The Other End of the Island -- YSL Resort 2010

Not too long ago, a couple of friends of mine went to Honduras for a vacation. They stayed on one of the islands and had a wonderful time snorkeling and swimming and all the things a person does on a tropical vacation. About midway through their stay, they found themselves on a charter boat ride with a bunch of folks who were at a different resort, one on the opposite end of the island from where my friends where staying. Everyone was talking and laughing and having a good old time, but mid-way through the cruise, something started pinging my buddy's hinky meter and he began to get a smidgen uncomfortable. Not much later, after some well-placed and careful questioning, his suspicions were confirmed. His new friends weren't just from any ol' resort -- they were staying at a nudist resort that's evidently located there.

Happily, the situation didn't go worst-case-scenario on my friends. The naturists were respectful of the fact that this was not a nudist-organized activity and kept their suits on. But it's hilarious to hear my friend tell this story, describing that moment we've all had where it begins to dawn on us that the situation we've just found ourselves in is not... quite... what we expected. Which is kind of the moment I had looking at the YSL Resort 2010 collection. Because about, oh, two looks in I found myself thinking, "What the heck kind of "resort" is this, anyway?"

I don't think we're in Palm Springs anymore, Toto...

While it's obviously not a nudist resort (way too many layers for that!), it certainly doesn't strike one as the sort of lounge-around-the-pool-with- umbrella-drinks vibe that one often associates with the idea of "resort." Obviously Pilati is not thinking of this collection so much as the clothes you pack for your midwinter getaway as simply clothes for midwinter.

Or not. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know what's going on here. I do know it's awfully directional for a mid-season collection. I thought Fall 09 from YSL was actually more filled with classics and "basics" (as basic as you get from Pilati) than this one, although this is far from bereft of gorgeous, timeless pieces.

All three of these have that classically chic Parisian thing I love so much. I wish I could get a better look at the fabrics (Attention, Style.com! Fashionistas everywhere beg you to please put up detail shots from the mid-season collections!!) and the jewelry, which looks fantastic. Also, Style Spy thinks she very much loves those oxblood closed-toe ankle wrap shoes. Mmmmmm, yummy.

I'm nuts for this trench, with its great big shawl collar and the trumpet sleeves. And goodness knows I love a good slouchy trouser. There's not really any woman, no matter what size or shape, who can't look great in something like this.

This pant is a familiar shape from the last few seasons.

They're quite high-waisted and a bit boxy and obviously not for everyone.

He's also still on this zouave thing which I know most people still hate and I still like. I find this terribly chic, with all the flowy layers and the sheer fabrics.

Even if you don't go for that, you couldn't hate this:

Although you might be a little skeptical of those... leggings? Jodphurs? Pants? I don't know what those are, but I don't really think I like them. The fabulous orange trench, on the other hand? Yes, please.

Speaking of orange...

Love the slouch in the jacket. And, huh. Lace leggings. I keep thinking we've reached the apotheosis of leggings whenever I see some new type in things like metallics or leather or sequins or macramé, but the legging tide continues to roll in. I like them in theory -- I like that they're a pretty low-investment item that can be used to radically change up a look. Strangely, though, I haven't bought a single pair for myself, even though I've seen some that made me think, "Ooh, cute! I really could work those!" I think for me it may be more about the weather than the fashion aspect -- it was over 100º here today, and we're only midway through June. (I do wear a lot of tights in "winter.")

There was more color in this collection than last (which isn't saying a lot -- if memory serves it was entirely black), and they're quite beautiful.

Amethyst and jade -- lovely, and I so love the brown with them instead of black. I wish more women would think more of brown as their baseline neutral, instead of black. It's warmer, and with a lot of colors so much better.

More green, emerald this time. My one quibble with YSL is that Pilati does work mostly in neutrals, especially black. Of course, this makes sense in investment pieces that you want to last for many years, but Style Spy loves color. Style Spy also loves an Important Shoulder, and this is certainly that. The entire fashion world still seems to be in love with shoulders, which is just fine by me.

More shoulder interest of a different sort. Good googly-moogly, do I adore this dress. This has everything that I love about YSL and love in a dress, especially an evening dress -- it is so sexy without being revealing, or skin-tight, it looks like it would feel dreamy to wear, you don't have to do anything to it to make it look great (no styling or belting or foofing around required, just put it on), and it is, let's face it, just a wee bit weird. I like a wee bit weird. Omigosh, do I want to stand around in that with a glass of wine in my hand and discuss art or politics or the price of apartments on the Left Bank (C'est un scandale!) or something equally grown-up. Augh!! Killing me! Killing!! Me!!!

Here it is in the chiffon print shown earlier:

Seriously -- could you just die? I think this dress is part of YSL's Edition Soir line. This line features 25 or so evening looks that can either be bought off the rack or semi-custom ordered in a range of fabrics and colors. (They're calling this "demi-couture." Which is funny. Because a lot of companies have been doing that for years: "Here's a sweater we make and you can choose what color you want." Sound familiar? Yeah. It's called shopping. Does that mean that Eddie Bauer and the Gap count as demi-couture?) But of course this line can't have a show all to itself because it's not really a season, so I guess some of them crept into the Resort Collection presentation, and...

Oh, I dunno. I give up. I know all these many, many "collections" are making a lot of designers crazy (although they're good news for all those up & comers spilling out of design schools all over the world -- more seasons mean more opportunities for more design assistants). Some of it is due to demand from retailers who apparently don't believe that their customers can be relied upon not to grow so bored in the space of one season that they stop shopping (gasp!) and so must be tempted with more & more new goods all the time. Some of it is pressure from huge multi-headed corporations who own fashion lines and whose bottom lines demand that sales stay up up up and therefore new goods must be churned out incessantly. I don't know how much longer this can be sustained -- pretty soon it seems like the irresistible force of these snowballing fashion shows is going to come up against the immovable object that is a globally depressed economy wherein luxury spending has taken quite a hit in the last year. (However, there are people who seem to think this is only a temporary dip and that we'll soon be back to our spendthrift ways.) What I know is this: fashion bloggers the world over are probably facing an epidemic of carpal tunnel syndrome as we try to keep our readers abreast of the newest & latest.

But back to the topic at hand, YSL Resort 2010. Overall, I'm going to give this collection a grade of "C." The thing about Pilati is, even when he's not at his best, he's still better than most of what's out there; but I've never agreed with grading on a curve, and this is not his best. There's some really good stuff, but it lacks the greatness I've seen from him at other times.

What do you guys think? Let me hear it!


Photos: Style.com

My Boyfriend's Back

Quoth myboyfriendStefanoPilati, according to Style.com, "I have to reflect the times, and this really is my mood." It appears to be a sober mood, but certainly not one of despair, despite the nearly uniform black and charcoal gray color scheme.

He started with leathers.

Very, very beautiful leathers. This is a combination of a Perfecto jacket and a trench coat, and it's stunning. I would wear this to my grave.

There were some interesting treatments to a few of the leather pieces, like this one

Love that quilted effect.


I will admit, some of the leather may have been a bit far-fetched...

For the extremely well-dressed sanitation worker.

And this, I guess, for the Playboy Bunny who has everything? Really not sure what to do with this, but I will say it's an impressive fit for a leather garment.

But I can forgive him for those little wacky missteps because then he brought on the tailoring!!

And what tailoring it is -- that suit will be good for the next 50 years, with the chalk stripe and the peaked (very peaked) lapels. Even better, he combined it with some leather:

Not merely "sexy." Devastating.

More timeless tailoring:

What's more romantic and dashing than a good, military-style cape?

Oh, this dress... So elegant, so versatile. Put it over a turtleneck or a blouse and boots for work, remove the top and slip into some killer sandals for cocktails later.

Maybe not these sandals, though...

I was pretty underwhelmed by the shoes in this show.

The pumps were a little better, and I do love that scooped-out heel, but none of these shoes made me think I had to have them.

But that's okay, because he made up for it with a raft of white blouses that nearly made me cry.

Style Spy loves her a good white blouse, and good googly-moogly, these are some.

Fall 09 is all about the shoulders. Peaked, pagoda'd, puffed -- designers really paid attention to the shoulder this season.

Oh, I am dying.

DYING, I tell you.

I generally steer away from the ubiquitous LBD because they're, well, ubiquitous.

But this one would be very hard to resist, with its delicious little flip at the bottom of the skirt and all the wonderful detailing and seaming.

As would this one

Because it's soft and feminine and easy and best of all...

...sparkly. ::sigh::

This dress would determine your hairstyle for the day

Because anything that hid that collar would be a crime.

Le Smoking becomes a dress. Again, so simple, so chic, so uncommonly sexy.


There were a number of things in this collection that caused me to make whimpering noises.

This was one of them. Again, it's a timeless piece. There's nothing about this jacket that screams "2009," and yet it manages to be entirely fresh. And Pilati appears to have back-burnered that dropped-crotch pant he's been playing with the last few seasons. I don't know if he's just done everything he wanted to with it, or if he retired it for the moment to give us something a little more long-term and less trendy.


There isn't a lot of intellectualization necessary about this show. It is, very simply, a gorgeous collection of elegant, timeless, beautifully-designed and -made clothes that any woman would be lucky to have in her closet. Perhaps my favorite thing about these clothes is that they show Stefano Pilati is respectful of the women he dresses. He is not imposing a vision on them right now, not at a time when many people don't have as much money to spend as they did a year ago, and when even the ones who do may not want to advertise that. This is not the time, he rightly gathers, for flights of fancy that will advance his own fashion agenda. He's going to make us well-dressed and elegant in the extreme, and that is enough.

The other thing these clothes tell you about Pilati is that, in his head, the woman who wears YSL is an adult. She is clear-headed and strong, and doesn't need the refuge of a fantasy world or a time machine to make her feel better -- her inner resources and a really good jacket will get her through. That's the thing about these clothes that most makes me want to wear them -- the confidence they exude.

For my money, no one working today has a better grasp on the fine line separating "fashion" and "reality" than Stefano Pilati. A woman does not get lost in his clothes, she is amplified by them. They are simultaneously impeccable and sexy in that way that most of us instinctively perceive as "Parisian." Yves Saint Laurent, a man who adored the women he dressed, must look down from Fashion Heaven and be very pleased indeed.


Photos: style.com

L'austérité

I play a little game with myself sometimes. Every hobby/avocation has a version of Top Five. Book lovers ask, who are your five favorite authors? Perfumistas ask, if your house were on fire, which five bottles would you scoop up on your way out? Foodies talk about their best meals ever. My little fashionista version is, If I had to choose, which five designers would I wear exclusively for the rest of my life?

I love this little game, I can amuse myself with it endlessly. My top five are fairly steady with some switching around from season to season depending on what any given designer's been doing, but the last few years the one name I can depend on popping up is Stefano Pilati for YSL. It seems to me that Pilati has mastered the tightrope walk of wearability/fashion-forward-ness. Looking at a YSL collection always gives me the sensation that my eyes are crossed a little and I'm having a wee bit of double vision, because I can always see the clothes through the prism of newness and experimentation, but I also see them as eternally chic staples that I'm going to be able to wear for years to come.

Could. Not. Be. More. Perfect.

The other thing that Pilati is doing for YSL, despite his being Italian himself, is really working that chic-to-the-bone Parisian quality that YSL has always epitomized. You might not know exactly why, but looking at most of Pilati's clothes, you think, "That is just so French."

It's because they're often very pared-down yet souped-up version of basics that every woman wants to have in her wardrobe -- the perfect pencil skirt, the jacket that fits like a hug from your mama. Basic garments done in a non-basic way -- always tailored to within an inch of their lives and usually with some sort of unexpected, non-traditional touch.

The pre-fall collection seems to be even more tightly edited than usual; scaled back and undersold in deference to the fact that the world seems to be teetering on the brink of a major economic disaster. Most of us are thinking twice about spending anything like serious money on something as "frivolous" as fashion, and Pilati seems determined to A) respect the seriousness of the situation and B) give good bang for the buck. If you bought the outfit above, you wouldn't have to quit wearing it any time soon -- that is timeless.

Sophisticated, easy, perfect LBD. Wear this and everyone else in the room will look like they're trying way too hard.

Here's the latest version of the pants silhouette Pilati's been playing with the last few seasons. These are a dropped-crotch, but they are still a bit tailored. I'm still loving a cropped pant with a big shoe, so this is right up my alley.

Speaking of architectural -- I love the bell shape of this skirt. Whimsical without being childish, which is not easy to find.

Devastating. This dress makes me quiver.

I would love, of course, if there were a little more color in the collection. Pilati does lean toward the neutrals, the bulk of most of his collections seem to be black, gray, khaki, etc. Me being me, I long for more shots of brightness, but I also understand that it's that neutral palette that makes these clothes so timeless.

This is, of course, helped by the handy wind machine they brought in for the photo shoot, but good googly-moogly, how gorgeous is that? I always say, for me the most important thing in determining a truly great piece of clothing is the movement, and that has it in spades. Just lovely.

I loved this whole collection, I'd be thrilled to have anything in it, not least because I'd be able to wear it for the next ten years. Investment dressing, definitely, and given the state of things lately, investing in your wardrobe may be the only safe bet left.

The New York shows begin in a couple of days, and from there it's the month-long whirlwind that takes us from there to London, Milan, and Paris. I don't anticipate being able to keep up with everything -- I'll do what I can, but there seem to be more fashion designers than aspiring actors in New York these days, and the shows come thick & fast.



Photos: style.com