Antwerp’s MoMu fashion museum opened its doors on Tuesday evening for the latest exhibition for Fall Winter 2010-11, in a retrospective of the 30 year career of British hat designer Stephen Jones. Having collaborated with the world’s most distinguished fashion designers, Stephen’s hats have become synonymous with a quirky and glamorous aesthetic – the finishing artistic touch to many fabulous and memorable outfits.

Collectors’ Geert Bruloot and Eddy Michiels of Coccodrillo boutique in Antwerp have offered their extensive personal hat collection to the exhibition, alongside pieces directly from the archives of Azzedine Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier, Comme des Garçons, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano. Not only offering their hats, Geert himself has co-curated the exhibition with the MoMu’s Kaat Debo, engineering a four part journey through Stephen’s fantastical realms – beginning with “Adventure”, “Science”, “Rococo” and finishing with “Glamour”.

The exhibition’s layout is anything but spare – a surprise considering the focus is a rather petite object designed to perch atop the human head. Instead the space is filled with giant white hat boxes emblazoned with Stephen’s logo, and each section is punctuated with a giant recreation of one of his designs. At the pinnacle room of the museum, a starry night sky is a sweeping curved backdrop to a tribute to Stephen’s long collaboration with Walter Van Beirendonck, with a group of nine mannequins displaying some of their most outrageous and futuristic creations.

Rounding out the hats themselves are many iconic photographs from the pages of international fashion titles – from Stephen’s hometown of London to one of his most popular fashion markets of Tokyo, Japan. Upon entering the exhibition, visitors can view a video of Stephen’s earliest days in the business, dressing his ‘New Romantic’ friends like singer Boy George and model Sybille de St Phalle. Italian Vogue’s Anna Piaggi, another close friend, dedicated a collage to Stephen featuring images of her own extensive collection, shot inside her Milan apartment.

Complementary to the exhibition MoMu has published “Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion” as a hardcover book in conjunction with Lannoo publishers – a 250-page tome with literary contributions by John Galliano, Suzy Menkes, and Anna Piaggi. For a sweet escape, Brugges’ based chocolatier Dominique Persoone has concocted an exclusive selection of four chocolates inspired by Stephen Jones’ millinery. Both the book and the boxed chocolates are available for sale in the MoMu.

From his punk beginnings in the clubland of 80s London to the forefront of Parisian couture, the exhibition is truly a triumphant celebration of Stephen’s larger-than-life persona, reflected in over 300 of his exquisitely delicate objets d’art.

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An excerpt from the foreword by John Galliano:

“Over the years, Stephen and I have created an astonishing range of hats and developed a creative shorthand, and friendship, that is built on trust and mutual admiration. The complement between fashion and accessory is seen time and time again in my collections on the runway. Hats are as important as a great shoe or bag, and for each collection the partnership between elements must be fresh, new and always relevant to the spirit I am creating. I don’t want any hat – I want the right hat. In fittings our creative conversation explores all the options until we select the winning style. Stephen never gives up. He knows how to create a Galliano hat or a Dior hat and make it the perfect hat – that is what is important and sets him apart.

A hat can be a veil or an alibi, a head turner or a friend. It can give clues, or, like this foreword, serve as the introduction to all the wonder that lies within. Enjoy!”

- John Galliano

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Above image: Photograph by Sølve Sundsbø.

Above: A fishbone fascinator by Stephen Jones from the ‘Adventure’ series.

Above: A beaded evening dress by Azzedine Alaïa with headscarf by Stephen Jones.

Above: A selection of hats in the “Glamour” series, by Stephen Jones”.

Riccardo Tisci wove a complex dichotomy of sportswear and luxury together for his Fall Winter 2010 collection for the house of Givenchy, exploring the realms of water and snow sports alongside minimalist tailoring and crystal embellishment. Underlying the collection was an intangibly precious and reverent feeling, with the North African influences of the season before surely surpassed by a return to Riccardo’s European roots.

Despite the splashes of colour and glint of diamonds, M/M Paris’s graphic sticker invitation for the show (below) gave little away of what we would witness from A#8′s curator this season.

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Held in the Lycée Carnot in the 17th arrondisement, the show was lit by circles of red heat lamps, with dark benches zig-zagging across the floor of the draughty stadium. Guests included many of Riccardo’s muses and friends – including Amanda Lear, Beth Ditto, Anna Piaggi and the odd addition of Little Britain’s David Walliams, engaged to model Lara Stone (who walked in the show).

Following some of the key elements that were interspersed through the SS10 haute couture collection, Riccardo worked his signature aggression coupled with a bold romance – sculpting a modern wardrobe that explored the house codes of Givenchy. A grosgrain ribbon tied at the neck of many outfits was a delicate reminder of the ultra-feminine. Givenchy makeup artist Pat McGrath created a ruby red glittering lip as a stunning and harmonious accompaniment to Riccardo’s garments, and a pale pink stain around the eyes gave the girls a vampiric intensity.

Each look walked a fine line between tethered restraint and a fluid freedom, however disparate the fabrics and colours may have been in the distinct sections of the show. This included the transformation of high-necklines with mesh and lace panelling, and the bound miniskirts and cropped trousers in neoprene unzipped at the waist like a deconstructed cummerbund. Tailoring was offered double breasted with a long, lean silhouette, a subtle A-line and tuxedo detailing.

Intricate ruffles, lace and pleating were reworked in vermillion red, sheer black and nude – contrasted with shiny leather outerwear that lent a new hardness directly from the menswear collection (with five mens looks shown for the first times with the womenswear).

Sleek body-hugging knitwear was rendered in navy, grass green and red jacquards, focused on circular motifs reminiscent of baroque architecture, layered with straps and gilets – updating the use of similar prints for SS10.

Eveningwear showed a redux of themes seen in the haute couture collections, albeit simplified for ready-to-wear. Breastplates were the focus for intricate detailing of lace and ruching, with a bolero shape encircling the bust. Dresses and drainpipe trousers were encrusted with crystal, as were exquisitely bejeweled gloves and clutches – pieces that seemed morphed into a single sparkling object, contrasting the sober tailoring and simplicity of little black dresses. Those same dresses continued the folded detailing of the skirts and trousers, with leather, velvet or satin triangular panels falling from the bust. The final looks revisited marabou and ostrich feathers, in sheer voile tops exploding with feathered fronts and trailing gossamer wings behind.

Leaving much to sink in, Fall Winter 2010 proposed many new ideas which will continue to inform Riccardo’s aesthetic – furthering his baroque and gothic leanings with a dose of well-timed Givenchy minimalism.

Show Details:

DECOR & PRODUCTION: La Mode en Images

MUSIC: Frédéric Sanchez

HAIR: Luigi Murenu

GIVENCHY MAKEUP: Pat McGrath

Above: Vogue Italy’s Anna Piaggi backstage after the show.

Above: The Gossip’s Beth Ditto congratulates Riccardo Tisci backstage after the show.

One of the most poignant and truly personal contributions to A#8 is a letter to Riccardo Tisci from the eternally fabulous and debonair lady, the true fashionista’s fashionista – Anna Piaggi. A veritable style icon, Anna has been a writer and stylist in fashion since the 1960s, working predominantly with Italian Vogue and the defunct Vanity magazine, producing over 7,000 editorial pages in her lifetime. Anna is the muse of milliner Stephen Jones, as well as an avid follower and friend to Manolo Blahnik, Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld among many others, and was given an entire exhibition dedicated to her fashion archive, wardrobe and life’s work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Anna’s wildly colourful personal style has no contenders to its vivacious attitude – with nonsensical clashes of pattern and palette and rich displays of embellishment and texture that render the poutish, petite woman as her very own work of art.

To Riccardo, Anna has written most warm-heartedly, speaking of his own poetry within his designs and the way that he is able to verbalise this in private to her. She likens his puns to ‘ex-votos’, religious votive offerings to Gods and saints that offer thanks, and has included an image of her own symbolic ‘ex-voto’ – an embellished eye on crude leather.

Read her kind words below:

“GIVENCHIC!

Dear Riccardo, the hints you give me after each one of your shows are always a surprise, an amusement, something to remember… a concentrate of the collection in a very few words, quick, light, spontaneous. And always with a very happy accent, a play with words, which I am always looking for. A little miracle each time, like a ‘grazia ricevuta’ (a received grace?), which is the meaning of each religious ex-voto, like the heart embroidered on a black dress in your spring-summer? NO, no, no, autumn winter collection 2008. I love ‘ex-voto’ (ex-votos?) and I have been even using the eye (see photo) as a jewel with a ribbon around my neck, with your beautiful ‘peep’ coat. My favourite quote of yours was ‘maori, fetish, baby doll’ and it stayed in my head for quite a long time. How great to have a bouncing relationship with fashion, to feel it as a pretext for free poetry, nursery rhyme… looking for your, your next collection-expression

yours,

Anna Piaggi”