“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

The more I looked at the Chanel Fall Couture show the more I like it for reasons of my own. Not that those chunky boucle looks won’t cover up a chub chub, which is a good thing, but more because as fashion leaders, Karl and Coco Chanel have/had the burden to move people forward in what they wear. For Karl, he is taking women a step back to a more sophisticated, elegant time when Hoochie Mama’s did not exist. What so many starlets wear these days is probably enough to make Coco Chanel turn in her grave. The somber quality and colors of the Chanel show speak to the reality that things may not be all poppy and chirpy, though any one of his couture clients have plenty to crow about. As always, I would hack a a group of looks from his 70 plus piece show, but who am I to tell anyone what to do?

I have been watching a 1970’s series on Edward the Seventh, encompassing the career of Queen Victoria’s career and her son Bertie’s succession to the thrown. The costumes are amazing and the whole bodice thing almost makes me wish I could get away with wearing one of those contraptions. Worth Couture showed a few redefined pieces from the archive, one of them being a mini dress in keeping with our hoochie mama times. Adding a skirt or an inch or two to the length might be what this doctor would order, but alas, I am just a humble slave to the rhythm of fashion, not a courtesan.

Armani Prive paid homage to Japan beautifully, if not a bit too literally. However, I can see Cate Blanchett or hopefully Fan Bingbing sporting any of these looks in a nanosecond. (And to you IMW naysayers, I know that Fan is from China.)

There was much drama (red and otherwise) prancing down the runway at Gimabestista Valli and Stéphane Rolland and this season Alexandre Vauthier did a turnaround and left his ridiculous shoulder pads at home. For the most part. Yes kids, today its all about what was good out of Paris, tomorrow I will get back to the business at hand.

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