Top 5 for Spring - # 1

Balenciaga! Sleek, futuristic, ultramodern, and techno-chic were all buzzwords used to describe Nicolas Ghesquière's latest collection for Balenciaga, quickly pushing him into the leader position of the "new guard" in fashion. That elite group (with such members as Giles Deacon and Yves Saint Laurent's Stefano Pilati) deserves all the recognition they get. As for Nicolas, his vision for spring is neither clean nor fussy, neither retro nor robotic. It just feels like something entirely unexpected, delivered in a manner only somebody as respected as Nicolas could ever get away with. It was almost sweet, not nearly as bluntly sexual as all the patent leather and metallic gleam would suggest. The masculine pieces were reduced into something intensely silken and delicately floaty. Everyone will be clamoring over those sunglass goggles come February!