Karl Brings the Outside Inside

Boulevard Chanel that was held a few days ago was shocking, because the concept of the show that actually brought the outside inside. If you see some pictures or videos from Instagram you might think that it was actually held outside, but no, it was held inside of a building. 

Recently Chanel held breathtaking shows and we all know who the man behind all of these creativities is: Mr. Karl Lagerfeld. Even before this Boulevard-themed show, Chanel held another shocking show with the theme of a supermarket. It’s amazing to realize that after all of these years, the famous timeless Chanel outfits can actually fit with today’s culture, the culture of a strong-themed show. Alexander McQueen when he worked with Givenchy also had these kinds of concept; he always pushed everything to the boundaries. And now I’m starting to see that kind of spirit, the way Karl expresses every theme of the collection is a little bit different, and I’d say unusual. The difference between them is that Lee was more artsy and Karl is more elegant with a taste of a feminist.
I know that Karl doesn’t want to be the same. He didn’t even reduce the elegance and class of the collection. Coco herself was a classy lady and she wanted to create a collection that could make women realize about their elegance. And why did I mention about feminist before? The show itself had a concept of a group of women (and a man) who did a protest. It gave us the details about women’s empowerment, that they have voice and thoughts too, and they have every rights to express. "I don't ask myself political  questions at that level," he said, while acknowledging that the "Divorce for All" placard poked fun at critics of France's gay marriage law, which passed last year. "Fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce, so forget it!" he said.
In shows culture, things are starting to change. Remember when a show was all about plain runways and the models just walked around without doing anything? Now we rarely see that. Designers do want to express their core idea so that the audience can actually enjoy the whole concept, including when and where they can wear the collection. When we hardly understood the artistic performance of Lee McQueen’s show, we can more enjoy shows that have concept of daily basis like Chanel Boulevard. In the future it’s not possible to see more labels like Versace holds a show with this kind of bold concept.

Emporio Armani at Plaza Indonesia Men's Fashion Week

I always wait for this event because it's only held once a year, usually around September (this year Men's Fashion Week was held from September 23 until September 27, 2014). I attended wearing a very simple outfit; flannel, jeans, and sneakers because basically I had so many things to do on that week. Anyway, Emporio Armani show was not actually my favorite, but it's worth it. The collection is obviously formal wear and it's classy.