Fashion Critic’s Paris Spring/Summer 2006 Picks, Part I;
New York City Sale Alert - Gigantic Brand

I know, I know – I am late, the Paris fashion week has been over for a while. But, I hope to be fashionably late. I trust that my picks will be far removed from Cathy Horyn’s (although I respect her writing) and the others. I am only going to cover Paris, because in my opinion New York and Milan are nothing to write home about, and London has been as underwhelming as it was overwhelming for F/W 05. Paris is truly a gem of creativity (although the best designers who show there are not French). Well, c’est la vie.


So, here are the collections that have impressed me most.

1. Dries van Noten. The man simply can do no wrong. He nailed the airy, romantic, feminine style a long time ago, and he keeps turning out superb collections season after season. Besides, Dries keep his prices on a decent level, because he does not advertise and chooses to move some productions to countries with cheaper (not to be confused with sweatshop) labor. He has been so quietly successful and influential that he’s spawned quite a few imitators (bite me, Marni).








































































2. Veronique Branquinho. I am usually not her biggest fan. Her work can get redundant and overly simple, which leaves you wondering why you should buy her clothes and not JCrew. However, this is a wonderful, more elaborate departure.










































































3. Bruno Pieters. One of the new young Belgian crop, Pieters seldom disappoints. This collection is wonderful in its lightness and is beautifully cut. I also think the lengths are on the perfect border of sexy, but not slutty.









































































4. Yohji Yamamoto. The architect of fashion does it again. This amazing collection is a superb display of Yohji’s talent – a couture collection, really, shown as ready-to-wear. I love how he works with volume, how his three dimensional creations seem to have a life of their own without the need of a human body. In this particular collection I also liked what he did with camouflage, and I normally strongly dislike camo.









































































5. Undercover. First, I didn’t really like it. It seemed like a too literal of an interpretation of Raf Simons. However, this collection has been growing on me, so I thought I would include it anyway. I really love the jackets made out of t-shirts, and the strong graphic presence.









































































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Sale Alert - Gigantic Brand, an out of the way Tribeca store that is the only New York stocklist for Bruno Pieters and Stephen Schneider has begun their Fall sale.

http://www.giganticbrand.com/