Bernhard Willhelm

fashion week

Bernhard Willhelm Does Some Serious Gender Bending

Designer Bernhard Willhelm made his Paris Fashion Week show extremely memorable with models who gave the phrase "dude looks like a lady" a whole new meaning.


Designer Bernhard Willhelm made his Paris Fashion Week show extremely memorable with models who gave the phrase "dude looks like a lady" a whole new meaning. On one side, models had demure, pulled-back hair and typically feminine makeup. But on the other, they looked more like Captain Jack Sparrow. Other models had half-mime, half-cartoon, or half-checkerboard faces as well. It was all very Victor/Victoria (or Two Face, if you prefer Batman to Julie Andrews), but Willhelm is known for his lavish, unconventional shows, so this is par for the course.

Last year, his menswear show centered on mostly nude bodybuilders, and past presentations have involved live science experiments, headdresses made from arugula, and gold spray-painted bananas worn as headbands. Paris sometimes seems like a contest to see which designer can be the most outlandish, and so far this year, Bernhard Willhelm is winning.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Found! Carrie Bradshaw's Gold Aviators

Sex and the City 2 hasn't even come out yet and I'm already going gaga over Carrie's wardrobe.

Sex and the City 2 hasn't even come out yet and I'm already going gaga over Carrie's wardrobe. I loved her Egyptian-inspired necklace, but her gold aviators are also pretty sick.

In case you're wondering, they're Mykita & Bernhard Willhelm's Franz Limited-Edition Aviator Sheet-Metal Sunglasses ($525), and they're currently on pre-sale at Patricia Field. The style was named for Franz Klammer, an Olympic gold medal downhill skiier who was known for his reflective eyewear on the slopes. The price is steep, yes, but it's worth it to channel Carrie B.


Review

Bernhard Willhelm: A Tent For Everyone

There seems to be a direct correlation in fashion between an oversized garment and the stigma of being "cutting edge", that is, the greater the volume of your frock, coat, or trousers---the more fashionable you appear to be.

There seems to be a direct correlation in fashion between an oversized garment and the stigma of being "cutting edge", that is, the greater the volume of your frock, coat, or trousers---the more fashionable you appear to be. This Spring collection from Bernhard Willhelm is no exception, but just what is the point? We can see New York's more artistic and fashionable wearing any number of these outrageously sized and boldly printed fashion sacks and being gazed at with approval. These are not examples of 'style' so much as they are examples of people saying 'I will wear this outrageous fashion sack because I want people to understand that I don't care about the same things they care about'. Bernhard Willhelm has always been a brand to satisfy those demands. Some might put Basso & Brooke or Tsumori Chisato in the same category but both of those collections, this season, we loved and this, for some reason, struck us as superfluous.