So last night before I went to bed I ended up in a Youtube-hole watching videos of Karl Lagerfeld runway shows; 1. because Karl Lagerfeld is kinda the man on that fashion designer tip, and 2. because I just watched the documentary Lagerfeld Confidential and Lagerfeld is the man on that real life tip. In watching a couple of runway shows from homeboy something becomes really obvious. Uncle Karl is on some futuristic science fiction shit! Who knew that we might, maybe see dude at ComicCon ’10 chilling at the Battlestar Galactica Q&A with a hand fan?
Fashion designers often get away with pulling out wild outfits on the runways that look like they could easily be rocked in a superbly styled Dark Crystal cosplay event. That’s not really anything new — high fashion dudes go in on that fantasy ish. If you wanna get extra gully, Alexander McQueen goes ham every time, straight out the gate. His Spring/Summer 2010 show looked like some forest nymphs walked on to the set of Bjork’s All Is Full Of Love video…in a good way.
The thing I’m geeked on is the staging for Lagerfeld‘s shows, and how the clothes are firmly rooted in the here and now but the sets are reassuringly on some minimalistic, future business. Take the Chanel Fall/Winter 2005 joint up above — with the army of models dressed in head to toe black marching around in concentric circles on a starkly all white set. Am I the only one who gets reminded of the initial appearance of Darth Vader in Star Wars? Homeboy coming through the all white hall with the storm troopers, blacker than Richard Roundtree in Shaft ready to strong arm Leia. Maybe that look mixed with a bit of the alien regalia of Dune? Or Maybe a lil THX-1138 kinda feel?
Lagerfeld Spring/Summer 2008
What about this joint with the models on the runway constructed out of a rainbow of lasers? Money sent girls out on a rainbow of lasers!!! This looks like the more serious, but still highly disco influenced cousin of Logan’s Run that Bryan Singer would’ve made (maybe still will?). If we think about the idea of a society that obsessed with youth and beauty taken to the Nth level, where anyone over 30 is killed (the basic setting of Logan’s Run) — in that light, the rainbow runway is a rather satirical reference to make. Especially considering the show consists off skeletally perfect, under 23 models. But, maybe dude just likes lasers. Who doesn’t? Lasers are a lifestyle, a lifestyle choice I fully support. Pewm! Pewm! Pewm! Also, nice to see Karl on board with the No Pants Movement®. No Pants is an army son, A navy son.
Lagerfeld Fall 2008
Finally this last bit, is on some straight up Kryptonian business. The styling is straight out of the 1st Superman movie. The wild glowing glass against the all black outfits definitely gives me that feeling of Brando doing work when he drops the “…the son becomes the father, the father becomes the son” line. Powerful. Also the obvious visual cue is Tron with those powerful laser effects. You never go wrong referencing Tron.
Seriously Karl stays winning, just now on the sci-fi tip too.
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[...] you’re shit out of luck. Luckily, french design duo Nous Sommes realized that the legion of Uncle Karl fans out there need some neckwear to let the world know how we get down. The pendants should be on [...]
» NOUS SOMMES’ KARL LAGERFELD JESUS PIECE added these pithy words on Jun 24 10 at 10:29 am
