Congratulation McQueen.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/scorecard-alexander-mcqueen-wins-4/

Scorecard | Alexander McQueen Wins!

Women's Fashion

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By ALISON S. COHN

| March 9, 2011, 6:53 pm

In the forests of fashion month’s dark, volcanic ash-strewn second to last night, the task at hand for two of of Paris’s most talented couture-level designers was whose collection would burn most bright. The critics’ conclusion? As Scorecard can tell you, it’s not quite black and white.

Fall 2011 Fashion Week

Alexander McQueen
Designer: Sarah Burton
Date and Location: Tuesday, Mar. 8, La Conciergerie, 1 quai de l’Horloge, 1er
Photos: slide show

• “A few days ago, it spread like wildfire that Sarah Burton … would be designing Kate Middleton’s wedding dress. Burton’s people emphatically denied it. Which is too bad, because she would have been an amazing choice from the look of the snowy white dresses in her fall collection.” (All The Rage)
• “The collection won among the strongest reactions of any of this season’s Paris shows, with the audience hooting, cheering and whistling its enthusiastic approval as Burton ducked out for a bow.” (AP)
• “Doing the late designer proud, Burton carved her own path yesterday with a collection appropriately named ‘The Ice Queen and Her Court.’” (Catwalk Queen)
• “Regardless of Middleton’s decision, Burton’s collection was certainly fit for a queen.” (Daily Front Row)
• “There is no doubt the stunning pieces are fit for a queen.” (The Daily Mail)
• “Her collection for autumn/winter 2011 bore all the hallmarks of a royal appointment.” (The Daily Telegraph)
• “Those white gowns with acres of tulle and miles of train … were exquisite, that nobody can deny. And the remainder (and bulk) of the collection was too.” (ELLEuk.com)
• “The show was anything but stark; making up for lack of color was a collection filled with incredible texture and structure.” (FabSugar)
• “An inspiring, frequently thrilling, display of rarefied fashion, more haute couture than ready-to-wear, and containing moments of rather exquisite elegance and hyper-charged beauty — just like McQueen at his best.” (Fashion Wire Daily)
• “Icy may have been the theme, but this collection was white hot and tender enough to melt our hearts.” (FashionEtc.com)
• “A collection that was nothing short of a moment of magic.” (Grazia)
• “The mischievousness and irreverence that was a part of McQueen’s soul lives on at the label.” (The Guardian)
• “Sarah Burton just had her first tour de force for Alexander McQueen.” (Heard on the Runway)
• “Finely wrought clothing that was as inspired as it was empowering.” (The Independent)
• “She seems determined to affirm the spirit of her former creative boss.” (International Herald Tribune)
• “McQueen drama at its very finest.” (SHOWstudio.com)
• “What this all boiled down to was Burton skimming off the top of her vast reconceptualization of the house aesthetic to produce three dozen couture pieces reflecting that aesthetic at its purest. Literally. As in white-light burning bright.” (Style.com)
• “Burton’s collection was faithful to McQueen’s aesthetic, but it was intrinsically softer and lighter and very much designed with a woman’s sensitivity to how clothes feel.” (Vogue.com)
• “About the reality of brilliantly constructed, beautiful clothes.” (Vogue.com UK)
• “Burton did herself and the rarefied Alexander McQueen ethos proud with an exquisite collection…… As for the evening gowns, the word breathtaking understates the reality.” (WWD)

Chanel
Designer: Karl Lagerfeld
Date and Location: Tuesday, Mar. 8, Couvent des Cordeliers, Grand Palais, avenue Wilson Churchill, 8e
Photos: slide show

• “Tomboyish.” (AFP)
• “[A] glam grunge collection.” (All The Rage)
• “The mod-vibed clothes failed to electrify.” (AP)
• “All about going over to the dark side.” (Catwalk Queen)
• “Looks were over-sized, slightly mix-matched with clunky details.” (Daily Front Row)
• “The parade of post-punk trouser suits and wide-cut jackets in charcoal tweed, designed by Karl Lagerfeld, were a far cry from the pretty pastel skirts and snug tweed women worldwide lust over.” (The Daily Mail)
• “The look was tough and strong and as black as coal.” (The Daily Telegraph)
• “The hard edge was still inherently pretty.” (ELLEuk.com)
• “In a fall 2011 fashion season of runways drenched in color, leave it to Karl Lagerfeld to stage a coal dust black collection for Chanel.” (Fashion Wire Daily)
• “Krakatoa Chic — only Chanel could get away with it.” (FashionEtc.com)
• “Call these looks grunge if you will. But … Mr. Lagerfeld always has his feet firmly on the ground and this Chanel fall show resonates because the collection speaks volume to a new generation.” (Fashionista)
• “Only Karl could make a fabulous fashion statement out of a crisis.” (Grazia)
• “At Chanel, even gloom can be chic.” (The Guardian)
• “It was as though he was urging us to relax about Chanel — wear it to the farmer’s market, wear it to … school. Go ahead and toss on a fun Chanel cape and leggings.” (Heard on the Runway)
• “It was a somber, but perhaps visionary, Chanel show from Mr. Lagerfeld, who seemed to have captured more powerfully than any other designer this turbulent, unsettling fashion moment.” (International Herald Tribune)
• “A strikingly dark, tough collection of layered pieces with medieval overtones.” (The New York Times)
• “Distinctly more somber.” (Reuters)
• “The black of that catwalk reflects the black of Chanel’s bank-balance.” (SHOWstudio.com)
• “The dramatic setting and Michel Gaubert’s thundering orchestral revision of the Cure’s seminal goth classic ‘A Forest’ were matched by Lagerfeld’s designs.” (Style.com)
• “Like the sort of things that doomed children or heroines in an especially Grimm fairy tale might wear, … these powerful looks are not for the faint of heart.” (Vogue.com)
• “Fire and brimstone, boiler suits and biker boots on the Chanel catwalk this morning — it’s International Women’s Day and Karl Lagerfeld is taking no risks — he wants us armed and ready for anything.” (Vogue.com UK)
• “What price Armageddon?” (WWD)

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Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
Designer: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
Date and Location: Tuesday, Mar. 8, Pavillon Concorde, place de la Concorde, 8e
Photos: slide show

• “A characteristically visual outing” (AFP)
• “When the most surreal of French designers looks to Surrealist photographer Man Ray for inspiration, you expect the meeting of these wildly creative minds would result in some explosively inventive alchemy. But oddly, the collection fizzled.” (AP)
• “Come to think of it, putting the artist’s famous … photographs on dresses might be a pretty efficient way to practice art history these days. Get Katy Perry, who was sitting in the front row, to sport one and it could very well go viral.” (Style.com)
• “Anyone expecting a wild surrealist romp, given Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s Man Ray inspiration, was in for a surprise. The designer kept to a decidedly commercial tack.” (WWD)

Valentino
Designers: Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri
Date and Location: Tuesday, Mar. 8, Espace éphémère Tuileries, Jardin des Tuileries, 1er
Photos: slide show

• “Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri played down the label’s signature ruffled dresses and played up leather.” (AFP)
• “The new design team at Valentino forged ahead on their own path that took them away from the label’s traditional stalking grounds — the red carpet — and toward a younger, lower-key place.” (AP)
• “The pretty slew of nude, pink and aubergine looks reflected Valentino’s quiet, always ladylike style tug-of-war between ethereal and edgy.” (Daily Front Row)
• “This new Valentino girl: iconic, flawless and otherworldly.” (ELLEuk.com)
• “A romantic collection overflowing with soft and feminine looks.” (FabSugar)
• “‘Pretty’ sounds like a reductive descriptor for Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli fall 2011 collection for Valentino, but it’s apt. ‘Pretty’ over gorgeous or stunning or any other hyperbolic adjective because the collection was restrained, delicate, feminine.” (Fashionista)
• “Although there were some truly exquisite pieces in there, nothing was tricksy or overworked, just easy elegant and right for now.” (Grazia)
• “Lace and knitwear aren’t generally served up together. But when Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli paired them for Valentino, the dish turns out to be a delicacy.” (Heard on the Runway)
• “This line now offers a Valentino style genuinely refreshed for a new generation — but with plenty to lure back faithful former customers.” (International Herald Tribune)
• “A trim collection of suits and coats in beige double-faced cashmere with gold studs arranged in neat rows, geometric plays of lace and leather, and limpid evening dresses in such pale, blurry prints that you feel you have been given Ambien.” (The New York Times)
• “Valentino’s dresses were simple and truly ready-to-wear.” (Reuters)
• “Revolutions don’t always have to be violent. Well, at least not in fashion. Look at the bloodless coup going on at Valentino, courtesy of Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri.” (SHOWstudio.com)
• “With its focus on glamorous daywear, this collection could go a-ways to making fans of women who don’t have a red carpet to walk every night of the week.” (Style.com)
• “Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccoli are … quietly reasserting a Parisian vision of modern prettiness which fills in those blanks with something refreshingly new.” (Vogue.com)
• “It was anchored in pretty, lady looks that have become increasingly wearable with a youthful energy that doesn’t exclude an older audience.” (WWD)