TT Vol. 104

Minions & Barbie, & Maison Margiela/Balenciaga/Schiaparelli Couture

Jul 10, 2022

Clockwise from Top.

The Big Screen

Something curious happened at the movies over the past week or so, with packs of young men wearing suits to watch the latest installment of Despicable Me. From what we can tell, this “Gentle Minions” trend started on TikTok and spread quickly. Our social media feeds have been full of kids going to see Minions: The Rise of Gru in suits for no apparent reason, other than to post about it. With Top Gun performing well earlier in the summer, and the recent viral success of Minions, the US box office is on track for a strong year after being pronounced dead during the pandemic.

And speaking of brightly colored characters, photos continue to leak of the first live-action Barbie film being shot right now. Image after image of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in bright neon keep popping up. With the talented Greta Gerwig directing, we’re VERY curious to see what this turns into.

Balenciaga Couture

There was a lot happening at Balenciaga’s couture show. It took place, Phantom Thread-style, in an intimate salon. The models carried numbers to denote their look.

The first 38 looks were all of models wearing masks - like this dystopian couture loungewear look:

Looks 39-59 were of identifiable people, with a number of celebrities gracing the show, including Nicole Kidman, Kim Kardashian, Christine Quinn and Dua Lipa.

In the audience, Playboi Carti was wearing what looked like a halloween costume, with plenty of other celebs in attendance. Kanye & Kim’s daughter North is starting to get more of her own press, after wearing a Pastelle1 jacket to Paris Fashion Week, as well as writing handwritten notes from the front row of the Gaultier show.

The brand also announced that it will be launching a “buy now” couture shop on 10 Avenue George V, right downstairs from its historic salon where the couture show was held. It’s unclear how this retail concept will work, given the made-to-order nature of couture, but they will carry items like the Bang & Olufsen Speaker Bag that debuted this week.

We chat more about the couture shows on this week’s podcast!

Schiaparelli Couture

At Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli, the brands trademark surrealism continued, with plenty of boater hats (Vogue calls them matador hats), feathers and flowers:

As one of the smaller, independent houses that show during couture week in Paris, Schiaparelli only showed 33 looks, which is essentially the bare minimum to be on the calendar. Budget may be an issue for Schiaparelli, without a deep-pocketed ownership group!

Maison Margiela Couture

The Margiela couture show was done as a play, which centered around a cowboy love story:

The collection centered on the imaginary love story of two doomed characters, Count and Hen, that travel through Arizona’s hot and hazy desert – wounded from gunfighting and becoming engulfed by a sandstorm as they flee from authorities. Donned in an elevated approach to western wear, the characters (as depicted in the filmed stage production), are outfitted in Margiela flannels, Pendleton-collab plaids, coated velvet, Loden wool and specially-crafted denim.

The hospital scrub greens in some of the costumes were lovely, of course accessorized with Tabi heels: