Womenswear collections S/S 2012: show invitations

Over in London, a strong summer message came in the form of Acne’s thick flourescent invitation card, featuring a graphic debossed font

Card

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For Paris, Rochas used a varnish treatment on textured card to create the ’vinyl effect’ black strip

Card

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Dries Van Noten

Card

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Dries Van Noten

Card

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Loose calligraphy-style writing marked out Haider Ackermann’s gold foil printed card

Invitation

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Kanye West’s first fashion week invitation was to the point with its centralised debossed text

Card

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Hermès

Card

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A discreet die-cut ’H’ from Hermès

Invitation

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Mimicking earlier invitation styles, Neil Barrett produced a thick green card ’envelope’ printed with black foil, with a smaller card pull-out which was blind embossed

Rectangular dimensions

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Rick Owens used three different printing techniques to create three abstract patterns in varying rectangular dimensions

Card

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The puzzle-like card from Comme des Garçons for its new Paris Trading Museum required flipping back and forth between two sides of glossy white paper to get all the details - which were divided between two sides of the sheet 

Card

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Comme des Garçons

Heavy watercolour paper

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Made to look like an artwork, Chanel’s pastel acquatic came on heavy watercolour paper

Artwork

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Chanel

A die-cut geometric creation

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A die-cut geometric creation from Roger Vivier

Card

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John Galliano’s out of focus rose printed on a card came in the form of a giant postage stamp, complete with perforated edges  

Incorporating black print on black thin paper

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Junya Watanabe’s minimalist design, incorporating black print on black thin paper, folded out into a poster

Posters

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Junya Watanabe

Posters

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Another poster-like offering from Viktor & Rolf, embossed with a V&R stamp...

Square sheet

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... this time folding out into a square sheet

Aluminium plate

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Kudos to Paco Rabanne for producing this very sleek brushed aluminium plate

Silver metallic foil

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The ambiguous face on Céline’s invite got the silver metallic foil treatment... 

Card

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... and came printed on corrugated card

Envelope

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A tracing paper envelope from Louis Vuitton...

Luggage tag

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... conceals an oversized Louis Vuitton leather luggage tag...

Details

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... with show details hidden under the tag’s flaps

Invitation

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The Louis Vuitton Art of Fashion exhibition invitation - with just a hint of detail in its blind debossed cover - looked pretty understated. But things aren’t always what they seem...   

Invitation

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... it opens up to reveal a flourescent pink insert

Stationary

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A powdery blue variation on Miu Miu’s perfectly assembled show stationary

Stationary

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Miu Miu

Stationery

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Miu Miu

Graphic

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In Milan, Roman fashion house Fendi presented the ultimate lesson in monochromatic graphic

Invitation

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Meanwhile, invitations for the Fendi O’ party arrived complete with a CD mix taster of sounds that were to come during the course of the evening’s events

Details

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Fendi O’: On the reverse, the event details came emblazoned in a glossy gold print 

Invitation

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Prada’s invitation was deceivingly simple at first glance...

Card

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... but a clever optical illusion allowed the text - printed upside down and back to front - to be read coherently through the use of reflective mirrored card

Card

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Jil Sander used of blind-embossing on thick square card 

Card

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Jil Sander

Invitation

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A colour block hit from the Marni invitation...

Poster

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... which unfolds into an A3-sized poster

Posters

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Marni

Invitation

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Our invitation to visit the new Gucci Museo in Florence came complete with a gold foiled personalised train ticket

Invitation

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Gucci Museo

Invitation

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Over in London, a strong summer message came in the form of Acne’s thick flourescent invitation card, featuring a graphic debossed font

Invitation

(Image credit: TBC)

Acne

Card

(Image credit: TBC)

Burberry sent out its usual pack: an envelope which opened to reveal credit card-sized card printed with the show details - this time in wood

Card

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Burberry

Card

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Margaret Howell chose blue, grey and black shades for her invites this season, with a pop-out black foil-stamped print appearing over the card

Print

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A colourful painted print transferred onto matt silver foil for the Mary Katrantzou show

White board

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A simple offering from Pringle of Scotland, which made use of an embossed pattern on heavy white board for a tactile effect

Invitation

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Using the pre-cinema French technique of Ombra Cinema (not dissimilar to the W* 139 Guest Editors issue cover featuring Robert Wilson’s eye-popping portraits), the DKNY invitation revealed a series of moving images of a girl crossing a road, controlled by the opening and closing of the card

DNKY

Invitation

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Invitation

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Walk

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Card

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For 3.1 Phillip Lim, a subtle tactile effect was achieved with embossed text on a linen-like overlay. This folded back to reveal a heavy textured card

Card

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The Yohji Yamamoto and Adidas for Y-3 invitation incorporated a screen-printed blue text on a red fabric-like card

Card

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Y-3

Fashion Features Editor

Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*. Having previously held roles at 10, 10 Men and AnOther magazines, he joined the team in 2022. His work has a particular focus on the moments where fashion and style intersect with other creative disciplines – among them art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and profiling the industry’s leading figures and brands.