FALL '06 SPECIAL FEATURE
Fashion’s Wild Ride Through the Centuries
In 1999, Alexander McQueen sent down the fall runway a short-sleeved top made from endless coils of stacked silver wire by jeweler Shaune Leane. With his model gliding through an icy tundra show setting, he wanted to make his guests feel like they were in a snow globe. Unusual? Perhaps, but he’s not the only designer over the years to have delighted and entertained us with the extraordinary
and unconventional.
Take, for example, John Galliano and any number of his offbeat haute couture looks for Christian Dior. Or Hussein Chalayan and his furniture series for fall 2000, when he transformed a coffee table into a skirt. There’s Thierry Mugler’s costume-y odes in the Eighties and Cardin and Courrèges’ out-of-this-world space age looks of the Sixties. When the latter’s micro-mini came out, it was quelle surprise, indeed. Even in the Fifties, designers like Capucci turned heads with his boxy, geometric silhouettes.
While those sudden bursts of creativity – a haystack dress, anyone? – trickle down to what you see in the stores, these moments of unbridled fantasy and artistry are what keep our curiosity. For many, they’re a way of underscoring the theme and inspiration of the season, but they’re also pure visual celebration – an over-the-top outlet for a designer’s talent, ideas and creative flair.
One thing’s for sure, however: when it comes to matters of la mode, you can be certain to expect the unexpected.
