[Insert Fashion Here] Vol.1, Issue 8 | Goodbye to Paris & Fashion Month, Local calendar for the rest of 2019

So, this is late. Like, late late. 😬 I will not bore you with the details of how life just happens, good and bad, and throws up on your plans, good and bad (and how mental health maintenance & care is an endless rollercoaster!), but I'm back! To say goodbye to Paris & fashion month. Because I love doing this and it's helping me become more disciplined/consistent/accountable in general, but also because Paris was great, y'all. Full and heavy and a bit much to keep up with, but very good, and even better in retrospect. A lot of excessive 'show,' yes, but just as much fashion with something to say. Coffees at the ready? Let's begin.

Some interesting headlines to start:

League of Legends

You know how the FIFA world cup and the French Open trophy travel the world in Louis Vuitton cases? The same honour is being bestowed on the Summoners Cup from Riot Games' League of Legends, the most popular PC game in the world. Why does a virtual trophy need a case, you ask? Because it's as real as the world championships happening on November 10th, when someone will win it, along with a million dollar prize. [I really need to resurrect my love for gaming, like, ASAP. Shout out to Age of Empires.]

The case is only the first step of their collaboration, which will include multiple character skins and capsule collections for the real world and the game world. This could mark luxury fashion's entry into e-sports, acknowledging it the same way they have sports like football & tennis. There are staggering amounts of money in the space (this year's Fortnight World Champion took home — brace yourself — $3 million USD), so if this starts a trend, things could get interesting. Fashion is already a part of the space, as the Verge piece linked above explains pretty well, but not luxury fashion. You expect to find Adidas & Nike in this neighbourhood, but not Vuitton. Then again, LV has had a game character model one of their collections before, and that was before the likes of Lil Miquela came along.

Lauren Indvik | Financial Times

In some B2B news, the Financial Times (which has excellent fashion and lifestyle coverage if you didn't know) is making more moves. After buying a piece of BoF (we discussed the Pyer Moss thing on IG, if you missed it DM me!), FT is moving their (brilliant) fashion editor Jo Ellison over to the chief seat at their amazing lifestyle mag, How To Spend It (because the 1% need tastemakers too!). Replacing her, in a move that surprised me, is Vogue Business' Lauren Indvik!

Yes, VB only launched in Jan and Lauren developed it for Conde Nast International from scratch, but no, she did not only work there for 9 months before leaving, not technically. Lauren has moved around a few jobs at CNI, and was once EIC of Fashionista too. I'm just surprised she would leave when VB seems to be doing so well so fast, but obviously we have no details. No word on who will replace her at Conde just yet, or if they will at all, considering that they have such strong section editors.

On to the shows! So much fashion. As always, if you want to talk about a show here or another I didn't make room for, you can reply this email or DM me :)

Dries Van Noten | Instagram

DRIES VAN NOTEN FT. LACROIX | Lacroix! We missed you. Many thanks to Dries for that magic moment, made even more special by the fact that Lacroix confirms this was a one-time project and that he won't be back (💔). Somehow it felt like that healthy brand of sportsmanship you only see from women in tennis these days. The resulting collection is exactly what would happen if you pushed a steadfast-but-willing pragmatist into maximalist '80s couture, which isn't some great insight considering that it's Dries & Christian and that is exactly who they are. It is the obvious conclusion, and yet it's filled with surprises because this is not the maximalism we expected nor how anyone thought a pragmatist might get there. It is quite literally delightful.

Andrea Adriani/Gorunway.com for LifestyleAsia.com

YSL | That staging! Wow. It was beautiful, truly, but geez, those lights were intense. [Something I think about all the time now after following Nicole Cliffe on Twitter is accessibility. Someone with epilepsy or any other photo-sensitive condition would have a hard time at that YSL show.] Aside from that, Vaccarello seems to have continued his streak of successfully tapping brand DNA for looks that offer a modern layer over the distinctly retro YSL foundation. The details (as shown off on IG) are striking.

Stella McCartney | Instagram

STELLA MCCARTNEY | Of course Stella McCartney figured out a way to make green fur. Faux fur & faux leather being referred to as 'vegan' has always been laughable to me because most are PU, essentially plastic. Whatever it spares the animals, it costs the planet we share with them. Trust the queen of luxury sustainability to have come up with a solution: It's called Koba, and it's not perfect, because it's not fully biodegradable, but it's a major step forward: Koba is made of what we make most coats from — acrylic, polyester, wool & mohair — which probably seems like nothing until you realise that it simply wasn't possible before for faux fur (besides acrylic plastic). So yay. The rest of the clothes were stunning too. Mature and well proportioned, delivering a sharp, fun, modern elegance.

Alexander McQueen | Instagram

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN | McQueen is just heaven to me. Even as pared down as this collection was, there is that consistently mind-blowing perspective on what beauty is, this insistence on acknowledging its dark side, its brokenness, its rage; this choice to dress that with the same care we give to the light, that continues to astound me. The beautiful live instrumentals at McQueen were written by Isobel Waller-Bridge, because why shouldn't all that talent sit in one bloodline? [She also does the music for Phoebe's Fleabag] In conclusion, I would get married in almost anything here. McQueen's tragic romance is not a story I want to live, but it's definitely one I want to wear.

Natacha Ramsay Levi of Chloé | Instagram

CHLOÉ | I will admit I've paid Chloé little attention in the past few years. I don't know exactly when it happened, but the only memorable moment I can pick out is when the velvet suit with the house horse print first appeared everywhere. A true modern classic; Leandra Medine still wears hers all the time. I can't think why it dropped off my radar either: Chloé is fantastic. Fresh, French, styled for timeless youth and expertly tailored, in this instance and almost every other. It won't deliver on what Phoebephiles are still left without, but I think it keeps a different woman, however closely related, quite happy. [I love Daniel Lee but New Bottega is not Old Céline to me and I find it strange that it continues to draw that comparison.]

Robin Givhan | Instagram

BALENCIAGA | I'm handing this one over to Aunty Robin because I don't quite understand what I just watched, tbh. Are those indelible velvet and metallic taffetta(?) gowns wearable? Will those crinolines attract (and survive) red carpet appearances? And what do they have to do with the theme and the casting, which had a lot to do with the future of workplace power dressing? Why did the power dressing chunk of the runway look like they worked for IBM in the 80s and didn't enjoy it? Why did everything in between those extremes fit the decade but not much else of the story? And why, pray tell, was this all set in what appeared to be a UN conference room in 2050? So many questions I'm not sure I want the answers to. I generally find something to hold on to, to make sense of, but I really didn't with this one.

Maison Valentino | Instagram

VALENTINO | Pierpaolo Piccioli's Valentino is quickly becoming my favourite, and I've loved Valentino for a very long time. This season was the most grounded and wearable yet, which may worry a PR team with red carpet targets, but delights the rest of us: weirdly, one of the first things I thought of was how much of this could be reasonably worn to brunch. I am not a frequent bruncher, and yet, that was kind of exciting? The life/heart/joy/whatever key quality his team has tapped into, is in more than bright colours and attention grabbing volume (or Mother Pat's brilliant makeup). It is in the clear and compelling celebration of a modern and multifaceted definition of femininity.

Marine Serre by Giovanni Giannoni | Instagram

Special mentions: Maison Margiela (brilliant but all overshadowed by that last model's walk) | Marine Serre (so good) | Rokh (Exciting, and like Serre, a former LVMH prize finalist) | Lanvin (Maybe they should go the way of the new Patou and give higher end contemporary brands some colourful competition by meeting their price point)

Tag-Walk does a data-based trend round up you might like if you want to know what you'll be seeing in stores in a few months (I'm more fascinated by the trends in industry decision-making & consumer behaviour these days), and Vogue Business asked buyers what they're focusing their budgets on from this season.
The rest of the reading list:

• Aunty Robin on the general mood of Paris, fair and true as always

• Pam Boy @ LOVE mag on Celine, an interesting take considering that he's a big Hedi Slimane fan (but aren't we all fans of old Hedi? 90s Hedi? Pioneering, brilliant Pre-YSL-drama Hedi? Idk.)

[I don't know if there's something there, but they both spoke (from very different points) about putting aside talk of fashion and discussing clothes, and I thought that was interesting.]

Blaq Smith for AFI | Instagram

And from Paris, we come home. Home being a loose concept for me, but one covered by these locations anyway: 2 fashion weeks in Johannesburg and one in Lagos. I get the feeling we may learn more re: Elle Nigeria by paying close attention during Lagos Fashion & Design Week. 👀

• AFI JFW has already happened - 10-12 October. [To indicate how LATE this newsletter is.] Analysis coming; I am loving work right now, but as is standard with freelancing, it was crickets and then 3 big briefs came at me fast.

• Next week, South African Fashion Week and Lagos Fashion & Design Week will take place at the same time: 23 – 26 October 2019. Next newsletter will be mostly about these two [and hopefully about H&M Giambattista pricing & distribution in SA - what pieces are we getting and how much are we paying for them?]

That's all. Shu. Wow. Okay. Sept-Oct has been an excellent lesson and I am going to look at more efficient ways to cover fashion months (and fashion in general). I'll be landing in Cape Town when this hits your inbox, working on an exciting campaign as a content lead for the first time! I used to wonder what marking progression would look and feel like as a freelancer, with no structure/title changes/promotions to do it for me, but I guess it's the same thing really, except project by project. Yay for new measures of growth. After that and the next round of shoots for this job (coincidentally also happening over the next fashion weekend, lol), I will catch up on all OUR runways and we'll do this again, yes? Yes.

Modupe Oloruntoba is a fashion writer & content producer in Johannesburg, South Africa.