Michelle Obama's edgiest fashion statement yet

The blue patterned cardigan that First Lady Michelle Obama wore to the Royal Opera House today was avant garde fashion with a capital "A." The sweater, with its one-sided check pattern and asymmetrical button placket, is by Japanese designer Junya Watanabe (is this the first time she's worn a non-American designer?), who started working under Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons before launching his own label in 1993.

Watanabe's runway shows are always among the most artistic of Paris Fashion Week. He's showed sculptural takes on the tailcoat, the military jacket, even the jean skirt. For fall, he focused on the puffer coat, sculpting and molding it into elongated, Victorian-looking dresses and cropped shrugs.

With their odd folds and uneven hems, his clothes are not for the timid. They require work and imagination to wear. Obama paired the sweater with a traditional-looking teal dress by Jason Wu. It was a contrasting color but I think it worked. What do you think?

-- Booth Moore

Photo: Sarah Brown, right, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meets with First Lady Michelle Obama at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden.

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M'ouments moves into former CDG guerrilla store space

We just received word from designer/retailer/artist Brett Westfall that the 4h Street space in downtown L.A. that housed the Comme des Garçons guerrilla store +1213 that folded in February (per company policy, the temporary pop-ups only keep their doors open a year) will be re-opening next month as a new concept called M'ouments -- which despite the apostrophe will be pronounced like un-punctuated "moments."

The significance of the name? "I wanted to emphasize the idea of being in the moment," Westfall told me by phone earlier today. "That things people see in the store might be gone for good next time they come back."

Westfall said that in addition to merchandise by CDG, his own Unholy Matrimony line and Sonia Boyajian -- all lines that he stocked under the guerrilla store nameplate -- he'd be expanding into lesser-known designers from around the world, as well as books and music holdings.

The only thing Westfall doesn't yet have a handle on? The exact moment the new space will open.

"Sometime in April," he said. "I'm not exactly sure, but I hope sooner rather than later."

Stay tuned.

M'ouments, 125 W. 4th St., No. 106, Los Angeles 90013 (213) 626-6606

Photo: The Comme des Garçons guerilla store, shown in July 2008, will reopen sometime next month as M'ouments. Credit: Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times

PFW: Avant-garde alive and well in Paris

PARIS -- It's always interesting when fashion deals with the idea of permanence, which is so antithetical to the whole 'here today, gone tomorrow' enterprise. But that's exactly what Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren did with their provocative Viktor & Rolf collection Monday with a visual pun on the overused term "classic."

Against a backdrop of classic marble statuary, they sent out clothes in all shades of stone, with details that mimicked the draping and pleating on the marble figures. They started with skirts and coats molded and folded into stalagmite-like points, before moving into soft silk and lace draped or seamed to evoke similar sculptural features.

Fall 2009: Hunters in pinstripes at Junya Watanabe

The words "NO HUNTING, NO FISHING, NO FIREARMS without written permission" above the photo of a majestic elk adorned the invitation to the Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons Man show, and the Fall 2009 collection trained its sights on the rod & gun crowd for inspiration.

The label is known for its collaborations with iconic American and British brands, including Baracuta, Levi's, Brooks Brothers and Tricker's. This season the label tossed Portland, Ore.'s Pendleton Woolen Mills buffalo plaid checks into the mix, metaphorically -- and in some cases literally -- turning the brands inside out. Sure, it's a theme that Watanabe explored last season, but a gray pinstripe suit that reverses into a hunting jacket complete with ammunition pockets and a quilted recoil shoulder pad is more than a money- and space-saving "twofer." Watching how quickly  a poacher in pinstripes can go from hedge fund to hunter makes you realize how little actually separates the two types of blood sport.

Shopping: Comme and gone

The Comme des Garcons collection sold out in 10 minutes at the H&M store at the Beverly Center this morning, with all the grabbing and shoving you’d expect for a limited edition cheap chic line. According to an H&M spokesperson, people started calling Monday asking if they could get in line. The answer was “no,” at least not until this morning. 

We had heard that shoppers would be limited to two pieces. Not so; a friend of a friend spent $2,000! It’s no wonder that as of this afternoon, more than 200 pieces had landed on eBay. Women’s trench coats have an opening bid of $500 (they sold for $199), which makes the $39 opening bid for the drop crotch trousers (originally $59.90) seem like a bargain.

booth.moore@latimes.com

Photo courtesy of H&M

Sneak peek: the new Comme des Garcons for H&M

The news of avant-garde Comme des Garcons collaborating with H&M had the fashion flock in a froth. And when the higher price points -- a $350 dress! -- were announced, many sniffed in disdain. But over at RackedLA.com, editor Tasha Adams likes what she saw in a preview.

Here's her initial take:

The quality and tailoring is spectacular and precise. The $350 ruffled, pin-striped dress raised eyebrows — and this particular piece wouldn't be for us — but the price points overall seem fair. To spend $299 for a well-made, fashion-forward men's suit, a soft gray plaid done on the diagonal with one line of white stitching, is not a bad deal at all. The women's deconstructed jackets, off-kilter with exposed seams, translate very well and are not as kookie as you might think. The ballerina dress with cut-out back is extremely elegant.

The line drops on Nov. 13.

Photo: H&M

Paris Fashion Week Day One: The Cultural Tide Rolls Out

The collections in Paris have just begun and already they are 100 times more thought provoking than anything we've seen so far. Designers aren't just showing clothes, they're commenting on the cultural tide.

At Balenciaga, it was another chapter of Nicolas Ghesquière's extraordinary science-fiction fantasy. I imagined Earth in the year 2058, after the ecological apocalypse. No more nature -- just machines.

Life exists in shades of pale and metallic, ready to take on the colors of the flashing lights above. Models don't just look like androids, they are androids -- with nude bodystockings framing their beating hearts. They walk on air pockets, so as not to touch the too-hot ground. They wear strange modular jumpers -- like galactic lederhosen or papery thin pants spliced with black, like shards of the night sky.

The spring season's most impressive jackets came in micro-pleated silver and gold, as if they were molded from variegated metal. There were also wiry silver "fur" jackets and scaly "mermaid dresses" (actually made of ribbon fused with metallic film) -- the exotic skins of the future.

Forget Mickey Mouse, the Marlboro Man and Coca-Cola, the U.S.-born cultural icons that used to unite the world. Soccer is the international icon for today. At Commes des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo played with the hexagonal shapes on soccer balls, flattening and molding them into shoulder pieces, helmets and the bodices of tops.

A sport historically played by peasants, soccer is the great unifier, the great leveler, which made it all the more interesting to see these sculptural clothes in the context of Kawakubo's usual aristocratic touchstones, the powdery wigs and tailcoats.

Junya Watanabe weaved a culural tapestry too, mixing African fabrics with denim, gingham and eyelet, draping, twisting and shaping the fabric into long, bustle-back skirts and feminine jackets. It was a dramatic scene, with cornucopias of dried wildflowers balanced atop the models' heads. And on the sound system, the tribal beat played on.

-- Booth Moore

Top two photos from Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2009 runway show in Paris. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times. Bottom photo from Comme des Garçons. Credit: Kirk McKoy /Los Angeles Times