The butterfly effect: Why couldn't Toni Maticevski take over the reins at Christian Dior?

Frockwriter popped down to Melbourne last week for the last leg of the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival (as a guest of the organisers, once again). Among the shows we caught was Toni Maticevski’s 'Red Carpet Runway' on Thursday night, which closed the event with 50 looks from Maticevski’s archive of 2000 pieces, collected since he launched his demi-couture label in 1999. There were plenty of his signature, heavily-embellished ballgowns and shorter, artfully-deconstructed tailored pieces that have made their way to New York Fashion Week, The Grammys, the Cannes Film Festival and a raft of other events on the backs of celebrities such as Beyoncé, Scarlett Johannson, Leighton Meester, Christina Ricci, Abbie Cornish, Gemma Ward and Kim Kardashian. At 35, Maticevksi is exactly the same age as was John Galliano in 1996, when the latter was appointed as the creative director of the storied Parisian haute couture house of Christian Dior. With Galliano fired last year, there is a vacant position to fill. Suspend your disbelief for a moment that an Australian designer could ever be considered for the creative director’s role of a major Paris fashion house (Martin Grant FYI once turned down the Céline gig) and ponder the hypothetical question, why couldn’t Maticevski fill Galliano’s shoes?

Gareth Pugh FW0910 live blog

Fashion never sleeps - and nor does frockwriter. Especially not when we’re on deadline. But another live blog calls people. And who are we to ignore it? Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio is thoughtfully providing a live stream (correction, video) of Gareth Pugh’s FW0910 collection at 5pm today Paris time, which is 3am AEST tomorrow. Join frockwriter, Bryanboy and Imelda live as we slice and dice Pugh’s sure-to-be theatrical extravaganza and ponder the second biggest rumour of the season after Alessandra Facchinetti working on Tom Ford’s new womenswear label: is Pugh headed for Dior Homme? Beyond LVMH’s statement that the company is bankrolling Pugh's shows, some believe an announcement is imminent. Today? Ironically, Pugh’s FW0910 show timeslot immediately follows that of Kris Van Assche, the Dior Homme incumbent Pugh is tipped to replace. In the interim, here is Pugh, above, in some other SHOWstudio vignettes.

05/03: As becomes obvious at the kickoff of the blog, Pugh did not do a runway show yesterday, but showed a video. That's fine and it was still a first look, however we can't help expressing our disappointment in SHOWstudio's lack of transparency. The website advertised "the exclusive opportunity to watch Gareth Pugh's eagerly-awaited A/W show, live on SHOWstudio... we will be able to simultaneously show exactly what press and buyers will see". Several phone attempts last night to clarify the exact nature of the presentation were blown off, with a SHOWstudio rep refusing to confirm or deny whether it was definitely a live stream of a runway show. We received confirmation that it was a video from Sonny Vandevelde in Paris at 2.28am (Cover It Live's time code here is one hour out for some reason). We can't help feeling SHOWstudio deliberately misled readers - possibly also showgoers. Apologies to anyone who stayed up until 3am on our recommendation, expecting to see a runway collection.

Hellboys

gareth pugh FW0910/reuters via daylife

“We have to sell the dream before we can sell the clothes” noted Gareth Pugh prior to his first Paris-staged womenswear show in September. Last night in Paris, with his first menswear collection, it was a Gothic nightmare Pugh was selling this time around. In the face of a financial apocalypse, with retailers folding right, left and centre, while others report gains – in the case of London’s Browns boutiques, a 200percent increase in the online shoe category in 2008, the more extreme the design, the better – Pugh’s attention whore couture shone like a beacon in a fortnight of predominantly play-it-safe, predictable mens clothes. The closing show on Sunday, it was bookended by the menswear season and the kickoff of the haute couture collections, which commence in a few hours' time. And the front-row presence of LVMH director Delphine Arnault has fuelled inevitable speculation that Pugh might be the latest Brit enfant terrible in the sights of the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate.



gareth pugh FW0910/reuters via daylife

Typically dark and brooding, Pugh’s debut menswear show was a hookup between Mad Max and the Marquis de Sade.

Highlights included button-down leather trenchcoats, nail-studded singlets and blousons, a shaggy goat fur gilet, a pewter chainmail-like mesh shirt over matching skinny pewter trousers, extravagant funnel-neck coats - one whose diamond patchwork leather applique echoed the trademark geodesic armour of Pugh's womenswear - and slashed skinny jeans or leggings that were so distressed, they resembled the shrouds of a cadre of post-apocalyptic zombies.

With longtime collaborator Nicola Formichetti on styling, the collection was worked back with multistrap knee-high biker boots, enigmatic cocktail hats by Brit milliner Stephen Jones and ghoulish makeup.

Pugh's Gothboy cast included, if frockwriter is not mistaken, fashion’s new dark prince, Australian Jethro Cave:


gareth pugh FW0910/reuters via daylife


Click here to see the complete collecton on men.style.com.