do hope that a few actresses will get out their order notebooks for the Red Carpet Season, so that us mere mortals can enjoy them in the flesh, so to speak !!


Comments 
29th-Jan-2008 12:46 am (UTC)
[info]ms_banazira
What an odd mix of soft and floaty with hard and heavy! Those armloads of bangles with the yellow dress above look too much, don't they? Like her dress is about to float away, but her arms are keeping her pinned down to earth.

There's also something I can't put my finger that is very 80's about the whole collection.

Some of the dresses are pretty. Not so wild about the ones with the stones on them though; again that jarring juxtaposition between heavy and light.
30th-Jan-2008 07:15 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
Honey,

"What an odd mix of soft and floaty with hard and heavy! "

Yes, I agree - the over-loaded-with-bangles Look is, in itself, a very 80s thing, if I recall correctly, and can look too heavy for the dresses sometimes...however, I think Armani was experimenting with this juxtaposition of weights, alongside contrasting textures too...a lot of these dresses are embellished with applique, which is executed in hard metallic, and shiny patent leathers, and someitmes involve hard gemstones and enormous chunks of semi-precious stones as a centre-piece, all in direct opposition to the soft floaty silks and chiffons of the dress itself !!

I rather like this contrasting Look, although it doesn't always work as well as it might !!
29th-Jan-2008 07:10 am (UTC)
[info]ellinestel
Ooooh... Thank you for showing this beauty!
30th-Jan-2008 06:44 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
My pleasure, Ellin...
29th-Jan-2008 04:38 pm (UTC)
[info]mechtild
What a wonderful collection, Wendy. Here's a designer who does favours for the wearer. I appreciated the close-ups for detail, too.
30th-Jan-2008 06:48 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
Mech,
Yes, Armani is far and away more likely to be worn at a Red Carpet Event, than Galliano, although I have to say that I think Galliano is far more fun - in my humble opinion, of course !!

Armani designs the most wearable dresses after Elie Saab for yer average actress in Hollywood, with many, many fans of his work who regularly wear his dresses to receive their Oscars and their BAFTAs, etc...
16th-Jul-2008 09:21 pm (UTC)
[info]ildikokasod
The Venezuelan-born designer, who launched her first collection in and also oversees Carolina Herrera New York, was unmistakable when she arrived in her signature white buttoned shirt (this one a CH product) and a gray wool skirt, with leopard-print heels, belt and bag.
30th-Jan-2008 01:03 am (UTC)
[info]volkhvoi
So why do the big bows, giant fabric flowers, and ruffles work here, and yet justly end up on your "worst list", often in the "plunked on", "too huge", and "attacked by tissue" categories?

I like the 'escaping' effect of wrapped bodices expanding out into long loose skirts.
30th-Jan-2008 07:05 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
Volhvoi,
"why do the big bows, giant fabric flowers, and ruffles work here, and yet justly end up on your "worst list", often in the "plunked on", "too huge", and "attacked by tissue" categories?
"

This is, of course, an exceedingly good, and probably vital question...and one which I shall try and answer sensibly, because I must appear a little illogical sometimes, and, indeed, inconsistent, in my opinion about such excesses as those you mention !!

I think the answer is that very often it comes down to scale...the frills and bows that I hate, are often over-large, and essentially out of proportion with the rest of the dress...also it, quite often, has to do with colour too...often a dress, decked with the most beautiful frills and furbelows, is made of some horrible colour like custard yellow, which is just diaboloical, and wouldn't get past me eagle eye, whatever shape it was !!!

There are, too, many more dresses in a Collection, than I post here, which I didn't choose, for reasons of excessive frilliness, or simply too much fuss...could be a fabulous colour, but the too-long train let it down...

It's all so personal really, but there are dresses like this one for instance, from the same Collection, that I though to be hideous...



...by virtue of the gatherd-up skirt, which, unfortunately, looks like a slightly deflated balloon that has inadvertantly got caught up in her knickers...

Well, it does to me anyway !!
1st-Feb-2008 02:22 am (UTC)
[info]samaranth
Some of these are simply lovely - and very much red carpet material. Gauzy, flowing skirts - very feminine. I like the neck piece in the first picture, with the hand, and also the one a few down which runs from the shoulder to the hip (the jade green on white).

Not so sure about the bangles. They do seem very heavy in relation to the whole effect.

I think my favourites are the evening wear dresses - the black and the white, and the green and lilac pink. They seem to flow so well.
15th-Feb-2008 04:11 am (UTC)
[info]annastevens
Wendy - I love you for doing this! I keep telling myself I need to get in the loop and pay attention to fashion, and your page literally jumped out at me! I'm so glad!

I basically hate this whole collection, but that's just me. Way. Too. Much. There's supposed to be a girl under these people! The first two of the evening wear tie for best on this page.
15th-Feb-2008 06:56 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
Welcome Anna...
Thank-you for your kind comments - to be featured in the Lj Spotlight is going to make this Fashion Journal very busy indeed, and so, although I will try and answer everyone, I may well miss on some !!

Fashion is so subjective, I think, and I appreciate peoples' different opinions greatly...the discussion is what makes this Journal so much fun !!

Basically, with the Fashion Shows, both the Couture and the RTW Collections I have decided that I will only feature dresses which we may see on the Red Carpet, or being worn to some ultra achingly-fashionable party that we didn't get invited to...there will be some cocktail dresses featured, and I score points for any correct prediction !!

What fun !!
16th-Jul-2008 05:53 pm (UTC)
[info]corrinejyfes
As you head in towards the loop, pay attention when you pull out of the Sedgewick stop. After you make the turn south, and pass the long row of identical townhouses, about houses down, on the east side of the tracks (left side if you are facing in the direction the train is travelling), there is a house with a wooden fence in back, and on the fence is a wooden cut out of a black cat with yellow eyes.
18th-Feb-2008 02:48 am (UTC)
[info]betsyli
Giogrio loses me everytime but I always end up loving a good majority of his Prive collections.

This one defintively screams Valentino (in the best of ways, maestros) and the details, oh my the details! Definitively haute couture.

I don't know how wearable these creations are, but they are defintively gorgeous to look at.
22nd-Feb-2008 08:03 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
Betsyli,
I, too love Giorgio Armani when he goes all Couture on us ...it's where he does his best work, definitely !!

"I don't know how wearable these creations are, but they are defintively gorgeous to look at."

I think they are very wearable, just the ticket, in fact, if you are going to be on that Oscars Red Carpet this weekend...failing that, they may be a little over the top for yer average pub !!
22nd-Feb-2008 01:12 pm (UTC)
[info]herrjenova
I really love the red dress. It's so vibrant. It doesn't fit that model's body. You need boobs for a dress like that.
22nd-Feb-2008 08:05 pm (UTC)
[info]wendylady2
Herrjenova,
Welcome to my journal...

Yes, you are absolutely right about the model...she looks like a man !! Absolutely no rack at all, bless her !! The dress would be improved a thousand-fold with a little substantial cleavage to balance out the huge skirt !!

Giorgio, c'mon - take note !!
25th-Feb-2008 01:22 pm (UTC)
[info]herrjenova
Totally. All of the dresses that come out would look more appealing is the models wearing them didn't look like skeletons. Thin might be in but that's just frightening.
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