VIEW STYLE WORLD VIEW New schools of style are emerging from the diff erent fashion capitals as young designers take cues from iconic names, cultural diff erences and artistic movements. Vogue India travels the globe through their designs. By BRONWYN COSGRAVE SCHOOL: THE NEW DOWNTOWN COOL INSPIRATION MARC JACOBS AMERICA Alexander Wang is frequently described as ALEXANDER WANG is the leader the “next Marc Jacobs” of a group of gifted young due to the designers’ American designers shared following of A/W ’12-13 producing bold, urban models and rock stars. womenswear. Both labels are based in artsy Soho, New York and also fl ourished Designer In February 2011, New York upon their launch of must- Alexander Wang have accessories. with his muse fashion critics wondered if Zoë Kravitz 28-year-old Alexander Wang could “fi ll the shoes” of Yohji PEERS Yamamoto as he opened his CREATURES OF fi rst boutique in the Soho THE WIND Chicago Art Institute space once occupied by the graduates Shane Gabier, Japanese master. But at the 38, and Chris Peters, 28, height of the recession, launched Creatures of Wang’s relaxed aesthetic the Wind in Windy City (which included T, his dif- Chicago in 2007. The label fusion line,) established off ers a quirky, feminine his retail outpost as a spin on downtown cool, fashion landmark. His with trademarks that rise has been meteoric— include punk-inspired at age 20, two years after striped sweaters, metallic silk and leather jackets and studying fashion at Par- well-cut trousers. A/W ’12-13 sons The New School for Design, Wang quit to set SIKI IM up a knitwear brand in German-born his apartment with New York backing from his sister. designer Siki Im, After the ready-to-wear brand he 34, studied at the launched in S/S ’07 became a critical Oxford School and commercial hit, he followed it up of Architecture. with accessories. Though he expanded Though he his palette beyond black, the collection produces has retained its urban look. The line is menswear, his deconstructed sold globally, but the jogging-inspired style is fl attering ‘sweattrousers’ and tanks—and stud- Shala Monroque to the female ded Rocco handbag—are a uniform for in a Siki Im form, as shown A/W ’12-13 downtown New York women as well as jacket on editor Shala Wang’s muse, actress Zoë Kravitz. Monroque. > IMAGES GETTY WESTON�ARNOLD; KIM A/W ’12-13 234 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER ���� www.vogue.in VIEW INSPIRATION GUCCI Altuzarra credits the discovery of Tom Ford’s Gucci advertising when he was a teenager as a formative moment in motivating him to pursue fashion. PEERS WES GORDON Wes Gordon, 25, spent six months at Tom Ford’s London design studio and two summers apprenticing in Oscar de la Renta’s New York atelier. This experience—which Gordon balanced between semesters at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design—is said to have honed the A/W ’12-13 A/W ’12-13 tailoring skills of the Atlanta-born designer, SCHOOL: who launched his TRANSATLANTIC eponymous New York label in 2010. Lena GLAMOUR Dunham—actor and AMERICA creator of television show Girls—showcased A/W ’12-13 JOSEPH ALTUZARRA, 28, is the his skill at New York’s 2012 Costume Institute Ball, where she best-known name from the crop of modelled an emerald-green cocktail up-and-coming Manhattan-based gown he made for her. womenswear designers whose work is defi ned by the Continental fl air of GIULIETTA their European heritage. A Florentine native, Sofi a Sizzi, 34, worked with Winner of the 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Gucci, Donna Karan Fund, Paris-born Joseph Altuzarra’s A/W and Calvin Klein prior to 2012-13 collection earned plaudits because launching her womenswear of the craftsmanship that translated its ex- brand Giulietta. Sizzi’s otic inspiration—Corto Maltese, an adven- runway looks include clothes crafted with vintage Italian techniques, turer created by Hugo Pratt for a series of satin and velvet shoes, and jewellery comics. Altuzarra presented parkas, silk fashioned by artisans. > cargo trousers, velvet jeans and fringed and fox-trimmed knitwear; all of which alluded to Maltese travelling the world and appreci- ating the beauty of its decorative treasures. Sophisticated, feminine luxury is the sig- nature of Altuzzara, who upon graduating A/W ’12-13 in art history from Philadelphia’s Swarthmore College in 2005, interned at Marc Jacobs, served as a Proenza Schouler design assistant, and worked with Nicolas Caito (New York’s “premiere pattern- maker”) and Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy. Weeks after his debut collection in 2009, former editor of Vogue Paris, Carine Roit- feld, appeared in one of his runway looks. IMAGES GETTY WESTON�ARNOLD; KIM A/W ’12-13 A/W ’12-13 236 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER ���� www.vogue.in VIEW Artist MIA at the 2012 Super Bowl INSPIRATION GIANNI VERSACE Fausto Puglisi consulted for the Milanese brand back in the ’90s, and his work is also infl uenced by the rock’n’roll-meets-Roman aesthetic Versace established as his trademark. Amber Le Bon PEERS for Fausto Puglisi CHRISTOPHER A/W ’12-13 KANE Christopher Kane’s collection has consistently paid tribute to Versace with masterfully subtle touches. This Scottish- born 30-year-old turned down a full-time post at Versace when he emerged as the star fashion graduate from SCHOOL: Central Saint Martins HARD BAROQUE in 2005. Meanwhile, as Donatella Versace ITALY continued to champion Kane—comparing FAUSTO PUGLISI’s extrava- their close bond to gant creations put him at the what she once shared head of a pack of young design- with her brother—she ers fl ourishing in Milan, whose charged him with brash romanticism recalls the reinvigorating Versus, dazzling, fl amboyant beauty of the brand’s diff usion line A/W ’12-13 the late Gianni Versace. in 2009. The rebellious fl irtatiousness now “I’m obsessed with the Roman Em- infusing Versus merges Italian femininity and an East London edge. pire,” says the Milan-based Sicilian de- signer Fausto Puglisi, explaining the FRANCESCO SCOGNAMIGLIO gladiator-infl uenced leather dresses he Francesco Scognamiglio, 37, met made for Nicki Minaj and MIA to per- Donatella Versace upon graduating form in at the Super Bowl XLVI half- from the fashion programme at Naples time stage show. Although Puglisi, 36, College of Design in 1994, and he has a signature that’s much older, the spent fi ve years gold studs and fl irty pleats recalled Gi- working for the anni Versace’s early ’90s supermodel house. In 2000, fi nery. Over a decade later, Puglisi’s he launched his S/S 2012 collection was also inspired independent career with by Madonna (a muse to Versace), a couture prompting her costume designer Ari- collection anne Phillips to enlist him for the re- in Rome. A cent MDNA concert tour. Together, year later they created bandolier-inspired stud- he took on ded vests and ram-head masks for the Milan, where back-up dancers. For the opening of he continues Dolce & Gabbana’s Milan concept to show his store, Spiga2, Domenico Dolce and Ste- glamorous fano Gabbana encouraged Puglisi to line, which blends vampish launch a capsule womenswear collec- tailoring with a tion, and it continues to be sold there. Vogue Nippon’s couture feel. > A/W ’12-13 IMAGES GETTY WESTON�ARNOLD; KIM Anna Dello Russo in a look from the designer 238 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER ���� www.vogue.in VIEW INSPIRATION DIANE VON FURSTENBERG Erdem was launched as a line driven by dresses—the mainstay of Diane von Furstenberg’s collections, on which Moralioglu worked for a year after graduating from London’s Royal College of Art and Design in 2000. PEERS MARY KATRANTZOU Mary Katrantzou, 29, became known as ‘Mary, Queen of Prints’ after debuting her Linda spring/summer 2010 Evangelista interior-design-themed in Erdem collection. It featured prints inspired by the “decorative treasures” amassed by fashion icons Diana Vreeland, Duchess Babe Paley and the Catherine in Erdem Duchess of Windsor— and demonstrated her talent for conceiving sculptural silken fi nery emblazoned with imaginative hyperrealist- A/W ’12-13 A/W ’12-13 style trompe l’oeil patterns. Motifs evoking an English garden maze, a manual typewriter SCHOOL: and even a man’s luxury sports watch, decorated corseted silhouettes and GRAPHIC REFINEMENT dramatic godet-style skirts this season. LONDON PETER ERDEM MORALIOGLU, 36, PILOTTO is at the forefront of London Peter Pilotto designers who have established and Christopher a demand for artistic prints. De Vos—the 20-something Though sharply cut and modern, design duo the ladylike refi nement of Morali- behind Peter oglu’s work sets him apart from Pilotto—classify the patterns they the avant-garde designers that jointly mastermind dominate London. Standout pieces as “otherworldly”. in Erdem’s collections transcend The guiding seasons, and those featuring luxu- inspirational force riant embroidery are often com- for this inventive pared to couture. pair, who launched Moralioglu’s prints are digitally their brand in rendered, but his garments have 2008 (eight years an artisanal quality because of after meeting at A/W ’12-13 A/W ’12-13 their superlative textiles. Duchess Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Catherine, US Vogue’s Anna Win- Arts), is a “scientifi c view on nature”. tour, Linda Evangelista, Keira They interpret this with the help Knightley and Samantha Camer- A/W ’12-13 of a ‘print generator’—a computer on have all been spotted in Morali- program that renders their patterns in oglu’s dresses this year. a kaleidoscopic manner.