Fashion Reverie’s Top Articles of 2021

2021 was a very challenging year. There were some great fashion moments and some fashion events and moments that were sad. Still, all in all with all the things that are going on and with the speed of change 2021 was an interesting year.

Below you will Fashion Reverie’s top fashion stories of 2021.

Virgil Abloh

Perhaps, the top fashion story of 2021 was the unexpected death of Virgil Abloh. Virgil Abloh was one of the most acclaimed black fashion designers of his generation. In his very short 41 years, Abloh was one of the few black fashion designers to ever helm a major European fashion house. And at the time of his death, Virgil Abloh was the creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear and the creative director of his own fashion label, Off-White. Abloh was also a frequent collaborator with Nike and Avian.

In July, Abloh was promoted to a new position with the auspices of LVMH, giving him the latitude to work across LVMH’s 75 brands. This position made Abloh the most powerful and prolific black executive in the fashion industry

Abloh helped usher in an era of fashion, a fashion that blended street style with luxury. As a proponent of this new hybrid, Abloh’s fashion collections not only spoke to what modern consumers wanted to wear but blended the worlds of art, commerce, political thought, and diversity.

Chanel N°5’s 100 Anniversary

Is there a fragrance more iconic than Chanel N°5?  On the 100th anniversary of this famous perfume, taste makers and fashionistas around the world look back at just how N°5, the first scent created by a woman, has stood the test of time.

Described by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel herself as, “a women’s fragrance that smells like women,” this perfectly blended bottle of perfume is anything but ordinary.  Crafted by Ernest Beaux in 1921, Chanel N°5 Parfum was designed to be a reflection of Gabrielle Chanel’s personality.  As described by Chanel, the fragrance exudes femininity and radiates a floral richness composed around ylang-ylang and neroli followed by mayrose and jasmine rounded out with smooth sensual, Bourbon Vetiver, sandalwood and vanilla.  This revolutionary scent, breaks away from the single-fragrance perfumes popular in its day and adds layers of complexity thanks to its unprecedented use of aldehydes, making it the first abstract fragrance in the world.  N°5 quickly became the tipping point that ushered in the modern era of perfume, forever changing the fragrance landscape.

Linda Wells, founder of Allure magazine, explains in an interview on thezoereport.com, “I love the way Chanel No. 5 invented an entirely new fragrance, bottle, and expression. The handsome, restrained, almost masculine bottle was revolutionary at a time when decorative cut crystal was the norm among expensive French fragrances.”  The look of the perfume has changed very slightly over the years, always honoring the classic juxtaposition of a complex fragrance encompassed in a simple bottle.

It catapulted into the mainstream spotlight again in1954, after Marilyn Monroe famously confessed that she wore a few drops of this iconic scent to bed.  While you may be channeling Coco, Marilyn, or one of the dozens of celebrities who love and proudly wear N°5 over the past 100 years, you won’t be wearing the exact same fragrance.  To stay relevant with evolving tastes, the fragrance has changed slightly over the years.  Each Chanel house perfumer, with the exception of one, has reinterpreted the classic perfume slightly.  Today there are 5 different interpretations on the market.  According to NPR currently, 1 bottle of Chanel N°5 is sold every 30 seconds.

Pyer Moss Fall 2021 Couture

The most anticipated runway of Paris’ Fall/Winter 2021 Haute Couture Week was arguably the Pyer Moss show. Haitian American designer Kerby Jean-Raymond was invited by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (the governing body of French fashion) to present his first couture collection as a guest member of the organization. As such, Jean-Raymond became only the third American (and first black American) designer to be designated a true couturier and present a collection as part of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, with Main Bocher in the 1930’s and Ralph Rucci from 2002 to 2009, and again in 2019. But true to form, Jean-Raymond, ever the social activist and creative outlier, did things his way. Rather than take his collection to Paris, he brought Paris to New York. He displayed his first couture collection of 25 looks in an extravaganza that celebrated Black excellence and ingenuity and highlighted Black culture and community.

Black history was incorporated into every element of the presentation, from the venue to the theme, to the soundtrack, to the after party. The setting was Villa Lewaro, the Hudson River suburban estate of Madame C. J. Walker. Walker is credited as America’s first female self-made millionaire.

Twenty-five looks, all inspired by Black inventions and modifications. Some looks had obvious references, like Garrett A. Morgan’s traffic light and Lyda Neman’s synthetic hairbrush. Others were more fashionably abstract, like Thomas Martin’s fire extinguisher and Walter Sammons’ hot comb.

Vogue Paris Becomes Vogue France

In this excellent article, associate editor Tessa Swantek examines Conde Nast name change of Vogue Paris to Vogue France which has caused some outrage by many francophiles. Swantek also carefully examines the state of fashion publishing in the this very timely article.

In this piece, Swantek contends that the French daily morning newspaper (Le Figaro), argued that the decision reflects Anna Wintour’s pushing American “woke” values onto other countries, writing “The colossal losses of the publisher Condé Nast in recent years against a backdrop of digital transformation in the sector have led it to a new strategy of ‘sharing of content’ for all its newspapers international. In summary, each title is now coordinated by a single head linked to a country, under the leadership of the indestructible Anna Wintour.”

Free Your Mind editorial

Because of the COVID-19, it has been two years since Fashion Reverie has been able to produce a fashion editorial. Still, the desire to produce a new fashion editorial was always front and center in the minds of the Fashion Reverie staff.

We finally accomplished our goal by produce a new masculinity editorial based on some the new gender neutrality trends we were experiencing in menswear. Fashion Reverie examines and highlights a more expansive perspective on masculinity. After all, a real man knows who he is and marches to the beat of his own drum. Be that a masculinity that is expressed in bold color, lots of jeweled embellishments with a nod toward glitter and glitz.

So free your mind and the rest will follow. Did En Vogue say that?

Costume Designer Jeriana San Juan Talks about Her Work in Netflix’s Miniseries “Halston”

Fashion Reverie had the unique opportunity to interview Jeriana San Juan on her work as wardrobe supervisor on the Netflix documentary “Halston.” Halston’s story once again appears on screen in a new biopic miniseries on Netflix. Respectfully titled “Halston,” this miniseries stars Ewan McGregor and is produced by critically acclaimed television producer Ryan Murphy.

No film about a legendary fashion icon can be complete without impeccable detail to the garments used in the production. Jeriana San Juan, the brilliant mind behind the wardrobe in this miniseries. Fashion Reverie simply had to find out how she recreated this era of fashion history.

New York Fashion Week (NYFW) has not been the same since the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, many industry professionals soldier on in the hopes of presenting new collections and expanding their consumer base.

Kevan Hall Spring 2022

Fashion Reverie was fortunate to experience Kevan Hall’s return to NYFW. There was one show that was a jubilant explosion of bold color and excitement with a nod to the tried and true. Kevan Hall’s spring 2021 runway show was that show, a show that projected toward the future, but stayed grounded in what still works.

Attended by many of the fashion industries’ hallowed, seasoned professionals, Hall gave viewers and will continue to bestow on his consumer base silhouettes and design aesthetic that will always be in fashion. Hall carefully eased consumers back into a world of sophisticated elegance and glamour, without forcing that consumer to consider design aesthetics that they not quite ready for. 

Lady Gaga Flashback

Lady Gaga has been on the public radar for almost two decades now. And when you look back at Gaga’s career, her trajectory is documented by her fashion choices. Celebrity Style Editor Tijana Ibrahimovic did a great job highlighting Lady Gaga’s fashion choices as they related to her career progression.

Fashion Flashback: The Top Ten Memorable Olympic Fashion Moments

2021 was a very unusual year. And nothing was more unusual than having the Summer Olympics in an off year. Originally scheduled for 2020, the COVID-19 health pandemic movie the Summer Olympics to 2021. Our Features Editor Vivian Kelly curated a fantastic article that highlighted great Olympic fashion over the last several Olympic seasons. From Florence Joyner’s hooded track unitards in the Seoul Olympics to figure skater Surya Bonaly’s over-embellished skating outfits to the sparkly unitards of rhythmic gymnasts, Vivian Kelly demonstrated that the Olympics is not just about athletic pursuits but also fabulous fashion.

The Rise of Romanticism and Sentimental Fashion

One of the things that we pride ourselves at Fashion Reverie is our ability to take on nuanced and detailed fashion subjects. Though we are living a pandemic extended moment, the fashion industry still creates beautiful garments that evoke fantasy and romance. Fashion Reverie Associate Editor Tessa Swantek curated an incredible article on the roots of romantic fashion and how that design aesthetic had evolved over time.

American fashion’s shift back to romanticism is best evidenced through the Costume Institute’s statements about this year’s Met Gala. This year, the gala is based on the Costume Institute’s two-part exhibit:  In America: A Lexicon of Fashion and In America: An Anthology of Fashion. Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute states, “Over the past year, because of the pandemic, the connections to our homes have become more emotional, as have those to our clothes. For American fashion, this has meant an increased emphasis on sentiment over practicality.” Echoing the movement away from rational classicism of the 1800s, he also states, “Taken together these qualities will compromise a modern vocabulary of American fashion that prioritizes values, emotions, and sentiments over the sportswear principles of realism, rationalism, and pragmatism.”

William S. Gooch 

Image credits

• virgil-abloh-lvmh.jpg — Credit/source: LVMH.
• chanel-no5-amazon.jpg — Credit/source: amazon.com.
• pyer-moss-couture-fall-2021-hypebeast.jpg — Credit/source: hypebeast.com.
• vogue-france-vogue.jpg — Credit/source: vogue.com.
• free-your-mind.jpg — Credit/source: fashionreverie.com.
• halston-netflx.png — Credit/source: Netflix.
• kevan-hall-spring-2022-feature.jpg — Editorial image.
• lady-gaga-british-vogue-december-2021-2.jpg — Credit/source: vogue.co.uk.
• fashion-moments-getty.jpg — Credit/source: Getty Images.
• romantic-fashion-editorial-feature.jpg — Credit/source: fashionreverie.com.
• 10-best-fashion-articles-2021-fashion-reveries-top-articles-of-2021.jpg — Editorial image.