Balmain pulled off something amazing with its spring/summer 2024 show in Paris, showing a collection that had been remade almost entirely from scratch in just 10 days.
The reason for the rush was that on September 17, half of the collection was stolen in a robbery, forcing creative director Oliver Rousteing and his team to work around the clock to ditch those ideas and start over.
That the collection revealed on Wednesday felt fluid and coherent is a testimony to the extraordinary skill of everyone who clearly pulled out all the stops, to counter the disastrous event.
Starting with 1980s-style tailoring, as snappy skirt suits with big buttons, sculpted hips and wide shoulders, Rousteing introduced softness via skater skirts and pleated dresses of various lengths.
He also added flowers, first as fabric blooms added to handbags, around shoulders and necklines, then as oversize printed florals across structured mini dresses, before returning to physical petals again, most notably added to a mini dress covered in tiny slivers of mirror.
Taken together, there was a lovely contrast between the strict tailoring and the floral bohemia, which showed off what an extraordinary house Balmain really is to have pulled this together in such a short space of time.
Marni
At Marni, the show staged at Ville Lumiere had a runway that meandered through the house, around the garden and up and down the staircase in a charmingly Mad Hatter sort of way. The clothes followed this same eccentricity, starting as slimfit looks in white, tan and pale blue, growing in volume and colour as the show progressed.
What started as a floor-length pencil skirt, slung low on the hips, shifted to become a trapeze dress, to become just a shift dress in sheer, checked cloth and simple ballet flats.
In turn this was replaced with short, full skirts with hems held out with wire, falling in looping folds, as skirts, shirts and jackets grew is size to become more and more outlandish. In bright orange, deckchair stripes and wonderfully clashed checks (Marni's signature) these were all fun and uplifting, yet still lovely and wearable pieces.
Amid the bright striping and exaggerated volume, there were dresses made from hand-stitched flowers that were as beautiful as they were fragile, and three-dimensional metallic dresses of flowers made from recycled tin cans.
Dries Van Noten
Over at Dries Van Noten, men's classic striped shirting and sporting garb was remade into womenswear. Pale blue pin stripe was cut into a bralet top, the rippling edge of a dress and stretched into a wrap-fronted dress, while the wide stripes of rugby-tops appeared as a mini dress and snazzy knitted trousers, while the lined cuffs and hems of cricket whites turned up on tank tops and the piping on an oversized blazer.
This mixing of codes is what Van Noten does best and, as ever, a show that started simply became a masterclass in seeing the mundane anew as colours and patterns were pitched in ways that simply shouldn't work, but in Van Noten's skilled hands became fresh and covetable.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Jetour T1 specs
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LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
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Saudi National Day
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National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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• Could the UAE drive India's economy?
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• Architecture is over - here's cybertecture
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
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FIGHT CARD
Sara El Bakkali v Anisha Kadka (Lightweight, female)
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Brad Stanton v Mohamed El Boukhari (Super welterweight
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The national orchestra
THE SPECS
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5pm: Maiden | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
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5.30pm: Handicap | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Makerah, Adrie de Vries, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap | Dh80,000 | 2,200m
Winner: Hazeme, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Handicap | Dh85,000 | 2,200m
Winner: AF Yatroq, Brett Doyle, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Shadwell Farm for Private Owners Handicap | Dh70,000 | 2,200m
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7.30pm: Handicap (TB) | Dh100,000 | 1,600m
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57%20Seconds
Palestine and Israel
Michael Young: Israel's 'iron wall' is sealing the country off from peace
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The advice provided in our columns does not constitute legal advice and is provided for information only. Readers are encouraged to seek independent legal advice.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate
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Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
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Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
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Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
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• Could the UAE drive India's economy?
• News has a bright future and the UAE is at the heart of it
• Architecture is over - here's cybertecture
• The National announces Future of News journalism competition
• Round up: Experts share their visions of the world to come
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
Our commentary on Brexit
- Alistair Burt: Despite Brexit, Britain can remain a world power
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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• Could the UAE drive India's economy?
• News has a bright future and the UAE is at the heart of it
• Architecture is over - here's cybertecture
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate
Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead
Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble
Matthew Levitt: Iran retains its ability to launch terror attacks
Damien McElroy: A CEO tasked with spreading Iran's influence
Hussein Ibish: Trump's order on solid constitutional ground
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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The five pillars of Islam
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2.
3.
4.
5.
