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It’s not news that furs are now being considered like any other fabric and
used year round. And while Fendi certainly played a big role in this, you
also have to credit Gilles Mendel, the designer and CEO of J. Mendel, for
using his creativity and innovation to bring furs into the 21st century.
Gilles stated that the collection was all about the exploration of the art of
dressmaking, which is something he has been experimenting with for seasons
now, and admitted that he "derived the greatest pleasure from taking the
expected and turning it into the unexpected." Always inspired by vintage, he
said that he wanted to create pieces that "had the feeling of modern
heirlooms” and indeed the collection of coats and shrunken jackets with elbow
length sleeves, narrow shoulders, exposed seams, high armholes, and hand
tacked darts had a very strong vintage feel. As someone who has always
experimented with fabrics like tweed, this time around, he deconstructed
artisinal tweed and then reapplied it to a stretch chiffon base in order to
make it light as a feather and weightless.
The entire collection was based on a very soft color palette: flesh tones and
make up shades like almond, freesia, azalea, hyacinth, and bark layered over
nude. While Gilles endorsed short pleated skirts and shorts for day, he like
many others, endorsed pants showing them several times under little fur
pieces (like the white wool gabardine trousers shown under a shrunken white
broadtail vest and chiffon blouse). He worked with washed gold silk canvas,
gold and brown wool tweed, silk faille (which was fashioned into beautiful
trench coat), goat, chiffon, brocade, crinkle or printed chiffon, chantilly
lace and mousseline. Furs used were broadtail and mink that was custom
colored, sheared, and combined with organza and chiffon to ensure their
lightness and weightlessness.
Standouts include the washed gold silk canvas jacket with silk satin trim
skirt suit; the white broadtail and brushed organza coat and vest; an oatmeal
velvet mink vest with white beads shown over an almond chiffon pleated gown;
the white long haired mink and chiffon reversible jacket over sky blue
chiffon ruffle front blouse and full white wool gabardine pants; and the pin
tucked lace chiffon gown in pale butter with multi tiered skirts and elbow
length puffed sleeves, and a pale rose and nude hand worked chiffon gown with
scoop back and short puffed sleeves.
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