My Top Three Favorite Collections From Fall/Winter 2011

After viewing well over 100 shows this season, I'd like to share my favorite shows and why they are my favorites. I usually favor the shows I feel are actually useful, clothes that I can actually imagine people wearing. I do enjoy the avant-garde shows immensely, the shows that are worth watching for the feeling you get, but what a good fashion journalist should look for in a collection, are the clothes that people will not only wear but will also flatter the persons figure, shape, and size.
Out of New York I loved Proenza Schouler. The designers, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez's inspiration for this fall collection was Native American blankets. And all of the jacquards that was seen on their runway, was technology designed, meaning they used the computer to design all of the fabrics. The collection was genus at it's best, so balanced and so useful.Giorgio Armani's collection in Milan was placed in a romantic setting. The models--smokey eyed and tousled hair--seemed as though they should have been conversing in a classy setting, smoking a cigarette; not walking a runway show. Giorgia Armani was my favorite out of Milan, the silehette of the garments were beautiful, and the way the flared cropped pants moved on the models were stunning. Armani was elemental this season, playing with a plush palette; soft pinks and beige, contrasting them with blacks and metallics. The collection was superb.I used to favor Valentino, that was until Valentino himself retired in 2008. I've had my share of negative opinions of the new designers who have proceeded the couture house, but those seem to be changing. After Valentino's retirement, I felt like the clothes we're being forced to be beautiful, I also felt as though the Valentino aesthetic was changing. The new designers were trying to make the clothes something they weren't, and I didn't like that. But these past few seasons Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli have been doing very well. It was their Fall Couture collection that I noticed the old Valentino aesthetic was coming back, it was starting to feel like home again. Paris was a wonderful week, full of one stunning collection after another. It was difficult to narrow it down to my favorite based out of Paris, but I had to side with Valentino. A very wonderful color palette of matte greens, purples, beige, and creams (though I would have liked to see some Valentino red). The clothes were perfectly tailored and cropped, and the hung magnetically on the models. Valentino hit it out of the fashion park.