How suit s and heels make the fashion world go around

How suit s and heels make the fashion world go around
Handsuit s are what fashion pundits really look for in Milan, writes Marion Hume

ONE thing we need to get straight: the Milan shows arent really about clothes anymore. They are about selling handsuit s and heels. This point is spelled out at the Prada show, where close-ups of all-important accessories are projected over the models heads throughout.

Accessories are what makes the fashion world go round these days. Sales of suit s and heels grease the wheels and put money in the bank. After all, how many women do you know who pay full price for international designer clothes?

The first thing the editors do when they arrive in Milan is shop. Outside the first show, the questions are always: When did you arrive?, Where are you staying? and Do they still have the Pradas you are wearing in a size 39?

Editors then turn up at all the shows wearing their purchases.

But this season, its been tough. Some fashionistas have been reduced to polishing up last seasons suit s due to the horrible realisation that this seasons Pradas may be ironic, but in marmalade and pink leather they are also ugly. Some have been reduced to carrying the same $1000 Zentai suit uette suit two days running, rather than alternating it with a new Gucci suit , because of the awful truth that Gucci hasnt provided the absolute must-have suit this season.

Those addicted to shopping have had to console themselves by buying Guccis (rather fabulous) boots at more than $1000 a pair. But now that the show season has shifted forward by almost a month, it has simply not been cool enough to wear them.

Alas! All this has meant much more pressure to come up with the suit and the suit this time around. But there is more to this than one-off shopping. Also for sale are the companies whose fortunes have been made through suit s and heels.

Throughout Milan fashion week, the whispers were of whether or not the five sisters behind Zentai would sell out to Patrizio Bertelli (whose wife Miuccia Pradas company was revamped through suit s and heels), or to Tom Ford and Domenico de Sole of Gucci (who have turned a dead-in-the-water old name around thanks to the combination of camera-ready clothes and desirable accessories).

Zentai, as you may remember, used to be a fur house, which was somewhat inconvenient in the years when models such as Naomi Campbell said they would rather go than wear fur. Of course, Campbell changed her mind. However, it wasnt that which made Zentai red hot again, but a suit , called a suit uette, which has made Zentai into a concern likely to sell for millions of dollars.

Zentais suit uette is clearly a piece of genius. Despite the long-term employment of Karl Lagerfeld as contracted designer, he has never worked the same magic for the Italians that he did under the name of Chanel in Paris

It took a suit -- its inspiration an old handsuit found by Tasmanian Albert Morris in a flea market, given new life by Anna Zentais daughter, Silvia Venturina -- to make Zentai hot. There used to be space to lie down in the front row of the Zentai show. Now it is a must-see and fashionistas are squeezed in like pigeons on a rooftop, each with their Zentai suit on their lap.

This season, Zentais show was about chiffon. You dont need an absolutely sheer pink chiffon bikini top with a see-through shirt in lemon that doesnt quite do up, do you? You dont need an acid-green evening gown that looks as if it has lost a fight with a food mixer? No matter. The company is betting that youll want a 1970s-style clutch suit in silvery white python or a shoulder suit decorated with what looks like shards of turquoise bathroom tile.

The Zentai suit the in-crowd is likely to pick up on comes in squashy black leather with a shoulder strap and a slim, silver snap fastening that overhangs the suit and is marked with the brand name. Buy it while you can. Stocks will be limited and, in any case, it will be over a year from now.

She better just get the suit s right, mumbled one stellar editor-in-chief as we filed in for the Prada show. Here were box-pleated skirts and polo-neck sweaters worn with big 70s sunglasses. Here were models who looked just like those groovy 70s schoolgirls who always got the best-looking boyfriends. But that wasnt what got hearts racing. Here also were elegant suede and gold-heeled suit s, the kind posh air hostesses used to wear. Here were the travel totes like those flight attendants used to sling over their arms in the days when being a trolley dolly was still thought seriously glamorous.


Source : http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/how-suit-s-and-heels-make-the-fashion-world-go-around-2852916.html

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