All posts tagged: fit check

The Underdogs of Paris Haute Couture Week

The Underdogs of Paris Haute Couture Week

Published by Sam Flores

A few seasons ago a stylist friend referred to the work of Robert Wun, a Hong Konger designer who started showing haute couture in January of 2023, as “clown couture.” He was making an offhand joke, and perhaps being a little dismissive of Wun’s outlandish, imaginative couture: dresses that look like they’re made of burned paper or covered in (crystal) raindrops. Wun, who is based in London, has become an unexpected runaway couture hit. He started his career with a ready-to-wear collection back in 2014, which garnered him some industry attention some five years in but did not materialize into major success. When in 2022 he won a special recognition at the ANDAM Awards, he gained a mentorship from Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel. It is the executive who encouraged him to pivot into couture, and who led, Wun says, a unanimous vote for his inclusion on the calendar. Now, as the first Hong Konger designer at Paris Couture Week, he’s become a name to watch, mostly due to his many celebrity fans: …

There Can Be No Winners in the Patagonia v. Pattie Gonia Debacle

There Can Be No Winners in the Patagonia v. Pattie Gonia Debacle

Published by Sam Flores

Now that Pattie Gonia has taken to the jury of the people, meaning the internet, she’s mobilized troops of progressive online sleuths who are siding with her (“keep the pressure on,” she asks her followers in a comment), largely because of a general anticorportation sentiment. (A representative for Pattie Gonia declined to comment for this story.) On the other hand, there has been a growing audience on TikTok and X who are skeptical of Pattie Gonia’s arguments and argue that her filing for a trademark would infringe on Patagonia’s. These kinds of posts and comments have been met with others calling anyone “defending corporations” all sorts of names, including but not limited to “bootlicker.” Alas, who is in the right is not to be determined by an online jury. On Saturday, Pattie Gonia posted another video on Instagram saying that she had been “blindsided” by the suit. She claimed Patagonia lied by suggesting it had reached out prior to the suit for a conversation, yet she appeared to be seeking some sort of resolution. (In …

The Designer Miguel Adrover Has A Few Things to Say

The Designer Miguel Adrover Has A Few Things to Say

Published by Sam Flores

You have a monopoly that shuts the doors to everyone else. Even in fashion schools now you are training young people to be creative servants. Their biggest hope is to get hired by a corporation like LVMH. I went to fashion school. You are trained to want one of those jobs. So much in fashion has changed… They study John Galliano and all those designers and then when you look at the runways you see copies. That’s how they [corporations] maintain the structure that supports them. I think I was a sort of spice in the salad of fashion. You need to be careful, because they also need someone that sows some discord, because it makes everything more exciting now that everything has been bought off. But in the end, you also become part of it because they take advantage of you. What’s also tough today is that there are no more critics. I remember back then, Cathy Horyn and Suzy Menkes… criticism was very different then. Now Cathy Horyn walks the runway for Demna …