Nicolas Andreas Taralis (Q3505)
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Nicolas Andreas Taralis is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Nicolas Andreas Taralis |
Nicolas Andreas Taralis is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Speak with Nicolas Andreas Taralis for long enough and you realize the darkness that has defined his aesthetic for the past decade comes from an enlightened place. By turns, he will mention his German-Greek heritage and Bauhaus, the monolithic beauty of totems, and the underrated appeal of latex. And all of this permeated his Fall collection in a manner that was both low-profile and dramatic. To establish the vaguely fifties tone, he began his lineup with three columnar looks that exposed the shoulders while cloaking everything else. Taralis said this was the first time he'd worked with boning, and the technique allowed him to test a new proportion via bustiers and loose trousers that simultaneously expressed tailleur and flou (the structure/flowy dichotomy that forms the foundation of couture). He further finessed the jacket propositions that went over well last season, subjecting a smoking and a redingote to his signature pick stitching and using the shape of a kimono for a capelet bolero—all the while working with Italian cashmere, Japanese wool, and British flannel.The fabrications came into clearer focus when Taralis shifted to ivory, as did the elegance inherent to his era-referencing. It was chaste and chic, and this seemed to surprise the designer most of all, which might explain how he arrived at a skirt hemmed in latex and a mousseline gown that revealed latex thigh-highs. They sound more risqué than they appeared. But the opera gloves paneled in curly lamb with the index fingers and thumbs exposed—now those were fetishist. Finally, the "Mies" and "Wassily" shirts shown as part of his men's collection had crossover appeal. There are women who would be as excited to wear a fan tee as they would a wool and satin bustier.
2 March 2014
There was nothing on the invitation that revealed this would be a video show comprised of six large screens, each capturing a different angle of the collection. Nicolas Andreas Taralis recruited Mote Sinabel Aoki to direct a five-minute film in which one male and one female model emerged, exited, and reemerged into a white realm where the depth of field seemed infinite. Compositionally, the video was flawless, and unlike at a runway show, Taralis drifted through the venue, witnessing people's reactions in real time.There was just one minor issue: It was impossible to make out any details of the collection. Fabric, form, and how these two essential elements fit together were all lost within the film's ambient space. And so, we arranged a showroom visit, whereby the designer presented the pieces close-up and drew attention to all the concepts and workmanship that made this one of his strongest collections yet. Taralis, who was influenced by the artist Gordon Matta-Clark this season, explained that he pursued a purer, more sophisticated direction for Spring. The women's pieces were largely borrowed from menswear—quite literally, in some cases, where the designer styled a shirt as a dress or repurposed portions of a boxy jacket into one more tailored to the feminine form. The crux of the collection consisted of a tiered system whereby a fine-gauge polyamide underpinning might extend past the blouse, with the streamlined silhouette funneling out into generous trousers. Only in close-up—certainly not in the video—could the subtle gold stitching and unfinished edges be fully appreciated. The top layer of a double-fabric skirt looked like it was punctured in braille. Taralis will have no difficulty convincing buyers to order his stilettos secured with a thick leather ankle bracelet.Back at the video presentation, Taralis noted how so much of our world today has become "dematerialized" and said he was determined to find another, nonlinear way of reading a collection. But clothingismaterial, and this collection was best seen and touched up close.
27 September 2013
Backstage this afternoon Nicolas Andreas Taralis was of more than one mind: "Is she strong or soft? Punk or uptown? She's a little bit lost, a bit all over the place," he said. It wasn't as discombobulated as all that on the runway. In fact, it was pretty standard stuff for Taralis. Mostly black, with some unexpected hits of indigo blue; edgy urban tailoring juxtaposed with witchy draped tops and a single evening dress; sheer fabrics and raw edges conveying the undone, unfinished quality he prefers. Taralis himself isn't lost, but he does seem to be languishing a bit. There were pieces worth calling out here—leather hemmed coats on the strict side and, among the slouchier stuff, a biker jacket with sleeves pushed up past the elbows. Still, he needs to hit the "go" button, or risk even his longtime supporters drifting off. The indigo pieces suggest a way forward. We've never thought of him as a colorist, but a wool felt dress with a heavy industrial zip coiling around the torso that came in a midnight blue on top and Yves Klein blue below the waist proved us wrong. Nora Renaud, who designed the tiara crowns and spiky necklaces, deserves a callout of her own.
26 February 2013
"I was thinking of faraway places," Nicolas Andreas Taralis said today. A statement like that could be a warning sign coming from a designer of less-disciplined habits. On another runway, we could've been in for a costume drama. Not here. Even when Taralis is looking at Japan or outer space, which were two of his talking points today, his signatures remain constant. This is a man who lives and breathes for tailoring. Japan came through in the origamilike constructions of shoulders on jackets—as if the fabric was pinched together rather than stitched. Outer space was at once a more obvious reference (see the aluminum foil coat, made from lacquered nylon polyamide) and a more subtle one: We wouldn't have guessed the quilted and draped collar of a more casual jacket was inspired by astronauts' uniforms if Taralis hadn't alerted us to the fact backstage.The designer's best idea didn't quite fit into either of those categories, but it felt of a piece with his work in general. It was, no surprise, another jacket, this one with a single shoulder and sleeve sliced off and darts on one hip to create a sort of half-peplum. Worn with a pair of sheer dhoti pants, as he showed it in the opening outfit, it would make a fabulous evening look.
25 September 2012
Add Nicolas Andreas Taralis to the growing number of designers turned on by Asian martial arts this season. Maybe it's the unsettling times we live in, but everyone's talking about protection. "Kurosawa meetsBlade Runner" was the shorthand Taralis used to describe coats and jackets with quilted lapels that called to mind both karate gis and obis. The cut of his tailoring, as usual, was close to the body, but for Fall, it's also asymmetrical. Some pieces were quite literally cut in half, with straps buckling around the side of the torso that was missing. It's not easy to reinvent the jacket, but with this idea, Taralis managed to give it a sexy new life as an evening piece.What was happening below the waist in this show wasn't quite as imaginative or as successful. Many of the models who wore skirts or dresses had to carry them in their hands because they were so long they would trip otherwise. The look just didn't jibe with Taralis' talking point backstage. The fact that the skirts and dresses were so often sheer will compound the problems they present to retailers. In the past, Taralis has proven himself quite handy with denim and leather—it would've been nice to see some street-worthy pants with all those tough-looking toppers.
28 February 2012
Nicolas Andreas Taralis swapped last season's Victoriana for sci-fi. He loves George Lucas' first full-length film,THX 1138, and he used it as the starting point for his slightly futuristic collection. It's not the complete 180 that it sounds like. Taralis is a tailor, and the pieces in this show, like all of his collections since landing back on the runway a couple of years ago, are street-ready. Lucas' movie was a dud at the box office, but Taralis' clothes have real potential at retail with their lived-in feel. It has been nice to arrive in Paris to discover that priss has left the picture, at least momentarily.White cotton vests and jackets appeared as if they'd been bleached, the fabric contrasting with the dark stitching and button thread. They were rumpled, too, which accentuated the feeling that they'd had a long history before the models pulled them on. The collection was evenly divided between black and white, and certain pieces in that white cotton and later on in washed black leather had closed-in bands of Velcro along the torso. It gave them the edgy look of sci-fi uniforms.If the daywear felt somewhat dystopian, Taralis' dresses landed at the more optimistic end of the spectrum. A long one in a semi-sheer knit suspended from a leather bodice had a floaty, light spirit that defied the model's heavy sandal boots. The android police inTHX 1138wouldn't have approved, but we do.
27 September 2011
"Everything was so strict and dark last season, I wanted to find something more fluid," Nicolas Andreas Taralis said backstage. Well, he hasn't exactly found the light, but there was certainly more white on his runway tonight than ever before. The designer got things started with a romantic Victorian blouse, the hem of which extended halfway down the thighs of skinny black leather pants that laced up the sides of the legs. But decadence, not purity, was the name of the game here. Later on, those frilly-neck, fluted-sleeve shirts came splotched with red paint. We could've sworn it was supposed to look like blood, but Taralis denied it. In fact, although it doesn't come across in all the pictures, nearly every piece in the collection was dyed or painted. If the stained shirts seemed like a stretch, an ecological wool coat in what Taralis called a "noble" British herringbone was no less noble for its ruddy undertones. It won't be inexpensive, either; that paint was painstakingly applied by hand.Strict just might be in Taralis' blood, though. Two of the most interesting shirts were button-downs tailored close to the body, one white, the other black, with geometric cutouts above the bust that looked provocative without being risqué. But taking top prize in the clever tailoring category was an elongated jacket so streamlined it had no lapels, just contrasting stitched seams where they would've been, with the under-collar on top. Paired with Taralis' gritty black jeans, it made you happy he hasn't given up his dark side.
28 February 2011
With its optimistic colors and bright prints, Spring 2011 might end up being a very alienating season to fashion's goth wing, for whom black is practically a religion. That's where Nicolas Andreas Taralis could come in. Back on the runway for the second time running after a three-year absence, the designer paid current trends little heed. "I like dark things," he said, explaining that he was thinking about tribes—Old European and Far Eastern ones, as well as international youth cultures. With their leather mesh tanks, hole-y denim, distressed suiting, and chemically treated camouflage pieces, all perched on substantial wedge-heel boots, the models looked like the definition of urban warriors. In fact, the show's opening mini was inspired by the traditional Greek military skirt, its 400 pleats evoking each year of Turkish occupation, but whipped up in frothy silk tulle for some modern romance.Speaking of, Taralis romanced the clothes every which way, washing a leather vest for a wrinkled, this-new-old-thing effect, or soaking narrow, elongated blazers in salt water to create ghostly white stains at the hems. The silhouette was attenuated up top, with jackets subtly cut away in the rear and vests that were nearly backless. The bottom half was slightly fuller, the precision of the designer's tailored blazers giving way to silk drop-crotch pants. Taralis may be in lone territory so far this season, but he negotiated it well.
27 September 2010
With his expertly cut suits and cooler-than-thou jeans, Nicolas Andreas Taralis showed signs of filling a void left by Helmut Lang in the middle aughts. But then in 2007, Taralis himself appeared to drop out of the scene, concentrating his energies on a short-lived position at Cerruti. He never entirely stopped designing or producing under his own steam, though, and now, with tailoring resurgent on other runways, he's chosen a smart time to re-emerge on a broader stage. "I'm picking up the pieces where I left off," he said backstage. "It's a little more artisanal and handmade, a little less tough."More artisanal, yes. Taralis showed a couple of biker jackets in quilted washed and distressed leather. Less tough? Not from where we were sitting. That's hardly a complaint, though: His jackets still look great, cut lean and a bit meaner than in the past thanks to a bold, slightly peaked, and of-the-moment shoulder. The fit looks right on his slim trousers, too. As for the denim, it can be hard to justify a spot for jeans on a runway, but the designer gave them a reason for being there by adding edgy industrial zippers that snaked up the legs. Now might still be a difficult time to get a young business up and running, but from the looks of the editors and retailers lining up to greet Taralis after the show, many people were happy to be rediscovering him.
1 March 2010
Nicolas Andreas Taralis is one of those designers—there have been a few this season—who make you think, all over again, of the huge void left by Helmut Lang. The Taralis synthesis of sharp tailoring and urban streetwear is fully in the Lang tradition (he studied under him in Austria), and he's one of the very few who is carrying it through with a genuine sense of purpose, rather than quoting from the nineties because it seems trendy right now."Chic, but tough. Something between elegance and hard-core sporty. There's too much nostalgia in fashion now." With these words, he joined the season's rising debate around the need for contemporary modernism. Still, you can't emulate Lang without first knowing how to cut a sharp black jacket, neat chesterfield coat, and a great pair of pants. Taralis had all that in his sharky-cool lacquered-cotton mess jacket, narrow coat with leather inserts, and his hybrid motocross biker jeans. The new aspect for him was the introduction of sport elements: optic-white perforated cotton, leather, and performance mesh worked into tailored shirts; cross-strap tabard T-shirts, bombers, and parkas. He also shifted his liking for metallics into a lean techno-tissue pantsuit and a poncho in silver. With the addition of Velcro-tabbed leather sneakers—which Taralis calls "futuristic Converse"—this below-the-radar collection represents a blip of hope for the lost legions who are still wearing out the last dependable threads of their vintage Lang.
5 October 2006
Nicolas Taralis is moving up in the "ones to watch" ratings. A late evening slot meant it was a test of endurance for even the hardiest show-goer, but the audience, dotted with the tired faces of international buyers and editors, held on to witness this young German-Greek designer's third collection. What they saw was, in essence, a cross between masculine tailoring and gritty jeanswear, the emerging generation's representation of the school of Helmut Lang and Hedi Slimane (hardly surprising when you know that Taralis studied under the former in Austria, and worked with the latter in Paris).There's something precise and Northern European about this designer's way with a tail-coat military jacket, a high-collared shirt, a lean, leather-revered tuxedo, and a pair of skinny pants (shades of Karl Lagerfeld in here somewhere). Taralis' distinctive take on the season's ubiquitous cape is a cloak with sharp shoulders that looks good short, in menswear jacketing fabric, or longer, in gray herringbone. Those pieces—as well as a dull-gold lamé blouse with flying sleeves and black, sparkle-flecked evening suiting—pass muster as nongirly formalwear. The other side of Taralis, though, comes straight out of the underground Berlinbierkeller: lean, rockin' black denim, crosshatched with a suggestion of bondage straps; sleazily cool patchwork black or gold leather parkas and bombers; ink-stained asymmetric cocoons made of chopped-up sweatshirts. As a whole, it made for a microcosm of the shapes and somber tendencies of the season, with a young point of view that's looking increasingly confident.
26 February 2006
Nicolas Andreas Taralis is a relative newcomer whose promise extends far beyond his interesting pedigree (which includes a stint with Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme). Not only was his front row well stocked with prominent editors and retailers, but standing-room guests lined the wall and snaked behind the light rigging all the way to the door—where the clothes, dimly lit to begin with, must have been plenty hard to see.In a spring season of multiplying dresses and diminishing returns, the 30-year-old Canadian focused—with rigorous precision—on pantsuits. These he proposed as cropped jackets paired with full trousers complete with front pleats or, in a younger take on the theme, superskinny jeans. They were paired with fine-jersey tees in white and gray, which trailed silvery streamers and sashes.A pleated silver lamé dress, strung from the neck halter-style and loosely tied at the waist, showed that Taralis can also do pretty. And as for draping: When he arrived on the scene a year ago, he showed the kind of capes that are just now making their way into other collections. For spring, he's moved on to ponchos. His finale, which was striped with black and silver beads, had the kind of off-hand cool and notice-me luxe that would make a more experienced designer wish he'd thought of it first.
4 October 2005