Colors of the Rainbow

While we've been seeing a lot of color on the Milan and Paris shows, this is the first body paint we've seen. Today in Paris, Walter Van Beirendonck's show called our attention not only because of the many different spring pastel colors sent down the runaway, but due to the turquoise, orange, green and pink body and face paint the models surprised us with. It was quite an interesting approach, to highlight the importance placed on color this collection. Check out some of the looks.

Tribute to Galliano

After all the heated trial session, Galliano is receiving a little tribute. Designer Bill Gaytten, the head of the design team at John Galliano sent the models down the runaway looking like Galliano himself. Just like in the old days, when Galliano himself ran the show. Due to his current problem with the French government, which he was gone to trial for anti-semitic statements, he was fired from LVMH and unable to attend the show. So, seeing a little bit of the designer's presence on stage, was quite a nice gesture of Bill, and had the audience talking. Here are some of the first images from the show.

Pretty In Pink

 This season there was a lot of Pink on the Milan runaways. Do you think that could stick? I'm sure in St Tropez this summer, we should expect to see men pretty in pink.

Canali

Dsquared

Roberto Cavalli

Versace

Patterns in Milan

Look at the bright colors and patterns in the Milan's fashion week. Not sure how I feel about them. I have mixed opinions about the collections, take a look on some images and check out what Giorgio had to say about the clothing Prada and Dolce Gabanna sent down the runaway here.

Alexander McQueen 

 Burberry

D&G

 Prada

Blue, Green and Yellow. The colors of spring/summer 2012

Beautiful tones of blue, green and yellow are going down the Milan runways. Take a look at some of my favorites.

Calvin Klein

Bottega Venetta

Burberry Prorsum

Ermenegildo Zegna

Roberto Cavalli 

Brazilian Brand Osklen's Tribute to African Brazilian culture

Oskar Metsavaht is probably the most influential Brazilian designer in his country of origin as well as abroad. Known for his casual chic look, the range of colors inspired in the Brazilian fauna and the organic and technological material used in the clothing, Osklen's style is always innovative. It's no wonder, that the runaway show is always one of the media's favorite, this year counting with the presence of the fashion world's favorite photographer couple,  Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. 

The time has come, and we saw a gorgeous collection strut down the runaway. Oskar's inspiration in African Brazilian culture and their slave decedents was seen in the light fabrics and color of the collection. However, one of the most talked about subjects was Oskar's cast, where he wanted to have a 100% black casting but was unable to fulfill this desire due to the amount of black models in comparison to other races. Regardless, his casting had 30% of black models, and this caused some discussions about the regulations that now require every designer to have at least 10% of their casting with black models. When not complying, Sao Paulo Fashion Week is fined 250 thousand reais. This is meant to avoid discrimination, but it has stirred a lot of discussion, because is it really discrimination and why isn't there a asian or other races ratio? This is after all a fashion show and designers need to pick models that match their brand, their clothes and their style, not pick them based on their color or race.

Oskar, emphasizes that he doesn't agree with this stipulation, as the majority of the designers don't, and states that his choice to use many black models in this season's show, was because his collection asked for it. Who wants to see pasty white blondes walk down an African Brazilian themed collection? Needless to say, the show was a success and the collection gorgeous. Here are some of the highlights.