Marika Hackman for Burberry Eyewear

Pictures are property of Burberry.


Exclusive track



How do you like the shades and the track?

Burberry Eyewear Campaign S/S 12 (1/4): One Night Only

Burberry presents its new Summer 2012 Eyewear campaign, featuring a cast of British musicians, starting with One Night Only.



As part of the campaign, the acts recorded tracks exclusively for Burberry, with accompanying exclusive music videos filmed on set in London, under the direction of Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey.



The campaign features iconic eyewear styles and encapsulates the spirit and energy of the brand, music and the British summer.


Pictures are property of Burberry.





How do you like the campaign and the song?

Video: Christian Dior Haute Couture S/S 12 by Bill Gaytten

What do you think? Classic Dior or total bore?

Burberry Prorsum F/W 12/13 Show Livestream

How do you like the show and collection?

Watch the Burberry Womenswear F/W 12/13 show tomorrow live on DressCode:HighFashion

Last preparations are being made in London for the big day tomorrow:
Burberry`s Womenswear F/W 12/13 show.

Watch it live right here on DressCode:HighFashion and my Facebook fanpage, too.

Monday 20 February 4 PM London time / 5 PM Berlin time / 11 AM EST.



Will you be watching live?

Salvatore Ferragamo S/S 12 Campaign

An endless summer played out to the eternal rhythms of a nature full of wonders, lit up by flashes of colour, triggered by the sun and caressed by the fragrance of exotic flora. Light blends with tactile sensations to create an absolute beauty that knows no compromise.



“Gisele is the ideal woman to embody this Spring-Summer collection: extraordinary beauty and allure, naturally sophisticated at the same time. I’ve known Noah for ages: I couldn’t see any other man by Gisele's side, equalling her force and sensuality while maintaining unaltered elegance. And I wasn’t wrong: they’re magnificent in Mikael’s photos. He realized my vision, catching their very souls in a masterpiece of seduction, colour and light! Through their talents in beauty, my longstanding friends Tom and Luigi translated my aesthetic dream into reality!” explains Salvatore Ferragamo`s Creative Director Massimiliano Giornetti.



The campaign was shot by Mikael Jansson at the Golden Eye Resort in Jamaica.


Pictures are property of Ferragamo



How do you like the campaign?

Season Favourite: Roberto Cavalli S/S 12 Campaign by Steven Meisel

The new Roberto Cavalli advertising campaign for Spring/Summer 2012 revolves around the iconic beauty of four Supermodels: Naomi Campbell, Karen Elson, Kristen McMenamy and Daphne Groeneveld are the Florentine designer’s muses, as he chose to represent the collection through women who embody the standards of a modern appeal.



Steven Meisel shot the campaign in the studios situated on Pier 59 in New York, set against a monochromatic background which emphasises the splendour of the printed silk dresses and the garments, illuminated by golden embroidery and sumptuous embellishments. The make up was done by Pat McGrath.

Pictures are property of Roberto Cavalli

A static equilibrium, a structured form that creates a perfect geometry, with Naomi Campbell capturing attention with her magnetic gaze, bright and sensual. An extremely sophisticated and feminine vision.



Ladies and gentlemen, this is my favourite campaign S/S 12!
It is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT; it features four stunning Supermodels, representing different types of women in different ages, in breathtaking dresses. It is shot by my favourite photographer, who knows that 'the perfect woman' in the perfect dress doesn`t need any further addition. I love that this campaign doesn`t try to manipulate me by adding 'lifestyle scenes' or 'emotional promises'. This campaign fully stands on its own, shining and impressing with what it is: pure luxury. The world`s most beautiful women wearing stunning gowns being shot by one of the best fashion photographers of our time. Once again, Roberto Cavalli shows his true understanding of beauty and it`s perfect staging by picking only the best of everything, reminding us that luxury is not just in the opulent surface but runs deep.

How do you like the campaign?

Runway Video: Givenchy S/S 12

How do you like the collection and the show?

Video Retrospective: Christian Dior Haute Couture S/S 2004 by John Galliano

This truely is one of the greatest Haute Couture collections in history! Everything about it is perfect; it is impressive from the opulent shapes to the the terrific details. Each look is a firework and the theatrical show with the models strouting the like pharaos and posing like divas brings them to life.
Galliano`s play with proportions and volume is ingenious - earrings as large as shoes, skirts three times as wide as the waist and sleeves that touch the floor - THIS is Haute Couture; the artistic vision, the exaggeration, the perfect details and the perfect tailoring, all leading to a piece of pure beauty, born in the realm of fantasy, realized without the restrains of "practicability" or "wearability".

I hope the CEO`s of Dior are sitting in their archives crying that they let Galliano go. He IS the greatest couturier alive and there is NO replacing him! He must return to Dior. There is no other way.

What impresses you the most about this divine collection?

Reworked Video Channel

I have completely reworked my YouTube video channel. It contains Haute Couture, pret a porter and menswear from 2002 - 2012, sorted by seasons.



Watch over 280 runway videos with a running time of over 38 hours here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DressCodeHighFashion

& subscribe if you like it. I`ll keep adding more videos.

Merry Christmas

Dear reader,

I`m wishing you a merry christmas, full of love, harmony and everything your heart desires.

Happy Holidays!

Runway Video: Chanel Prefall 2012 'Paris - Bombay'

Staying true to his custom of exotic inspirations for Chanel`s prefall collections, Karl takes us to India in 2012 and references Sari`s and colonial-style.



I`m thrilled about the jewellery, opulence and also appeciate the colonial looks. They work in non-colours because they are defined by their cuts. I just wonder about the political-correctness of this reference since colonialism is a rather dark chapter of history and this is collection is no critical reflection but a romanticisation of it.

I feel that the merging of cultures is reaching it`s aesthetic limits in this collection. The classical Chanel black and white hardly works without it`s minimalistic square-cut and a Sari doesn`t work without it`s bright colours and prints. A white Sari simply isn`t a Sari.
Another thing I strongly dislike is the dreadlock-reference to the 1970s hippie-interest in India. This is neither Chanel nor India. What would Coco Chanel say to a woman desecrating her hair like that!?! Dreadlocks are not only the refusal of elegance - they represent a neglection of western culture. So how can Karl put them together with colonial-style, which represents a part of western-history that hippies oppose!?!

The mixing of cultures does, of course, raise contradictions but this collection is simply not consistent in itself. By putting together the wrong facets it is as if he had 'neutralized' what was initially great about them (-> see the white Sari).

Conclusion: beautiful but does not withstand further analysis.
How do you like the collection? Hit or miss?

Retrospective: Givenchy Haute Couture 'Eclect Dissect', F/W 1997/1998, by Alexander McQueen

'Eclect Dissect' was McQueen`s second collection for Givenchy.



It was shown in Paris Medical School in july 1997.



For this show McQueen`s art director Simon Costin imagined a fictional surgeon and collector who travelled the world collecting exotic objects and women, whom he took apart and reassembled in this laboratory.



The runway show staged the return of these murdered women who come back to haunt the living.



The models embodied their ghosts, dressed in the exotic garments collected by their murderer on his foreign journeys.



Scottish tartan, Spanish lace, kimonos, Burmese necklaces and eastern folk dresses decorated with feathers and stuffed animals merge to outfits with a morbid aura.



The analogy between the designer and the surgeon is obvious.



McQueen acts like a surgeon himself here, dissecting the traditional clothes and reassembling them.



The japanese Obi, for example, becomes a corset and the Kimono becomes a tight skirt.



McQueen`s reassemblage didn`t make the women seem like victims but as vengeful ghosts.



He always wanted to empower women with his fashion and I think he succeeds with this collection.



The mix of cultures is extended beyond fashion; the show also makes references to his own, british, culture (in the 19th century): the dissecting-reference to Jack the Ripper (who also influenced his graduation collection) and the 'women returning from the dead' motif from the Gothic Novel.





Picture credit: Pogisto, © All rights reserved
Information credit: Book: 'Fashion at the edge: spectacle, modernity and deathliness' by Caroline Evans. Pages 154 - 156.

I LOVE this collection! It`s like an "early version" of 'Widows of Culloden' with an additional exotic touch. Not only is the tartan the same as in McQueen`s fall 2006 collection, the opening music of Givenchy was also played in his show!
McQueen is the only designer EVER to mix elements of Scotland, Spain and Asia - and it works! I love how the models act like victorian ladies, the Princess Leah hair and the Burka with the bird-cage on top! McQueen`s fantasy and courage to put traditional items into new contexts and mix cultures & times will be unrivalled for 100 years at least.





What is your favourite thing about this collection?

Runway Video: Gucci F/W 11/12

How do you like the collection? What about the coloured fur - tacky or fashionable?

Retrospective: Givenchy Haute Couture S/S 1997 by Alexander McQueen

This is Alexander McQueen`s debut collection for Givenchy, succeeding John Galliano.



It is inspired by greek antiquity and the collection is like a vision of his future work (for his own label). There so many familiar elements, which I will point out for you below.


Left: corset with ornaments as seen in Alexander McQueen F/W 07/08. Right: asymmetric one-shoulder top as seen in S/S 1998 and S/S 08.


Left: chiffon dress as seen in S/S 1998 and F/W 05.


Left: horns as seen in Alexander McQueen F/W 97/98. Right: skirt made of "fabrics-strings" as seen in F/W 03/04, body-armour as seen in F/W 00/01, F/W 07/08 and S/S 99.


Left: wings headpiece as seen in F/W 06.


Left: feather / wings cleavage as seen in S/S 08.


High stand-up collar as seen in S/S 03 and F/W 07.


"Capeish"-back as seen in F/W 00/01, S/S 07 and S/S 09.


Left: Hitchcock hair & 60s as seen in F/W 05. Right: Corset over clothes as seen in S/S 08.


Vines of flowers as seen in S/S 01 and S/S 07.


Left: cape as seen in F/W 00/01. Right: high-waist pants as seen in S/S 01.


Right: poity shoulders as seen in F/W 97/98 and S/S 08.


Classic costumes as seen in S/S 98, F/W 06/07 and S/S 07.


Left: feather dress as seen in S/S 09.


Right: suit as seen in S/S 98 and S/S 06.


Oversize hat as seen in S/S 07 and F/W 09/10.


Angel: reference to F/W 10/11.

Picture credit: Pogisto, © All rights reserved



How do you like the collection?
Where do "a designers signature style elements" end and where does copying oneself begin?