Tuesday September 13, 2011 – Center 548 west 22nd street

It’s the third collection that Olivier Theyskens is showing with Theory. The Fast Retailing Group that owns Theory also owns Uniqlo, Helmut Lang as well as the french brands Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse Tam Tam. Last season many wondered in which retail section the collection will be located in the department stores. It would be hard to place it next to Gucci or YSL, though it could be sold alongside Marc by Marc Jacobs? The collection, having been “made in China”, offers a competitive price point. As for the clothes themselves, they evolved and kept few of the Theyskens’ Theory codes shown last season.

For Spring 2012, we found that many of the looks have a sort of deja vu, especially the jackets that have an inevitable Isabel Marant style. Who is to blame? Certainly not the designer, though the marketing machine behind Theyskens’ Theory is a more likely suspect. It is the same marketing studio that sent Helmut Lang numbers down the runway which appear to be  directly inspired by Alexander Wang or Rick Owens. Despite the similarities, Theysken’s Theory collection makes you want to be ‘that girl’. She doesn’t look like a girl walking down the runway; she looks like a cool girl from the street, just like the Isabel Marant girl.

The jackets are cropped and have the back V neck cut (Olivier’s signature), made in tweed or embroidered with sequins. The pants have a tromp e l’oeil low waist. Aside from the clothing, the bags featuring a chain do not take away the edgy style. For the final, the models switched from their vertiginous heels into Dr. Martens, which equally looked beautiful. The more interesting element about this collection is seeing where Olivier takes it in the long run. The brand is not only successful at attracting “high-end clients” but they’re doing so without directly competing with other fashion houses and offering stylish wares at an unbeatably lower price point.

Knoepfel & Indlekofer, get dark and deadly for the latest Vogue Paris, shooting Anja Rubik clad in brilliant gems and giant snakes for the Bijoux feature. Veronique Didry‘s styling makes it hard to tell where the clothes end and the snakes begin, but that only serves to make the images even more intriguing. Given that this is the second snake-centric story in under a week, could we be seeing the beginnings of a trend?