Famous designers on famous fashions

With the Fall 2004 season over big industry names offer wrap-up opinions

The Fall 2004 runways wrapped up several weeks ago in Milan, Rome, New York, London and Paris, but the buzz is still fresh. Some of the world's top designers offered their opinion on the major sfilate.

Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta
"This collection was an homage to New York. The inspirations come from different parts of the city: architecture, music. And it comes across in the accessory palette, which is very bright and inspired by Times Square at night." (bottom right photo)

Christopher Bailey at Burberry Prorsum
"The coats are very much part of our history, our tradition. This season we were working on rich colours, Pop colours, lamés, and silk chiffons. I wanted the coats to become a part of that soft, light world." (centre photo right)

Michael Kors at Celine
"This was my last collection and it was the ultimate Franco-American mix. I think what I brought to the house was a sense that luxury could be comfortable. But in Paris, I learned about indulgence and charm. The French still understand that fashion can charm." (top left photo)

Phoebe Philo at Chloé
"The pants and cardigans were very masculine. There was a little bit of a grandpa feeling - or, even sexier - wearing your boyfriend's pants, which I've always loved the idea of: waking up with some gorgeous man and walking out with his clothes!"

Giambattista Valli at Emanuel Ungaro
"We have a very soft attitude, a little bit 18th-century, Marie Antoinette. There are some lingerie touches and some 18th-century cuts, like the redingote coats and jackets, worn with contemporary items like T- shirts or trousers." (bottom left photo)

Christian Lacroix at Emilio Pucci
"It's a winter, winter, winter Pucci. I wanted to show how to use and wear Pucci for the city, every morning, every day, with an easier colour range - not dark colours, but deep colours, forest colours." (top right photo)

Philip Treacy at Emilio Pucci
"The hats this season are Puccified menswear for women, because a man's hat on a woman can look sexier than a woman's hat on a woman."

Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi
"There's real silver on the leather; it's a new treatment that didn't exist before. It's important to have the icy silver touches to make it bright and sparkling."

Giorgio Armani at Giorgio Armani
"I had to find a way to show the woman's body without showing it, and yet make the woman feminine, sensual, and sexy. I chose the early 1890s, with fitted waists and long skirts cut to make them sensual and slinky."

Tom Ford at Gucci
"It was really the essence of Gucci, and the essence of what Gucci has been for me. I wanted to get a chance at reworking some of my old work, before someone else did. I'm more than sad. I'm really quite devastated. At the same time, I couldn't have asked for a better time here!"

John Galliano at John Galliano
"We fitted a lot of the clothes on Victorian and Edwardian corsets, but then we moved the corsets to give this wonderful attenuated line, a very ill-fitting line, which was really a very interesting way of cutting and seeing new proportions."

Karl Lagerfeld at Lagerfeld Gallery
"Always what I love is the mixture - chiffon and leather, sporty with the very dressy, but this goes all together." (2nd from top right)

Olivier Theyskens at Rochas
"We took more time to work on the softness. It's an interesting part to explore and it has some sweet sensuality, but it's typically Rochas." (top centre photo)

Viktor Horsting at Viktor & Rolf
"We wanted to transform a woman into a deer, to symbolize our woman, who has a free spirit. The show is like a fashion fairy tale where we're hunting for real glamour and push it to the edge. The evening dresses were quite a big section of the show. We wanted to propose a Viktor & Rolf alternative to the Hollywood way of dressing."

Publication Date: 2004-06-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4039