Kris Van Assche

The King Of Pop with style oracle Rushka Bergman

TI is off to the movies to see "This Is It" on a prompt from Micheal's last stylist Miss Rushka Bergman. Rushka began working with Micheal Jackson after styling the legend for the October 2007 cover of L'Uomo Vogue that celebrated the 25th anniversary of Thriller. For the imaging of Micheal's look for the concert , Bergman collaborated with Christophe Decarnin for Balmain, John Galliano, Kris Van Assche for Dior Homme, Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, Erickson Beamon and Giuseppe Zanotti on creating a series of outfits that drew on Jackson's 40 year legacy as a performer. Especially dazzling were the sharp shouldered motorcycle jacket rendered in Thriller-red leather, the tuxedo jacket studded with crystals and a suede military jacket all by Christophe Decarin. How directional and influential would a live glimpse of all this been! As Ruska explains

The shows are done. The editing starts now...
When a collection provokes polite indifference all you have is the proof that the synapses of all in question have stopped firing.

Dior Homme SS 09 Image courtesy of frillr.com

TI received this email from a reader this morning concerning the last Dior Homme show. I loved the honesty of the viewpoint and I'd like to invite more readers to share their perspective here. This is what TI member RB had to say:

Red's Tyler Riggs is very coveted for the Milan/Paris Shows FW08

At the women shows I look at the models. At the men's shows, I come with a magnifying glass seriously trained on the clothes. The clock's counting down to the FW08 men's presentations in Milan and Paris and this very specialized market-that of high end designer menswear - is in a very transitional place right this minute. Time was you knew what you would be getting well in advance when it came to "The Shows" . And what entertainment these shows would provide, Tom Ford's flagrant Gucci vs Miuccia Prada's highminded men's line. Raf Simons's art gallery perfect wauldrobe vs Galliano's flamboyant bucaneers. And then the piece de resistance. Hedi Slimane's rock inflected couture level work at Dior Homme. What clear identities they had then.
So what are the shows with the best advance billing right this minute? After being eclipsed by the perverse streamlining at Dior, the Prada suit has a lot of lost ground to cover. Oddly enough Ralph Lauren's return to Milan this season has high expectations building for the glimpse of some kind of spectacle, if not in terms of the looks which are sure to be conservative, then in terms of the show's production values. The revamp of Ferre, as previously mentioned on TI has the label whores (like us) drumming the thumbs in suspense.