Held Back

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>> As per the Paris Fashion Week norm, I've put on my Dazed Digital cap and been reporting rampantly for them this week.  I'm carrying three phones getting my head round about three different Twitter/Instagram/Vine accounts and basically running around Paris, giving myself mental high fives whenever I make it to every show/appointment/presentation because I've stuck two fingers up at Paris' horrendous traffic and used *gasp* the Metro.  One girl was shocked that I was on public transportation, she literally quivered as she asked to have her picture taken with me.  Are bloggers supposed to travel in pumpkin-shaped gilded carriages?

I'm all talked out about the shows for now as all my show chat is on Dazed but one immediate thing to bring to attention came about at the Maison Martin Margiela show.  For those of you with short hair, this may not excite you so much so apologies if I sound like a crazed overenthusiastic loon.  I thought we had seen everything that's physically possible in the technical constuction of a garment.  I thought nothing new could be termed.  However, can we take a second to ponder these inbuilt hair straps that were worked into every jacket, shirt, coat, dress and top at the MMM show today.  Have we seen these done before?  If not, why haven't they been done before?  This solves a lot of the problems that afflicts the I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-hair tribe, which I'm an enthused member of.  No product, pins, clips and hairbands required.  Just shove the mane into place, in its prime located hair strap.  

If any of you do find prior examples of this simple but very VERY nifty design detailing, please do let me know.  To my mind, I can't recall this being used.  It seems to have been a solution that stemmed from women tucking their long hair into a poloneck (thanks Celine) or wearing it loose and entirely obscured by a giant upturned coat collar.  Therefore, I'd say Maison Martin Margiela have a fairly good case to apply for a design patent if they are deemed to be the one and only inventors of the hair-strap, to stop everyone else getting their knock-off mitts on this feature.  I urgently needed to hone in on this bit of detailing that isn't even visible from the frontview of catwalk images.  It feels strange that such a practical tailored and somewhat insignifcant device would come from MMM but yet at the same time, the height of Margiela's prowess was when high-concept married up with pragmatic reality.  This was definitely one of those instances.  

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30 comments

  1. That one of the first really original ideas I’ve seen this season, I don’t care if I have short hair, I’m just going to have to tip my head back really far so I can put at least one strand of hair into those.
    Just so effortlessly quirky but cool. Oh Margiela.
    xo Camilla
    Into The Fold

  4. At the risk of sounding seriously unintellectual: that is just freeeeakinnn cooooool man! Wish I had long enough hair

  5. That is not a great innovation but also an extremely cool detail!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Go MMM, always something cool!
    Thanks for sharing dear, I know you are crazily busy and loose your sleep to share with us all these things 🙂
    xoxoxo

  6. This is such a great idea- it’s one of those things which you never thought about but when you see it you realise that you’ve subconsciously wanted something just like it forever!

  7. That is, indeed, an interesting trick and looks lovely, though seems rather impractical. Then again, what isn’t at least slightly impractical when it comes to fashion? More to the point, though, what happens if you need to turn your head beyond 40 degrees in either direction (and your hair doesn’t extend beyond your upper back)? Seems like it would be a constant task of having to try and tuck your hair back into that built-in hair harness… which could be potentially painful and presumably annoying, depending on the circumstances.

  9. Let’s be serious here. This is the silliest thing i’ve ever seen. This is not cool!

  13. How clever! Of course, now the question that begs to be answered is whatever shall we do with our hands if not for pulling back our hair at 30 second intervals? I love the originality, and yes, I would totally use the hair strap!

  14. This is absolutely genius! That exactly explains why Margiela is one of the best fashion “maison” that rocks the Fashion Industry. They are not only “fashioning” to sustain their business but most of all , they are pushing Fashion forward by innovating and creating new functional designs for the society .
    Fashion Designers should be like MMM, definitely more engaged and courageous to take risks!
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  22. Great post. I just located your blog and wished to let you know that I have certainly loved reading your blogs. At any rate I’m going to be subscribing to your feed and I really hope you are writing again soon.
    Make hair shine

  27. kinda lame but funny at the same time hehe. oh margiela, i dont know whether to laugh or mime laugh. the latter i guess…

  28. wait, they should make a similar design detail for armpit and leg hair!

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