VidFlip: 10 MEN, Issue 16

MONDBLOG VidFlip: 10 MEN, Issue 16 from Raymond Navarro on Vimeo.

10 Men improves issue by issue, keeping design and topics fresh and creative. The publication's updated their
web site to include TEN TV, a TEN blog, a showcase of all past covers and, of course, those nasty little rumours they drop. The
cover designs alter slightly about every year, which I like, because the magazine has been evolving, improving at a great pace.
The in-house writings are sometimes a little too much of that cheeky English humor for my friends and I (in America), and while
the all-Givenchy editorial is appropos, the all-Prada feature made the styling of the shoot TOO easy; we don't need to see what
we saw come off the runway again. We want you to refresh us with looks we might have not imagined. But, feature topics are what
you should be on top with if you wish to the happenings around modern menswear. I'll def be looking forward to issue 17,
my 10th issue, which has just begun to hit the shelves. 

VidFlip Episode IV: V Man

VMAN goes quarterly with their 11th issue this fall. Hedi Slimane shoots VMAN

Ford's model search winner Petey Wright (styled by Nicola Formichetti) for the

cover of the international mag. Five years after its inception, VMAN's delivers a

solid issue featuring faces Simon Nessman, Lucien Thompkins, Andrés Velencoso,

presenting clothing from this fall's Comme Des Garçons, Prada, Dior Homme,

Raf Simons and an ed shot by Karl Lagerfield, styled by Gareth Pugh. And for sure

chill with with cover star (and professional wrestler) Petey Wright at models.com

before or after you check out VMAN.com.

Continuing with:FW/0809 Menswear

For the past couple of years, everyone has been talking about the exciting world of menswear and while I do see publicating pushing the envelope with styling, dressing — I can't say I'm all too sure men are ready to take it to the imagined extent of designers. And with this sorta neo-dandyism arising (perhaps from conservative recession-driven dressing), who knows — things could implode on the whole thing.. menswear might not be the creative, imaginative field designers like Ute Ploier, Miuccia Prada and Mihara Yasuhiro have expanded it to be. At the same time, I've come to appreciate NY fashion week more with independents designer in menswear like The Cast, Robert Geller, Thom Browne and store brands Opening Ceremony, Bblessing. And on the other side of the globe, I don't believe there's a thing that could stop the creative momentum in modern Tokyo's menswear.. SS/09 collections leave me hopeful but for now I'd rather much look forward to the parting from the sweltearing heat and imagine all that fall/winter has to show.

Distinctively Prada:FW/0809 Womenswear Collection

“You’ve got to go all the way,” Miuccia Prada told Cathy Horyn of the New York Times, speaking of the flagrant use of lace in the new Fall/Winter 0809 Prada collection. The bold and daring Prada did just that, went all the way, with a fabric she, get this! —“hate[s]” (according to Lisa Armstrong at The Times.) The models emerged head to toe (dress, coat, shirt, bodysuit…) in lace.. distinctively sexy and still intelligent and sophisticated — still the distinguishable Prada woman.

The music (dark, menacing and glorious, like the theme song to some notorious, victorious film femme fatale) set the tone for the collection. The first group: black dresses with sashays of ruffles near and around the shoulders, down the sides symmetrically. The ruffles also found themselves trimmed on the bags and even elaborately detailing the shoes; they looked like wings, fins — the girls floated, glided.

Then out cam Lara stone in a black lace halter-top like piece (similar to the halters in the men’s collection) over a fitted light-blue collared shirt layered over a nude collared turtleneck for that two-collar effect. Together with a see-through lace skirt exposing the hem of the shirt as a sort of seen-through-to mini — Stone was a stunner. Following were more lace ensembles flashing skin, underpants, nude skintight dresses and turtlenecks. Sarah Mower of style.com claims Miuccia Prada is about to do for the lace what Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga did for flower printers the previous season; I’d dare anyone to disagree.

The show closed with long-sleeve see through dresses with ruffled bangles shoes, necklaces — you name it, she went all the way… remember. It was “ultra-modernity” Marigay McKee, fashion and beauty director at Harrods, told style.com just moments after the catwalk. I could say there was a hint of retro, hint of the future but no combinations of descriptions can really hit it dead on — it was just Prada… as always. Thanks be to that.

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Prada's Trembled Blossoms SS/08

Download the video at prada.com under the animation tab.
Available for Quicktime, iPhone and your Prada phone.

Get Baggin' Brights

Chanel, Fendi and Marc Jacobs all included bright-colored handbags in their 2008 Spring/Summer collections this year. The list doesn't end there: Lanvin, Maison Margiela and Pierre Hardy also included poppin' bags that filled the color spectrum. As it goes, any color is in this season — that is, anything out of reach of depthless AA "range." 



Whether matched with colored prints or solid basics — patent leather, fabric and animal-skin handbags help a look standout. Finding a bright bag to your liking won't be hard and making it work with your outfit just right could be accomplished in so fashions.

Lanvin patent leather bag $418

Margiela 6 fabric shoulder bag $108

Prada degrade clutches $950

About A Designer: Miuccia Prada

The New York Times Magazine's Art Issue puts Miuccia Prada front and center with her her beneficiaries, artists Francesco Vezzoli and John Baldessari. The article focuses on the Prada house's quietly built art foundation compiled within the past decade. The issue is out today. Tell us what you learned about it if you've happened to snag a copy.

Miuccia Prada continues weaving the Prada house with art when she instilled art illustrations in Prada's Spring-Summer 2008 ready-to-wear collection. The season's collection included art by Los Angeles artist James Jean. Jean's not only created prints in pieces but also helped set up the woodland backdrop for the SS/08 show, animated illustrations for a short promo Prada film and designed the wallpaper for the Beverly Hills and NYC Prada stores. James Jean's website includes a portfolio of the listed work at jamesjean.com.



Coming this week: some inspiring spring looks and where to shop for them.
And coming soon: a video podcast flip through the Acne Jeans SS/08 Lookbook fresh from Sweden.

Shine On

images scanned from gap press, l'officiel; balenciaga photos: getty images

At Paris Fashion Week, Nicolas Ghesquiére debuted a collection aimed at making everything — fabric, cut, mentality — "light," says Cathy Horyn in a New York Times Review. Ghesquiére described the show as "minimal, very austere, strict but sensual," to the International Herald Tribune. Laser-slit skirts, shoes accented with rubbery latex and thick wool crepes carried the modern cocktail dress-look. While the patent leather and latex fabrics were new in Balenciaga pieces, the use of patent leather and synthetic fabrics is a trend only transcending and diversifying.

photo source: getty images

Just last month, the gleam of Miuccia Prada's men's fall-winter collection was no eyesore. Shine was not incorporated in just boots and pieces but entire suits. The collection that Tim Blanks of style.com describes as ignoring all traditional masculinity concepts, comes with different colored patent leather boots and shimmering mini-tutus. Yeah, "tutus." 

The use of synthetic fabrics has trickled down a shine trend; moving away from the hard metallic sheen of past seasons, pieces made of light nylon, plastic and latex are a whole new kind of flashy. Patent leather and liquid-latex dresses may hit a pricey end but nylons and plastics won't have to.