Vogue.com Editors and Contributors on Their Favorite Spring 2016 Moments Inline
1/28Sally Singer, Vogue Creative Digital Director
My favorite moment from the past month was Alexander Wang’s bow at Balenciaga. He had made the most beautiful, cool, pretty, on-trend collection and shown it on his friends, and the whole production was thoroughly, authentically Alex. For me he seemed free, and I was so happy for him.
Photo: Courtesy of Ed Marler2/28Sarah Mower, Vogue.com Chief Critic
It was great to see so many super-organized “big” shows in London—Erdem, J.W.Anderson, Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha, and Mary Katrantzou—but rounding a corner in grungy Soho and walking into this “postapocalyptic” backstreet scene by Ed Marler was my best surprise of the week. Less a show or a presentation than a half-theatrical happening, these girls, dressed in their defiantly decaying finery, were pacing a cul-de-sac, lost in their own demented world—with some pretty fabulous bags and crowns in the bargain. “The collection’s called S.O.S.,” said Marler. “I imagined they were the last people left, and had scrabbled their clothes together from works of art.” I loved it that spontaneous, on-a-shoestring fashion can literally spring up on the street in London, in the time-honored Central Saint Martins style (Marler graduated two years ago), but it’s also cheering to see such small-fry designers swimming right ahead into creating emotional experiences. Marler worked with Theo Adams Company, a young theater direction company, to make this moment!
Photo: Gianni Pucci / Indigitalimages.com3/28Chioma Nnadi, Vogue.com Fashion News Director
Karly Loyce was my model crush of the season. I remember having a who’s-that-girl moment last season when Karly first walked by me at Céline. She looked like she was just too cool to be a model—surely she was an art curator, a graphic designer, or some stylish girl that Phoebe Philo had spotted on the street? Her cameo appearance left an impression on me; seeing her perfectly formed Afro float down the runway at pretty much every major show this time around was a joy. At Marc Jacobs (shown above), her hair was brushed up on the side, ’40s style, and studded with a glittering hairpin; at Céline it was braided into cornrows, away from her face (all the better to highlight those gorgeous cheekbones!). It was enough to make this curly-haired girl want to throw out her straightening irons, once and for all.
Photo: Alessandro Garofalo / Indigitalimages.com4/28Nicole Phelps, Director, Vogue Runway
The Spring shows delivered more genuinely stirring moments than some seasons do. Marc Jacobs’s Ziegfeld extravaganza, aided by the big-band sounds of Brian Newman, and Rick Owens’s ode to feminine strength, body harnesses included, both moved me. But nothing feels as good as when a designer completely and utterly nails it, and that’s what happened at Peter Copping’s Oscar de la Renta show (shown above), which was unfailingly lovely, and as respectful of Copping’s own codes as it was of De la Renta’s legacy.
Photo: Gianni Pucci / Indigitalimages.com5/28Jorden Bickham, Vogue.com Executive Fashion Editor
Every once in a while there is an experience that reminds you of your emotional love affair with fashion. This season it was the Hood By Air show. Not a bad seat in the house, bass pumping, undeniable, people from all different walks of life. The point wasn’t if you were the “Hood By Air woman or man”—the point was that you felt so drawn in for those 10 minutes that your love for what you do and why you do it was re-energized for the entire season.
