The Voice: Cathy Horyn of The New York Times

During the haute couture shows, I turned, as I always do, to the New York Times to hear Cathy Horyn's take on the latest flights of fantasy but there was silence.  Of course, I do not really 'hear' Cathy Horyn's voice, well, I think there was a short lived audio review for awhile, but reading her column was really like listening to a singular voice on all of the fantasy, artistry and sometimes ridiculousness that is the world of fashion.  It turns out Cathyn Horyn is retiring from The New York Times.  Noooooooooooo!  

Who else will tell Hedi Slimane that his 'grunge' collection for YSL was not worthy of the label that was attached to them?  Or who else will Oscar de la Renta call "a three day old hamburger" because she called him "the hot dog of fashion"?  Who else will publicly recognize the talent of John Galliano after his fall from grace and stand to applaud, alone, his wondrous Spring/Summer 2006 show where a romantic, slow, vaudeville, burlesque show of all kinds of people were celebrated in incredibly beautiful clothes?  

I think it is true as Jill Abramson and Stuart Emmrich, executive editors of NYTimes, said in their announcement of Horyn's departure from the paper that she is "the pre-eminent fashion critic of her generation and who has set an almost impossible standard for those who may follow." 

Cathy Horyn, you will be greatly missed and get working on that book asap!

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

My Heart Goes Boom Boom Boom: Paris Fashion Week Spring 2013. Part One.

My heart was all aflutter at a particularly outstanding fashion week in Paris.  This is part one in a series I will be doing on PFW Spring 2013. 

There were so many strong shows in Paris for the spring and then there was Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent Paris.  Hear ye, hear ye, that is the way to say it people.  If you are referring to the house of YSL, it is Yves Saint Laurent.  Do not speak about or write about Saint Laurent Paris.  Got it?  Got questions?  Please refer to the PR team at Yves Saint Laurent or is it the PR team for Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane?  Whoa!  Did I forget a Paris in there?!  Who knows!  

I thought the show was a huge disappointment.  I heard good things about the unseen resort collection by Slimane but I thought this looked like a watered down version of Saint Larent's greatest hits for H & M.  Perhaps for a storied house like YSL, it needs to look forward, not backward.  Reference the vocabulary of YSL but make it new, make it fresh, invent a new language.  And one that we all want to speak.  

And speaking of, I thought it was all very sad about the Cathy Horyn/ Hedi Slimane kerfluffle.  A big design house like Yves Saint Laurent which voraciously needs six collections a year, bags, accessories - it is a lot.  A designer will not only need to be enormously talented but also to have a big backbone.  It is not name calling (as Mr. Slimane resorted to on his Twitter account about Ms. Horyn) but criticism and you have to be able to take it.  Maybe you won't agree with it, maybe you can learn something from it but take it like a gentleman.   Everyone has a job to do.

Look at Mr. Saint Laurent's enormously renowned - and scandalous - Forties Collection in the spring/summer of 1971.  People were furious, outraged, scandalized.  But who had the last laugh?!

"I did my collection as a kind of humorous protest (against the gypsy look), only everyone took it seriously.  Then I became more sure of myself when I returned to my true style."  Yves Saint Laurent

Spring 1971 haute couture "Forties" collection by Yves Saint Laurent at the Denver Art Museum

Cathy Horyn Recounts the Year in Fashion and RARE vintage is Number 4!!

Well, actually it is the super lovely Giovanna Battaglia in her Stephen Sprouse gown that she bought at RARE vintage that is number 4 on Cathy Horyn's Year in Fashion list.  Now this even trumps a best dressed list don't you think?!  It is the year in fashion.  The year!!  In fashion!  In other words "a major fashion moment"!!!  Thank you so much to Giovanna Battaglia for rocking that dress, Stephen Sprouse for designing the dress and Cathy Horyn for mentioning the dress!  (I'll take a little credit too for finding the dress : )