Bruno Pieters (Q3969)
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Bruno Pieters is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Bruno Pieters |
Bruno Pieters is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Backstage, Bruno Pieters said he wanted to work on two aspects of French couture: flou and tailoring. The Belgian designer opened with the former—a sheer nude tube dress with draping and folding below the waist that protected the model's privacy. Building up from there, he added more tucks and pleats to the bodices of body-con dresses in makeup colors and wrapped ribbons of pink chiffon around the torso of an abbreviated little white frock. When tailoring entered the equation, it followed the same geometric lines as in Pieters' recent collections: Cropped and fitted jackets had hexagonal short sleeves; miniskirts and rompers came with standout pockets that echoed the shape of the shoulders and gave his girls a perplexing X-shaped silhouette. A pair of crystal-encrusted sleeveless V-back dresses were bright spots; still, the whole thing came off a bit like a graduate student's exercise. The collection displayed a real devotion to craft—all that sheer fabric put the rigor and discipline of Pieters' cutting and pattern-making on display—but in the end, there wasn't enough that a girl could really wear.
30 September 2009
Backstage, Bruno Pieters mentioned Eckhart Tolle's bookA New Earthas a source of inspiration. Apparently, it got him thinking about evolution, out of which evolved a color palette that ranged from shimmering black to forest green to metallic-bronze tweed. But never mind the natural colors; this Belgian designer doesn't do earthy. In step with last season, he approached his tailored coat-dresses and skirtsuits with a mathematical precision—piecing them together from squares and triangles; inserting origami-like panels at the waistline; planting large, flat bows at the neck; and layering the sharp, fitted results over second-skin turtlenecks, platform pumps, and opaque black tights.With their shiny black-red lips and severe samurai ponytails, many of which were obscured by big hoods, the models looked like members of a uniformed tribe from outer space. As for where the collection fits back on terra firma, there were a few elements that stood out in the rather narrowly focused whole: Pieters' little jackets and capes, for example, could be contenders for the kind of girl who wants a subtle, anonymous take on the season's dominant shoulder.
4 March 2009
Bruno Pieters dedicated his collection to Pierre Cardin, but beyond the fact that nearly every fabric had a subtle shine, there was nothing overtly space-age about the clothes. Over the last couple of seasons, the Belgian designer has established a certain precise tailoring—narrow and sharp as a razor blade—as his signature. For Spring, he applied Cardin's stark black-and-white palette and even more rigorous sense of structure to his already severe approach. Shoulders (which are quickly shaping up to be a Paris hot zone) were squared, creating, in effect, boxy cap sleeves on trim cropped jackets worn with slim above-the-knee skirts, as well as on short dresses with V necklines cut almost down to the waist. The same geometric angles made an appearance on the front of a skirt, too, but they looked just as tricky here as they did anywhere else. Pieters was at his best working instead with curves, close to the body, as he did with one zip-front white vest and skirt that were tiny and sexy.
27 September 2008
Androgyny isn't a word that has passed many lips this season, but it was a mini-theme on the first day of the Paris shows, beginning with Bruno Pieters.Here, masculine fare—boxy, loose camel jackets and pleat-front pants, oversize trenches, and skinny ties not unlike those favored by the Belgian designer himself—shared the runway with rounder, more feminine shapes, like a shift in a black-and-gold overscale houndstooth, a short cape in stiff silver lamé, and a couple of blouson sweaters. Standouts on the male side of the equation included a jacket with what appeared to be a built-in waistcoat, and, on the other end, a soft, dolman-sleeve cocoon coat. A cropped blazer worn over a tuxedo shirt and floor-length skirt with a knit scarf wrapped obi-style at the waist fell somewhere in the middle.Sometimes the show's mixed message became a little fuzzy. Unwieldy layers (jacket over turtleneck over pleated Elizabethan ruff; coat over skirt over skinny pants) obscured the beauty of the clean, precise lines of Pieters' tailoring.
23 February 2008
In his day job as art director for HUGO, Boss' diffusion line, Bruno Pieters has been honing his proficiency with menswear, and it showed in the tight 15-look collection he presented for fall. His somewhat obscured reference points were Robert Redford inThe Great Gatsbyand Giorgio Armani in the eighties, which underpinned the very constructed, sartorial greigeness of Pieters' clothes (a polished, tailored finish has emerged as a major trend in menswear this season right across the board). The most obvious illustration of this was the way the designer composed a silhouette, for instance, with a short plaid jacket laid over a longer waistcoat in the same plaid. In the past, Pieters has claimed influence from David Bowie (who hasn't?), and his wrapped pants and waistcoat, and use of tie silk as a fabric for jackets and pants had a decadent Weimar edge that recalled one of Bowie's personae. (Put it together with the Armani inspiration and you might come up with "Just an American Gigolo.") And the item that Pieters called a bomber (it was a cropped, quilted vest that looked a little like a folded parachute) gave the collection an edge of tough glamour, especially in silk Lurex. Pieters insisted that men are surrendering more and more to their inner dandy. It's a not-unpleasing prospect to imagine him being there to catch them when they fall.
18 January 2008
One glance at Bruno Pieters' Spring collection and you can see why Hugo Boss hired the 30-year-old Belgian up-and-comer as the art director of Hugo, the company's most fashion-forward label. Pieters has an eye and hand for tailoring that takes his jackets, pants, and shirts beyond the mundane. Working along similar lines to Raf Simons at Jil Sander, he cropped his boleros right below the bust and layered them over short bustiers that exposed an expanse of jersey-covered midriff above hip-slung pants. A coincidence, surely, but one that worked to Pieters' advantage.Amid the sharply cut denim anoraks, collarless coats, and a great short-sleeve tux, the designer threw in a pair of puff shoulder, drop-waist dresses, one white, one black, both sheer—a nod in the direction of the transparency motif that's been kicking around since New York. Also timely, playing as they did into the boudoir trend, were the beaded cummerbunds-cum-girdles that peeked out above the waistlines of shorts and pants. Tricky, over-styled accessories aside—at Hugo, Pieters will have to break the habit for such frivolities as sequined stirrup pants and opaque white tights—this collection showed quiet promise.
29 September 2007
Tina Chow was the inspiration cited in Bruno Pieters' Fall collection. Remembered for her sleek, understated style and boyish haircut, the late fashion icon made an apt point of reference for the 29-year-old Belgian designer with the sharp, almost architectural sensibility. You could imagine Chow in his shiny tweed lantern-sleeve jacket with a square neck and a light, flippy skirt worn with flat over-the-knee boots. And she might well have donned a plain black bustier with a high-waisted, quasi-bubble skirt in gold lamé. The collection's strengths were to be found in coats and suits nearly military in their precision. Its weaknesses, in the plain-Jane knits and the reds and yellows that lacked both the sophistication and the wearability of the neutrals. Pieters used some of the €100,000 he won from the Swiss Textiles Award in November to put on his first formal show, and—consider it growing pains—there were echoes of his do-it-yourself previous presentations in the distracting and unflattering hair ornaments. But those details aside, there's no denying the enviable polish of his tailoring.
24 February 2007
For his first menswear collection, Bruno Pieters took inspiration from an old photo of the Duke of Windsor and Coco Chanel. The Duke was wearing knee breeches at the time, and sure enough, there they were in Pieters' debut. But the designer, Paris' latest import from Antwerp, was keen to sidestep any overt historicism, which is why he emphasized the architectural sharpness of his clothes (a quality they share with the womenswear he has been designing for five years). The belting and seaming details on a camel overcoat certainly underscored its construction, and Pieters also offered opportunities to "build" a look by adding layers. One such—a cummerbund belt with tails—could render almost any jacket ready for a night at the opera, especially when paired with Pieters' white piqué shirt. The belt had a dandy air that was also evident in a delicate shirt of bronzed silk and a poet's blouse. More to the point, it had a girdling effect, just perfect for maintaining at least an illusion of the extreme leanness the clothes demanded. The Duke of Windsor might be able to do them justice, but most real men would gravitate toward the big, chunky hand-knits, which in this skinny context looked slightly incongruous—and all the better for it.
27 January 2007
After training with Christian Lacroix, Belgian newcomer Bruno Pieters jumped into Paris fashion at the deep end with two haute couture collections—a project soon abandoned in favor of ready-to-wear, which he launched in 2003. What makes him interesting to watch now is his feel for structure, a key trend of the season.Pieters' fall collection was, he said, inspired by the films of Jean Cocteau, especially "their sense of drama and dreamy effects." His nod to the twenties was evident in the hairstyling, modeled after photographer Lee Miller's, and prints adapted from Art Deco patterns, but apart from these decorative elements, there was little obvious reference to the stated theme. That didn't matter. Though the rhythm of the show was off—hooded jersey drapes, a shearling coat, and a lone black leather pants ensemble were interspersed with tailored suits and jackets—Pieters demonstrated an assured, delicate hand. His best pieces had a timeless quality that evoked not so much Cocteau as the century- and genre-skipping movieOrlando: Light, feminine dresses, brocade coats, and pannier and bell skirts suggested everything from a modern-day Marie Antoinette to a contemporary Daisy Buchanan.
27 February 2005