Alright, Alright Y'all

hat a over-extended long, strange winter break its been! I hope everyone enjoyed their collective holidays and didn't hate me too much in my extended absense. You ready for some shades? There's much to talk about!

The Men's Autumn/Winter 2007 shows are what's finally brought me back to the blog. While man-glass isn't as exciting for me, I love seeing new styles of both sunglasses and clothing.

"With few exceptions, the shows this past week were built around what one might refer to as sober core values," said The New York Times review. Some critcs, however, are less than excited about the shows' return to basics.

[Source: NYTimes]

GUCCI

[Source: Vogue.co.uk]

Gucci seems to have their eyewear bases covered, with looks ranging from the nerdy to the bold black&white thing we've seen of late.

Of the charmed-life-in-Aspen themed show, the Times could only say:

"Everybody really does look sort of groovy in zillionaire ski bum clothes."

DOLCE & GABBANA


I'd describe this collection as a sartorial mash-up of Buzz Aldrin's & James Bond's professional attire. Style.com said it was a "distinctive hybrid of Stanley Kubrick’s future and David Lynch’s eternal, darkly erotic present."

There's just one pair of shades with varying frames, but that is an improvement on the D&G show, which had every model wearing the same pair of eyeglasses. Overall, a good showing.

PS - I love that their soundtrack featured the 2001: Space Odyssey theme and Justin Timberlake. Now that is what I call a distinctive hybrid.

[Source: Vogue.co.uk]

GIORGIO ARMANI

[Source: Vogue.co.uk]

This return to basic tailoring was a good fit for Mr. Armani. The classic sunglasses shapes look like quality and timeless shades. The Times dug his straight forward show:

Giorgio Armani, for instance, has not often been more in tune with his idiom. The soft suiting and slightly feminized shapes that were his early adaptation to Neapolitan tailoring were, for once, not sidetracked by excursions into stuff that looked like costumes for some imaginary summer in 1920s Biarritz. There was no kooky headgear, no character pastiche.

This week brings the Dior and Valentino shows in Milan. The following week shows continue in Paris. I will be detailing all the flash as I see it.