BEST OF COUTURE F/W 12


The big news at couture week this season was, of course, Raf Simons’ pitch-perfect début at Dior, a study of classical shapes and cuts that demonstrated why the fading tradition still remains relevant today, but there were strong appearances by numerous other designers as well, as The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm proves with his top five looks here. Showing in rooms wallpapered with flowers, Simons affixed blossoms as painstaking embroidery and beading to a number of his intricate gowns and dresses, an inspiration that Giambattista Valli echoed with the prints and shapes he worked into his collection. Maison Martin Margiela and Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy pushed the limits of the sort of detailed handiwork that gives couture its power, the former presenting a glittering sleeveless jacket in the house’s first couture show while the latter showed a richly textured shrug with a floor-length tail over a stately A-line dress. Valentino played with sheer cut-outs in a cape and dress with an intoxicating indigo hue, capping off a week that had all the richness and variety to be expected from couture, with a refreshing sense of the present.

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