From The Straits Times    |


Designer Prabal Gurung and images from his Spring 2014 collection
©Parismodes.TV

Fashion Week is in full swing in New York. Behind the scenes at the fashion shows, Paris Modes and Relaxnews met with designers who share comments and thoughts on their collections. Here, we bring you the highlights of these exclusive interviews.

Hervé Léger (Max Azria)
“Love for what we do helps us to get a little better every day. We love what we do, and we do it with passion. And passion, plus passion, plus passion equals … what you see on the runway! (laughter).”

DKNY (Donna Karan)


A look from the DKNY Spring/Summer 2014 show
©Parismodes.TV

“[My collection is] an open palette. It’s like a personality: who are you? (laughter) We tried to give it the individualisation for who you are, to give the best palette of color, black, white, day, night, sport, sexy, work, play, jeans, and put it all together.”

Lacoste (Felipe Oliveira Baptista)
“I was obsessed by this idea of lightness. The pieces have something very ‘effortless,’ very fluid and very sensual all at once.”

“This year is the 80th anniversary of the polo shirt. The idea of rearranging them, reinventing them, reconstructing them is a very exciting exercise. It’s not an exercise in style, but in design.”

“The idea was to adopt somewhat grayish pastels, with certain ‘offbeat’ combinations, color codes that are less common for sportswear. I think this also gives a new design language to Lacoste.”

“In this line, it’s mainly the structure that speaks, we almost see transparent skeletons in motion.”

Opening Ceremony
“We tried to make everything a party, we want to have fun with everyone invited, all of our fans, and everyone who has really supported Opening Ceremony. The show is really kind of an ode to New York.”

Prabal Gurung


A look from Prabal Gurung’s Spring 2014 collection
©Parismodes.TV

“The collection is not about a period of time, it’s more about the women, it’s the idea of celebrating the preservation of an elegant woman. It’s always been a source of intrigue and inspiration for me. I’d like to abstract and modernise that kind of idea, an idea of an idealised woman who is someone colorful, bold and sensual but with a hint of danger.”

Thakoon
“For me, fashion is about feelings, something that you have to create a story around, which becomes a personal story, a personal journey. That’s the part of design that I love. For this collection, it was like the study on what is a man or woman today, what is luxury today.”

“The season is definitely more fluid, there’s a lot of ease in the silhouette, I think that even constructed, it’s minimally constructed.”

Band of Outsiders
“The collection might be a little simpler on first look, or the images might be a little warmer, but there are also a lot of fashion references in this as well, so hopefully with the combination of those different approaches there’s something new.”

“I want to make the clothes for people who want to wear them every day and I want to make clothes to make people feel really special too. I worked on being approachable, but also kind of edgy and interesting.”

Altuzarra
“I was interested in the idea of creating something masculine, but in a completely new and modern way. The ideas of patchwork, of lightness, of a mix between masculine and feminine styles have always been part of the world of Altuzarra. In the lacing and the fringes, there is something of this idea of undressed lightness.”

“Altuzarra, is a question of attitude. It’s the way a skirt falls, or the way one unbuttons a shirt.”

Diane von Fürstenberg


Diane von Furstenberg photographed at the Spring 2014 show
©Parismodes.TV

“The world we live in is so troubling and so gray, with so many horrible things, that I wanted to create an oasis of peace, harmony, beauty, color and serenity, so that women can succeed in creating an oasis in their own lives. The idea of an oasis mainly evokes a sunset, escape, and hope.”

“There are lots of narrow waists, coupled with flared-out styles that are suave and loose. A lot of lightness. The shoes are heavy. The idea was to have shoes that ground you. The bags are beautiful, with a lot of detailing. For me, a bag is a home away from home. So a bag is a friend, one should be able to sleep on it on a plane … So even if they are large, they are all soft.” – AFP RELAXNEWS