Christian Siriano: An American Designer in Paris

Coco Rocha strikes a pose at the Christian Siriano SS20 show in Paris, as Alicia Silverstone, Shannon Purser, Karlie Kloss, Larsen Thompson and Leigh Lezark look on. Cover picture and photographs all by Elli Ioannou for DAM

American designer Christian Siriano brought his Spring/Summer 2020 collection to Paris for the first time. Inspired by Pop Art, the show was a vivid contrast to the pastel salons of the Hotel d'Evreux in the Place Vendôme and had a stellar frow including Shannon Purser, Alicia Silverstone and Karlie Kloss. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Elli Ioannou
 

 Cindy Bruna wears a frothy, tulle gown
at the Hotel dEvreux in Paris

AMID the pale green and gold salons of the Hotel d'Evreux, an 18th-century mansion in the Place

Vendôme, Christiano Siriano presented his new collection for the first time in Paris.

The designer brought American razzmatazz with him as models Coco Rocha and Candy Bruna wore his exuberant evening gowns, striking poses that brought them to life on the runway, with whoops from the star-studded front row.

One of the standout winners of the Project Runway television series in 2008, Siriano is now a mentor on the show's new 17th season after its return to the Bravo network. The host of the show, model Karlie Kloss, was in the front row joined by Alicia Silverstone (who captured the Nineties fashion zeitgeist in the film Clueless) along with actors Shannon Purser, Larsen Thompson and Leigh Lezark.

Christian Siriano has worked hard to be taken seriously and has shown his collections at New York Fashion Week for more than a decade. He has dressed some of the United States most high profile women from Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey to Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Victoria Beckham and Angelina Jolie. But despite the celebrity, the designer has always been keen to cast a diverse range of models for his fashion shows.

"The collection was inspired by modern pop artists like Ashley Longshore and her whimsical and playful use of colour and texture"

A voluminous gown worn by Maria Borges
was one of the highlights
of Siriano's show

This season, the designer's Spring 2020 collection was inspired by New Orleans painter Ashley Longshore. At the New York show, there were enormous pastel and neon canvas portraits of Frida Kahlo and Lady Gaga on the runway at Manhattan's Gotham Hall, while the artist herself worked on the paintings.

Longshore's recreation of the pop culture portrait has made her well-known in the art world. Siriano sees her as a "modern day Warhol" and believes there is mutual inspiration between painters and designers.

In Paris, Christian Siriano brought a Pop Art sensibility to the collection, without the actual paintings, artist and artwork of New York. Instead, he let the buoyant clothes speak for themselves with their brilliant colour palette, including buttercup yellow tops and pants, shimmering long coats in silver, hot pink minidresses, layered tulle skirts and body hugging creations made of red, lip-shaped lace.

A gown with voluminous sleeves on model Maria Borges (see above) had a luminous colour combination of gold, aqua, azure and magenta. Mixed with the lavish designs were more reserved outfits such as gabardine, sea-Green jackets and shorts, black eveningwear jumpsuits, and dresses with one shoulder finished with long, glimmering fringes.

Siriano's brilliant colour palette included buttercup yellow, shimmering silver, hot pink and burgundy lace.

Lip-shaped lace were inspired by Pop Art
and Surrealism
 

"This season the collection was inspired by modern pop artists of today," said Christian Siriano. "Artist Ashley Longshore's whimsical and playful use of colour and texture help inspire the fabrication this season. Her women empowerment statements also inspire the silhouettes in the collection to celebrate the body and the women wearing them.

"Almost a hint of surrealism influenced by Jeff Koons series of work, Easyfun-Ethereal, moves throughout the collection with dramatic eye and lip print textiles used in unexpected ways. There is a focus on event dressing and eveningwear that is modern. I wanted the collection to feel playful, colorful, bright and romantic, but still powerful and exciting.”

The lip design was used for not only textured lace but both prints and asymmetrical dresses and tops and added to the extroverted part of the collection with its lamé greens, golds, pinks and rainbow stripes.

The collection included some menswear like Siriano's  strapless bustier, transparent blouses and metallaic green jackets worn with Bermuda shorts. While a neutral eye design print was on several pieces, most of the collection was in limpidly iridescent hues, especially the fuchsia minidresses.

"I wanted the collection to feel playful, colorful, bright and romantic, but still powerful and exciting.”

Sheer gowns in black seem
made for the red carpet

Christian Siriano started out a long way from the fashion world in New York. He grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, where he studied at Broadneck Senior High School before transferring to the Baltimore School for the Arts. The school allowed Siriano to choose fashion as his main subject and as he also studied ballet, this added to his interest in design. He began making clothes when he was thirteen, while working at a hair salon, and then designed the clothes for their annual exhibitions.

Siriano went on to study at the American InterContinental University in London and then interned at Vivienne Westwood, and later at Alexander McQueen. He returned to the US to live in New York City after graduating. Here he started working as a freelance make-up artist, making wedding gowns for private clients and as an intern for a short time at Marc Jacobs.

The designer was the youngest winner of Project Runway in 2008, which launched his career, and as part of the prize he was able to show a twelve-piece final collection at New York Fashion Week. When Siriano won the show's fourth season, it included a fashion spread in Elle magazine, a car and US$100,000 to start his own label.

Four years later, the first Christian Siriano flagship store opened in Manhattan's Nolita neighbourhood. His business continued to expand with his own fragrance, Silhouette, in 2014, and his work at Disney creating the costumes for the fairies, especially Zarina, in the animated film The Pirate Fairy. Siriano was also given the fashion world's stamp of approval when he was admitted to the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

Siriano studied at the American InterContinental University in London and interned at Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen

Christian Siriano celebrates after his first
Paris show with his models.
Photo: Kevin Tachman

Siriano has since become known for his extravagant ball gowns worn on the red carpet, his tailored sportswear and line of shoes and accessories.

Eyewear, home and beauty collections were all launched three years ago. A photographic retrospective of his work was published by Rizzoli Books in 2017, called Dresses to Dream About.

He was named “Designer of the Year” at the 2016 AAFA American Image Awards and won the Couture For A Cause “Designer of the Decade” award that same year. Siriano also collaborates on collections for a wide range of brands for both clothing and accessories. But the effervescent creations for his own label, like those in Paris, are at the heart of his work.

Tap photographs to see a full-screen slideshow of highlights from Christian Siriano's Paris show

Paris Fashion Week: Guy Laroche Spring 2020

Highlights of the Guy Laroche ready-to-wear show "Madame C" held at the Pavillon Vendome. Shot for DAM by Elli Ioannou

All Wrapped Up: Mame Kurogouchi's New Collection in Paris

The gossamer transparency of a dress in Japanese fashion designer Maiko Kurogouchi's new SS20 collection, shown in Paris. All photographs and cover picture  ~ Georges Hobeika SS19 ~ for DAM by Elli Ioannou.

Japanese fashion label Mame Kurogouchi opened Paris Fashion Week with diaphanous, layered pieces for Spring Summer 2020. Designer Maiko Kurogouchi was inspired by her country's traditions, including this season's focus on Japan's art of wrapping. Jeanne-Marie Cilento and Elli Ioannou report. Photographs by Elli Ioannou

Leafy, emerald green embroidery 
embellishes a new top in
the SS20 collection

UNDER the classical arches of the 19th century courtyard of Paris' Faculté de Pharmacie in the Avenue de l'Observatoire, near the Senate and Luxembourg Gardens, Maiko Kurogouchi held her new Spring/Summer 2020 show.

There were 36 voluminous pieces in white with dashes of colour, embroidery and mesh. Called Embrace, the collection's green details symbolise early memories as a child.

The palette of different shades of emerald were inspired by what the designer describes as "hallucinatory sunny days". The theme of the collection is based around the Japanese art of packaging, where the "art of wrapping is to wrap your heart". There are jackets and skirts made of hundreds of hand-cut, translucent sheets, designed to be like a wearable cocoon (see below). Even the dresses and knitwear have transparent panels that are like "wagashi", another form of traditional wrapping.

The theme of the collection is based on Japanese packaging, where the "art of wrapping is to wrap your heart".

 Layers of translucent sheets, hand-cut for
a voluminous jacket

Designer of the label, Maiko Kurogauchi, sees the clothes as protection for the body, created through the lens of Japanese packaging. She is inspired by found objects, the beauty of everyday things that are made special by the art of wrapping. One of her references is Hideyuki Oka’s 1972 book on the Japanese art of packing.

Another of Kurogouchi's motifs for this season's collection is the cocoon created by silkworms where she imagines looking out at the world through the pale, gauzy casing. This inspired the curving, abstract forms of the new collection and the sense of  transformation and new life being embraced she was eager to explore through her designs. Even the fringes on sleeves are described in narrative terms as representing long ago memories.

Maiko Kurogouchi dsigns very light, floating layers and soft silhouettes combined with rich fabrics and hand-made details. The collection's sandals were made to work with the different pieces and are created from mesh fabrics in green and beige while this season’s PVC bags are covered in fringes. The designer says they are like "greenery slowly overgrowing architectural structures". The shoes in black, navy suede and white were created in collaboration with Tod’s, combining Italian craftsmanship and Japanese design.

Maiko Kurogouchi is inspired by found objects, the beauty of the everyday made special.

 Fine black mesh covers a dark green blazer and
sheet skirt, worn with Tod's
shoes

Kurogouchi launched her Mame label and studio in 2010, in Tokyo. She used the word Mame because it meant "bean" like the little, green endamame you find at Japanese restaurants. Four years after she established her business, she won the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix Shiseido Sponsorship Award for Best New Designer.

By 2017, she had won the Fashion Prize of Tokyo. This was the first edition of the award and it meant she could present her future collections at the Autumn/Winter 2018/19 and Spring/Summer 2019 fashion shows at Paris Fashion Week, receiving full support.

The Fashion Prize of Tokyo was launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japan Apparel Fashion Industry Council, with the Japan Fashion Week Organisation, to support Tokyo-based designers to expand into international markets.

The designer also won Vogue Japan’s First Rising Star Award, recognising her finely worked designs and her appreciation of Japanese heritage that she married to a contemporary aesthetic. Maiko Kurogouchi comes from Nagano, a country area in Japan where many artisans maintain a traditional way of life, a constant inspiration for her work today.

The designer started her career in fashion after graduating from Bunka Fashion College (where Junya Watanabe and Yohji Yamamoto had studied), and working for the Miyake Design Studio. For three years, she worked on the planning and design of Issey Miyake’s Paris collection. But she decided that she wanted to go out on her own and explore Japanese traditional textiles, kimonos and hand-worked embellishments and try and keep the artisan traditions of her country alive.

A Shimmer of Sequins at Ashish in London

Long shorts decorated with mirrors and worn with a white shirt typify the Ashish aesthetic of mixing sportiness with glamour and simple silhouettes with intricate embellishment. Main photograph above by Grania Connors. Cover picture of the Stephane Rolland haute couture show by Elli Ioannou

The new Ashish collection for Spring/Summer 2020 was presented at a runway show under the soaring roof of Seymour Hall during London Fashion Week. The designer included his signature glimmering sequins combined with brilliant colour and pattern. Special report by Jeanne-Marie Cilento & Grania Connors

Lady Mary Charteris in the frow at Ashish
wearing a sequined rainbow jacket
Photo:Grania Connors

SITTING under the great arch of the Art Deco Seymour Hall in Marylebone, waiting for the Ashish show to begin, there is a buzz of excited conversation and laughter. The front row is filled with guests wearing the designer's luminous creations sparkling with sequins and vivid colour. Paloma Faith wears a crochet, georgette jumpsuit while singer Lady Mary Charteris is wearing a sequined rainbow bomber jacket and bright pink silk trousers.

Musicians play a dirge at one end of the hall while the whirr of the photographers' cameras fills the pit at the other. The show notes are minimal with a quote from controversial Indian spiritual leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho, saying: “A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid errors, that will do.” Perhaps the designer's current philosophy of life.

The theatrical 1930s Seymour Hall in Marylebone
where the Ashish show was held.
Photo: Grania Connors

Ashish Gupta, originally from India, studied fine art in Delhi before he moved to London to complete an MA in fashion design at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 2000. Since he was discovered in 2001, he has carved out a career in London where he is not only known for rich, hand embroidery and brilliant hues but also for the political and social messages integral to his designs. Ashish is also considered a pioneer, championing diversity in the fashion industry. He is certainly a master of mixing high fashion with ready-to-wear and sporty designs with glamour. His combination of East and West, shimmering sequins and fine embroidery has attracted clients from Madonna to Taylor Swift.

“A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid errors, that will do.”

Billy Porter, Paloma Faith
and Adam Smith-Porter
after the show.
Photo: Grania
Connors

Ashish has won the NEWGEN award three times and has had his work exhibited at the V&A and The Met. The designer has a famous story about how he got his break into fashion which is worth recounting as it shows how some disasters can have silver linings. After he had finished his MA in London, he went to Paris for job interviews with fashion houses. But before even left the Gare Du Nord train station, his entire portfolio of work was stolen. He has said it was one of the worst moments of his life.

The designer had to get his tutor to send a letter to the High Commission in Paris because he had no papers and couldn't get back into the UK. He decided to go to India after the Paris debacle and create a limited collection of 10 pieces. A magazine editor saw them and bought a Harris Tweed sweatshirt with orange sequined bows lined with antique kimono fabric. The next week he got a call from a buyer at Browns and they have stocked Ashish's collections ever since.

The designer has always loved working with sequins and has made working with them an art form, creating a fluidity and shimmer that changes colour as the wearer moves. This season, sequins and tiny mirrors, were highlights of the new collection but the silhouettes were more utilitarian but still embellished with artisanal embroidery.

Ashish has made working with sequins an art form, creating a fluidity and shimmer that changes colour as the wearer moves

A voluminous dress embroidered
with different patterns and colours.
Photo: Grania Connors

One of the highlights of the show was model Neelam Gill wearing a long fuchsia gown for the finale covered in sequins carrying aloft a ceremonial branch. Other dresses had contrasting patterns and colours with mirrors sewn into the embroidery (see at right). Worn beneath the dress is a sequined shirt in stripes of bright blue, yellow and purple.

Decorative motifs are played down by wearing the pieces with simple canvas shoes and geeky glasses. Some models wore simple flowers in their hair and pale faces were enlivened with dark eyes ringed by black kohl.

Menswear was part of the show and the male models wore some of the collection's brightest pieces with broadly striped, sequined shirts and drawstring denim shorts covered in round mirrors.

There were also long, loose caftans worn with a deep V at the neck in dark-blue but highlighted with circular bands of bright pink and white. Other separates include a transparent magenta tank top embroidered with intricate lozenges of sequins and worn with high-waisted, patch-worked jeans covered in tiny mirrors and surrounded by fine beading. Ashish played with simple silhouettes for this collection but the complexity and
workmanship were still there to be seen up close.

Travel in Spain: Tapas to Salamanca

Modern Spanish tapas can be as simple as tiny, sweet tomatoes on good bread and a dash of cheese.

Cover picture by Elli Ioannou for DAM of the Stephane Rolland AW20 haute couture show.

When Australian writer Geoffrey Maslen lived in the historic city of Salamanca, he discovered the delights of the local tapas bar. Full of life, these small emporiums offering delicious morsels and regional red wines are at the heart of every Spanish village and town

Pinchos with tuna, pepper
and onion

IF ENGLAND is a nation of shopkeepers, Spain is a country of tapas bar owners. Few countries on Earth have so many small liquor and food outlets, most of which operate not only as places that sell drinks and tapas but also as clubs, family meeting places and communal loungerooms to watch the soccer on TV, for their locals.

Every village, town and city, every bus and train station, every airport, has a tapas bar or two. Or 20 or 20,000. Outside our apartment in Salamanca, a delightful city 200 kilometres west of Madrid, I once counted more than a dozen bars within two minutes' walk - and 40 along a single street.

A short stroll from our block of apartments to the next revealed six of these kitchen-sized retreats, and most never seemed to close. They did, of course, but usually only for a few hours of darkness in what Spaniards call the madrugada. All were inevitably open by 8am and were still trading at midnight.

Salamanca is part of the Castile and León region in north-western Spain. With a history dating back to the Celtic era, it is renowned for its ornate sandstone architecture and for the Universidad de Salamanca. Founded in the 1100s and a key intellectual centre in the 15th-16th centuries, the university adds to the city’s vibrancy with its international student population.
  

The historic city of Salamanca
 never seems to sleep

Like other visitors to Spain, we wondered just when or if the Spaniards ever sleep. One attraction of these local dispensers of good cheer, apart from their propinquity, was the array of snacks displayed along or behind glass on the counter.

With every glass of beer or wine almost certainly comes a tapa. It may be as simple as a saucer of olives or potato chips, or as complicated as a small bowl of rabbit stew laden with numerous vegetables and served with a piece of bread.

Experts differ about the origin of the tapa. King Alfonso X, known to his subjects in the 13th century as Alfonso the Wise, is said to have been worried by rising drunkenness among his people. So he ordered his inn-keepers to provide a slice of ham or something similar with every glass of wine, which would "tapar", or keep a lid on, the effects of the alcohol.

Another theory takes the translation of tapa as "lid" and argues the snacks originated in the sherry area of Andalucia where the bar owners placed a piece of bread on top of the drinks they served to keep off the flies. This evolved into the custom of putting a titbit such as a few olives, a slice of ham or sausage on a lid to cover the drink - ensuring the food was also salty to maintain the customer's thirst. Whatever the truth, the fact is that tapas, or pinchos as they are called in some regions, have long been an integral part of Spanish life.

Even if you order a coffee or tea "con limon" in a bar, you may be offered a tapa, although it could only amount to a wee bowl of junket or a small cake. One of our favourite bars in Salamanca is in the city's Gran Via. An art deco delight that looks like an Australian milk bar from the 1950s, it always has on display a dozen or more different tapas. They range from anchovy canapes, through bread rolls filled with ham, to slices of tortilla.

A local bar with its counters loaded
with a changing array
of delicious tapas

Unlike many of the small bars in the suburbs where the food remains the same throughout the day, here the tapas are changed early in the afternoon and a different array appears. "The people are hungrier before lunch than before dinner so we have larger servings in the earlier part of the day," says Alfredo, our ever-friendly, ever-busy barman.

This young camarero's day begins about 1pm when he arrives for work and might last to 3am or later the following morning six days a week for 50 weeks a year.

I ask him to name the tapas and he rattles off "canape de anchoa (anchovies on toast), heuvos con bechemel (egg in a white sauce, coated in bread crumbs and fried), patatas bravas (diced roast potatoes which, like the eggs, are heated in a microwave before being served with a mayonnaise sauce), gambas (prawns) in garlic, bocadillos (small bread rolls with different fillings such as ham, bacon and cheese, or tomato), tortillas..." The list goes on.

Every region, every city, every town and village, and almost every bar, has its own type of tapas. Ask a barman what tapas he has and you will get a blast of terminology that only confuses the novice. The best thing is to look at the range and nominate the one that looks most interesting or appetising. In the bars we have been to, the tapas come with the drinks and whether you opt for one or not the price remains the same. But many bars now demand payment for their tapas and the newcomer needs to ask if there is a charge and what it will cost.

Fresh tapas on crusty bread with

jamón, olives, tomatoes & onion

The price will probably range from $1 to $2. Many bars also serve raciones - meal-sized servings that are usually of the same sort of food the tapas are made from, and these can cost up to $10 or more.

A media racion is half the full meal but again the visitor needs to make clear that it is a tapa, not a plate of food that is wanted. Standing at a bar, sipping a canya - a draught beer - or a glass of wine from a barrel behind the counter and snacking on a delicious tapa is one of the great pleasures of life. It is not surprising so many Spaniards have made it their favourite pastime.

Geoffrey Maslen's latest book is An Uncertain Future: Australian Birdlife in Danger published by Hardie Grant