'12 SS Topshop Unique

2012 Spring Summer

Topshop Unique

It will be hard to beat Topshop as an object lesson in oversell this season. The show notes for its top-of-the-range Unique collection promised "to rewaken the glamour and opulence of ancient Egypt," with Cleopatra gorgeously reincarnated by Elizabeth Taylor on the invitation. The reality of the show itself was exactly the opposite. Smartly designed, cleverly styled Unique has brilliantly mastered the art of the halo effect for the rest of the Topshop brand, but the sophisticated attitude that characterized it in the past was shelved here. Instead, it looked like a budget version of something Vivienne Westwood might have done decades ago. Maybe that's not a bad thing if you've been craving graffiti tops, gold hoodies, bandeau tops, and tube skirts—and the God of Merch only knows that this is one company with its ear to the ground. Still, there was something sorely missing. Unique has always been pitched as standing for more than the fast fashion the Topshop empire is built on, but the new collection was so disposable-teen in its urban urgency that the gilding on the clothes looked as sticky as the gold on the models' heads. Truly faster fashion.

by. Tim Blanks

style.com

'12 SS Thomas Tait

2012 Spring Summer

Todd Lynn

There's rarely much news at a Todd Lynnshow. Today's outing was no exception, but the collection he presented was well executed and concise. This season, he continued to soften the look of his urban warrior clothes for men and women, in particular by integrating yards of draped and trailing fabrics into his looks and by turning out his clothes in weather-beaten stretch linen and silk. Lynn has also squared off the daggered shapes of his tailoring, which has helped to freshen up his silhouettes.

In addition to the flowing fabrics, Lynn's key ideas this time around were to slice open his jackets and trousers at the hip, revealing layered materials or skin, and to punctuate looks with punkish rows of pins. (The pin jewelry was made in collaboration with Shaun Leane.) A top made almost entirely of pins is going to get a lot of action in fashion editorials; a cropped jacket in black, with pins latticed along the collarbone, will be catnip for the woman who's looking for a tasteful, even grown-up way to let her inner rock star shine. Ditto the pinned blazer for men in Lynn's washed blue linen. Those rainy blue silks and linens were the only hit of color at this show, which makes Lynn's collection an outlier in a season where bold palette is the big story. That said, he did engage with one of the other emerging Spring '12 themes, which is shine: Some of his strongest looks were sharply cut cotton bouclé pieces in silver. The short, knife-pleated silver skirt and hip-sliced, high-collared vest looked particularly good.

by.Maya Singer

style.com

'12 SS Thomas Tait

2012 Spring Summer

Thomas Tait

The series of supremely chic standaway coats that opened Thomas Tait's second show suggested worship in the church of Cristobal Balenciaga. But Tait, one of London's bubbling-under new talents, isn't a disciple of the past. That includes his own. For Spring, he broke away from his dark, tailored reputation in favor of light and color.

In a way, Tait lives for newness, especially in technique. Take the glossy, textured fabric he developed for this collection. It's the kind of thing that makes you squint, trying to figure out exactly what it is. Answer: a pleated jersey with a clear print and colored foil overlay. It's safe to say no one used that in 1953. That fabric accounted for the fluorescent tube lights that lined the benches in the intimate space at Alison Jacques Gallery: "Basically, the best way to see it is with colored lights," Tait said. "I like that people aren't safe with what color it is. It's more fluid." In a season of color that smacks you upside the head, the subtlety of baby pinks and mint greens stood out.The look here was a mix of clinical, sporty, and monastic in varying doses. Those funny puffy white sneakers and slightly droopy-eyed sunglasses, made in collaboration with Cutler and Gross, cut the potentially stifling purity. Meanwhile, racerback dresses with cutaway tails provided a hint of sexual tension. A pair of biker jackets, worn with cropped trousers like a futuristic fifties greaser, was unexpected but still fit into the picture—not an easy feat in just 19 looks. Tait's version is almost made from a single piece of leather, a Japanese plongé that comes in sheets 33 feet wide. A challenge, yes, and expensive, to boot. But Tait has hit upon his own exquisite, if laborious, MO, and it's a treat to watch it unfold.

by.Meenal Mistry

style.com