By Jennifer Ennis

The Spring/Summer 2010 Fashion Weeks ended in great style in the French capital last week with some amazing shows.  Here are three that stood out for me…

Balmain

Christophe Decarnin, the man responsible for the big shoulder pads and distressed military look everywhere at the moment, stuck with his signature look. The Balmain woman is powerful, fearless – and able to pull off second-skin clothes!

The models were warrior and gladiator-like as they stormed down the runway in shredded t-shirts, itsy bitsy shorts, skin-tight jeans, structured dresses and the infamous trademark peak-shouldered jacket. Fabrics included leather, crocodile and denim in khaki and black colours.

Balmain’s influential look can set you back a lot of lolly ($17,000/€11,565 for a jacket anyone?), so next spring you might head to Zara for replicates. In fact there are some Balmain autumn winter 09 lookalike jackets there now.

Chanel

From the opening ‘cockadoodle do’, Karl Lagerfeld’s rustic runway complete with barn house and hay shacks was a fun, relaxed affair. The collection was soft and pretty with lots of lace, chiffon and tweed in neutral, cream and black tones. The models, with lose soft hair, smiled the whole way through before a ‘roll in the hay’ at the end and a performance from Lily Allen.

Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen never disappoints and his “Plato’s Atlantis” spectacle set in an erotic underworld, was no exception. It began with a video on screen of a naked Racquel Zimmermann writhing in the water covered with snakes – not a scene for the faint hearted! The show was inspired by Darwin’s theory of evolution and the models were depicted as creatures of the sea complete with prosthetics on their faces to look like fish gills.

The collection itself was all about beautiful kaleidoscopic prints, rounded shoulders, short lengths and flowy material (which swayed like fish). The prints began with earthly tones and gradually moved to water colours depicting the idea of women morphing into underwater creatures and the sea slowly reclaiming the planet.

The main shock factor of the show was the shoes! Full credit given to those models for strutting the catwalk in those 12 inch heels. To see a close-up of the shoes, see our Flicker picture here.

This collection was clearly a stage collection and is not very wearable but, word on the fashion street is that the designs will be reinterpreted for a retail collection.

Other designers worth a mention

Gareth Pugh’s unique and doomy entirely grey collection, Givency’s striped and beautiful boating blazers (pictured) and Viktor & Rolf’s prom gowns with a soundtrack provided from Irish songstress Roisin Murphy.

Images left to right: Givency, Balmain, Balmain, Gareth Pugh.

Jennifer Ennis is an aspiring writer with a passion for fashion, music and travelling.

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Influenced By: Balmain

What a week was had at London Fashion Week which ended with the Burberry collection for spring 2010. The 25th edition of the event was probably the most exciting since Galliano exhibits, with a star studded audience in attendance (which is more usual for Paris than London) like Gwyneth Paltrow, Freida Pinto, Dev Patel, Emma Watson,– and that was just the front row!

Statesiders flew in for the evening – amongst them Mary Kate Olsen and actress Liv Tyler who admitted that her British girlfriends are “always more stylish”.

Infamous photographer Mario Testino was there too, and this time in front of the camera. Anna Wintour, US Vogue editor must be wrecked tired as she managed to attend the show, indeed all of London Fashion Week, straight after New York Fashion Week which took place last week!

Emma Watson, the new face of the Burberry campaign made the trip back from the US too where she is currently studying at Brown University. She wore an uber-short gold number by Burberry (pictured) and was very excited to be there.

Oops

It’s customary to turn up at a designer’s fashion show wearing one of their pieces. Dev Patel who is pictured here with his girlfriend Freida Pinto (both of Slugdog Millionaire fame) wore  pieces from the outfits that were strutting out before them on the runway to the sound of The Kooks. Patel wore one of Burberry’s white T-shirts with a subtle white Scottish cross, which he claims, served him well during his Slumdog film promotional tour.

Victoria Beckham changed the rules by appearing in one of her own dVb dresses. She was followed by Lady Victoria Harvey who wore a glitzy D&G dress because” the Burberry one she had at home was too heavy”. At least she wore a Burberry coat over it.

Burberry Prorsum 2010 collection

Fashionistas aside, the Burberry spring 2010 collection is chic, sexy, short, draped, glamorous, and aimed at the 18-25 year old set. Christopher Bailey, chief designer for Burberry, was back home in Blighty and he knew it, pulling off his best show ever.

The iconic Burberry trench coat was there (pictured centre) and welcomed back with a military and camel twist – perfect timing for a colour and style that are set to continue into next year. The trench was also reinvented on the catwalk in metallic silver.

The show was streamed live online and from Burberry’s flagship store in London and can be viewed here.

And on they went to the after-party where Alexa Chung and Agyness Deyn were DJ-ing it up a storm.

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The MTV Video Music Awards took place on 12 September in New York bringing together TV and music stars from around the globe.

There was plenty of glamour on the red carpet with dresses by Herve Leger, Christian Costa and especially strapless mini dresses prevailing.

However, two singers turned up in the same frock – a strapless Balmain mini dress! Whatever about turning up at an Irish wedding in the same Coast dress, this must’ve been really embarrassing on the red carpet!

Pink arrived at the awards wearing her Balmain mini with black platform shoes. Shakira wore her Balmain dress with thigh high boots and a black clutch.

So, what do you think? Who wore it better?

32, 000 festival goers made their way to Stradbally, County Laois for the 6th year of Irish boutique music festival,  Electric Picnic. It’s always a cool event—literally and figuratively—thanks to the interesting crowd that is drawn to our favourite festival.

This year the revellers took it up another notch, wearing fancy dress, wigs and generally using the weekend as an excuse to stand out from the crowd in the style stakes.

Galway coconut trio

Pictured here centre are Isobel Dooley Kelly, Eimear Kelly and Claire Rigney, dancers from Galway who performed with Creole Kid. One of their previous performances includes a party for ex Man United goalie Peter Schmeichel.

We love the Topshop floral jumpsuit (left), the cut off denim shorts and cowboy hat (centre) and plaid shirt and shorts (right), all worn with fabulous big sunglasses.

Ryan Tubridy & friends

While we normally only report on female style, we couldn’t help but notice some stylish Irishmen at #ep09 as it’s known on Twitter.

A regular at Electric Picnic, Ryan Tubridy arrived on Saturday after his debut performance as presenter of The Late Late Show. He is joined here by other famous faces in TV, namely Channel 4’s newsreader Jon Snow, former TV3 Xposé presenter Lorraine Keane and RTE Primetime’s Mark Little.

Tubridy had some clothes in common with his mates – both he and Lorraine wore pink shirts while Jon and Ryan both wore blazers over their shirts.

They stopped for this photo during a welcome respite in the sunshine before the rain came down on Saturday and Sunday creating a mud bath for us all to muck about in. Thank goodness for wellingtons!

Claudine Palmer

Irish model married to Irish soccer ace Robbie Keane was present and showed off her model pins in black hot pants – if you have the legs for it, flaunt it we say! The rest of her ensemble was made up of a graphic T-shirt under a biker jacket. 

Claudine accessorised with a Chanel chain handbag and boho plait in her hair – very festival looking altogether.  Claudine didn’t have to rough it camping like the rest of us, she was lucky enough to stay with her Granny who lives on Stradbally main street!

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