Didn’t it just seem like yesterday that we were chuckling over the strange fascinators of Princess Eugenie and Beatrice at the royal wedding or baulking over the Olsen twins’ mega expensive backpack from The Row as we counted down the top fashion stories of 2011?
How time flies.
So, before 2013 begins, here are the top 10 fashion buzz-worthy moments that had everyone talking in 2012.
Designers sure are a trend-loving bunch. If one designer uproots and leaves his post, ten others follow suit. In 2012, designers moved around fashion houses so much we needed a map to sort out the confusion in our heads.
First up, Raf Simons left Jil Sander for Christian Dior while Jil Sander returned to her namesake label. Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati left his post to head Ermenegildo Zegna while former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane took his place.
Confused yet? There’s more. Nicolas Ghesquiere announced his departure from Balenciaga in November (to much distress) with Alexander Wang named as the brand’s new designer – practically a “moment” in itself since Wang becomes the first American designer at the storied fashion house.
2012 was the year of drama. With all the news about designers moving from one house to another, you’d think there’d be no more space in the room for anything remotely dramatic.
But we were proven wrong with Marc Jacobs – who commissioned a full-sized locomotive as a star backdrop to his Fall 2012 Louis Vuitton show.Thom Browne also went for the extreme, and turned his Fall 2012 show into a morbid display – with rows of coffins holding models who “died for fashion”.
Drama was also on the cards for Raf Simons, who (rightfully) feted his debut Dior show – the Fall 2012 Couture presentation – with over one million fresh flowers lining the walls of the show venue.
Aside from 2012 being the year of drama, it could also quite possibly pass as the year of fashion’s golden boy, Alexander Wang. Alexander Wang’s SS2013 collection was lauded by critics for its surprising finale – dresses that glowed-in-the-dark – as well as for its modern, futuristic vibe.
The long-locked boy’s good year continued when he was named Balenciaga’s new creative director (see #1), and also proved he has a knack for picking promising talent; when he chose Azealia Banks as the face of this T by Alexander Wang line.
Not all was sunshine and roses though. Early in the year, 30 of Alexander Wang’s workers filed a US$50 million lawsuit alleging that they were forced to work in sweatshop-like conditions. Thankfully the lawsuit was settled peacefully and out of court, preventing a potentially messy and long drawn-out case.
Hedi Slimane’s arrival at Yves Saint Laurent created twice the buzz when he announced that the well-loved brand name would undergo a drastic change from Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris. This news did not sit well with many fashion industry insiders even though Slimane announced that this was meant to take the label back to its roots.
Name-calling was taken to a whole new level when designer Oscar de la Renta published an open letter to NY Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn in WWD calling her a “stale 3-day old hamburger” for calling him a “hot dog” in her review of his Spring 2013 collection.
Horyn later explained that the use of the word “hot dog” was meant to reference a surfing term that describes showmanship instead of the “personal criticism” that De la Renta thought it was.
Oh and to make things worse, newly-crowned creative director of YSL (or should we say SLP?) joined in and published his own “open letter” to Horyn, calling her a “schoolyard bully” and an “average writer”. Harsh.
In more scandalous news, an actual slap made headlines at the Zac Posen Spring 2013 show due to a seating miscommunication. Jennifer Eymere, editor of French magazine Jalouse, slapped one of Zac Posen’s publicists, Lynn Tesoro, for “humiliating her mother”.Tesoro is now suing them for “assault, battery, emotional distress, slander and/or libel.”
Kate Middleton’s tour of the Asia Pacific as part of a Diamond Jubilee World Tour received plenty of attention when she stopped by in Singapore – with most of the attention focused on what she was wearing. In Singapore, her choice of local label Raoul (pictured above)was received with much delight, as was her Prabal Gurung dress that Singapore-born Gurung proudly declared an “ultimate honour”.
British designers became the talk of the town during the closing ceremony at the 2012 London Olympics when nine of Britain’s top supermodels including Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and David Gandy strutted down the stage in the best of British designers, Erdem, Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Kane and Victoria Beckham.
Anna Dello Russo took the fashion world by storm, literally, when a video promoting her collaboration with H&M hit YouTube. The video, titled Fashion Shower, portrayed the Vogue Japan editor-at-large clad in a black latex outfit and chanting out her 10 style mantras while dancing to cheesy club music against an even tackier dull-gold-and-blue backdrop. It was a hit though, really because it was just so OTT it was hilarious.
A spat which began in 2011 ended in 2012 in a not-so-satisfying manner for Christian Louboutin, but a full-out victory for YSL involving Louboutin’s famous red soles. Louboutin took YSL to court for sending a pair of red shoes with red soles down its Spring 2011 runway and claimed YSL was infringing its trademark.
The court eventually ruled that Louboutin could protect its red-soled trademark … unless the entire shoe is painted a monochromatic red. Louboutin got to tell the world that its signature red soles are theirs alone and YSL got to keep its all-red shoes. Both sides walked away (mostly) happy and that’s probably as good as it gets.
From Chanel’s giant hula-hoop purse and Lego clutch to Celine’s fur-covered shoes and Prada’s Japanese-inspired platform clogs, the social media stratosphere was abuzz with pictures and witty commentaries on each, with some calling the Celine fuzzies Sesame Street-inspired or “furkenstocks” after Birkenstocks.
Chanel’s hula-hoop purse however, was so talked-about that the French luxury brand has announced it will be producing the hula-hoop bag – in a much smaller size – to be sold in stores next Spring.
In 2011, it was Kate Middleton, Kate Moss and Kim Kardashian’s wedding dresses that made headlines.
This year, the spotlight was on Anne Hathaway’s wedding to Adam Shulman and her custom Valentino gown with the blush-tinged hem; Natalie Portman’s Rodarte dress befitting her traditional Jewish wedding and also Jessica Biel’s custom Giambattista Valli cotton candy-pink gown she wore for her wedding to Justin Timberlake.
And as always, each wedding dress reveal is a fashion moment in itself.