TOP 10 COLLECTIONS OF SPRING 2010

Cody Pan • January 3, 2010

Top Collections ss10 Category Front

For Spring 2010, designers across the world reminded us why we love fashion by showing clothes that clearly exhibited creative exercise. The best collections took one of two approaches: to go back and update what they are known for, or to push preconceptions of what ‘fashion’ is and to create clothing that can truly be dignified as 21st century fashion.

1. Givenchy

Under the creative direction of Riccardo Tisci, Givenchy has become the go-to fashion house for clothes that are austere, romantic, sharp and sensual. Listed, these qualities may seem niche and specific, but Tisci’s designs possess a beauty that is undeniable.
The collection started with suits cut sharp and squared at the shoulders in graphic black and white and moved into softer babydoll dresses and spiraled into psychedilic prints. This look of something so severe and luxe is refeshing and timeless. Some of the best draped dresses looked more like mythical garb rather than runway wear.
The real strength in the collection is in the power of what cannot be articulated, in the craft and in the shape. Tisci, a modern couturier, has cemented his place in the ranks of fashion’s best.

view entire collection via style.com

2. Alexander Mcqueen

“Plato’s Atlantis,” the title of Alexander McQueen’s latest collection, drew from classical antiquity and churned new life out of a legend. The collection, which undoubtedly will become legend in its own rights, gave glimpse into what the creatures of Atlantis looked like.
Outside of the intensely rich and ethereal visuals of the show, the most acclaim-worthy effort made in the collection was the convergence of the ancient and alleged and the modern and certain. With the extremities in design–e.g. the shoes, which caused an uproar that permeated outside of the fashion world and into a Lady GaGa music video–and prints that were transcendent in their incoherency, only McQueen could have done it so right.

view entire collection via style.com

3. Celine

Over the four years that Phoebe Philo (who previously designed at Chloé) did not design for runway, fashion ran its course and organically, is at a completely different place. The facet of constant change in this industry can make it incredibly difficult for a designer to step in or out of the game successfully, and many designers tend to reach their highest and slowly burn out. But when such an unquestionable talent exists, like Philo, this transition from in and out of the industry become much easier.
For her debut runway collection at the house of Céline, Philo kept to the basics of what her taste, refined them and presented them in a way that was utterly modern and desirable. The simplicity in design was one of the collection’s winning merits; there was no air of anything contrived. The clothes were simple; well-made; unforced; and polished.

view entire collection via style.com

4. Calvin Klein

Francisco Costa is a man of modernity. As the creative director of the Calvin Klein Collection, he is constantly updating the simplistic, modern ease that we look to Calvin Klein for.
The entire collection was dichotomy of sorts. There was the amalgamation of the collection itself, and then the pathos versus the technical. The collection at first glance is soft and organic-looking, like sand and salt or rock. But upon closer inspection the textures that compose these eartly-creations seem to be more and more strange but common. The most surprisingly effective and unexpected fabric innovation was the use of I.V. tubes within the fabric itself, which created a series of lines, but that in addition to the form of the tubes, made a new shape and volume.
This marriage of technological innovation to practical clothing is what pushes the limitations set on fashion today. But with designers like Francisco Costa who are making these advances, all that can be said is the future is near.

view entire collection via style.com

5. Proenza Schouler

To offset all of the unreal beauty and constriction, leave it to the young men at Proenza Schouler (Lazaro Hernandez and Jack Mcollough) to revive an unhinged, undone look. Like strung out, west coast wayfarers, the models paraded down the runway. The looks started out casual and dark and worked into neons in the form of party frocks.
The amazing talent that lies in Proenza Schouler is beyond the runway. The way they appeal to an offbeat sensibility has worked for designers like Marc Jacobs in the past and certainly is working for the Proenza Schouler team now.