Adrian’s Top 10 Fall 2008 Collections: #1-#3

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This season I decided to switch things up. So instead of starting with the bottom half of my Top 10 Fall/Winter 2008 collections, I’ll start with la crème de la crop. Why, you ask? Was I inspired by the reverse antics of Martin Margiela via Marc Jacobs? You’d expect it would be that complicated, but it’s not. The truth is that minutes after Sasha exited the Miu Miu catwalk, (after all, does anyone really wait for Ralph Rucci?) the season’s top contenders were already clear. Even if Style.com’s Sarah Mower contends otherwise. Which means the real guessing game is the #8, #9, and #10 slots. Will Marc Jacobs’s “uninspired” New York showing nab a spot? Was Kane’s chiffon and pailettes enough? Wait and see.
1. Yves Saint Laurent
While Miuccia Prada typically dictates the vocabulary du jour, Stefano Pilati’s quickly becoming the industry’s foremost lexicographer. For fall, he acclimated the eye to the new silhouette – and the tongue to the season’s key mots: articulated shoulders, A-line jackets, full-seated trousers cropped above a platform ankle boot. These are clothes that are exacting even at their most tame. And at a time when clothes pass or fail based on their ease alone, this strict sensibility is oddly laudable.
2. Balenciaga
After several seasons in which he worked autonomously from the house’s heritage, Nicolas Ghesquière sought once again to delve – or at least wet his feet – in the Cristobal archives. But while he expropriated a few of the house’s classics – double-facing, dramatic black dresses, bold jewels – he tactfully married them with a few of his own signatures – cigarette pants and sci-fi, carapace-like fits. So while past explorations of the great couturier’s work were near-pastiches (see Fall 2006), this season was both new and old, equal parts Ghesquière and Balenciaga.

3. Lanvin
For a while, it looked as though Alber Elbaz was turning the wheels of the trend machine, elbowing Ghesquière, Prada, and Jacobs in the process. Last season, he made a roundabout face, boldly eschewing the ephemeral nature that has come to define Parisian fashion. The directional change gave him enough arm room to showcase his craftsmanship and, more importantly, continue exploring the painstakingly beautiful elegance of his earlier collections. For fall, he swaddled the body in black grosgrain ribbon, delivering the most fluid interpretation of the season’s austere silhouette.

Collections #4, #5, and #6 soon…
Photos: Style.com