Paris Fashion Week: A rich mix
From relaxed sensuality at Céline to sombre sculptures at Comme des Garçons – Susie Lau spots the most interesting looks on the catwalk in the French capital.
Paris Fashion Week has been rich and, even, overstuffed with ideas. You feel like you’ve gorged when a full day of shows comes to a close. This a city where the fashion houses have no limitations and creative directors roam free.
The majority of shows have chimed with one another in their quest for eclecticism and expressions of individuality. That unifying idea has given way to very different outcomes, though. Add renegade youth and wayward Japanese designers and there you’ve got Paris, brimming with inspiration.
Olivier Rousteing’s collection at Balmain featured '80s jewel tones and metallic fringing (David Fisher/Rex)
Dries van Noten is well-known for his lavish fabrications. His collection was an ode to passionate women who enjoy a rich mix of brocades and gilded fabrics tempered with khaki. Elsewhere though, designers have shown abandon whether through materials, embellishment or abundant details. Olivier Rousteing was thinking of Pierre Balmain’s excesses in the ‘80s and so went for the jewel tones of that decade with metallic fringing that needs nightclub lights to shimmy under.
Alexander Wang ripped up the seams of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s ovoid shapes, stapled them back together and embellished them with razor blades and piercings like a rebellious daughter of a society swan attacking her mother’s wardrobe.
But best of all was Riccardo Tisci looking back at his tenure at Givenchy. By mixing Victoriana with chola-girl get-up, he summarised brilliantly what he has done so well, which is to give Givenchy a specific strand of dark romanticism that brings the house bang up to date.
Belgian designer Dries van Noten mixed the hardy and the sumptuous in a collection of sharp contrasts (Getty Images)
John Galliano sent a mad ensemble of clownish characters down the runway at Margiela (Getty Images)
It seems silly to call the rise of the individual a trend. Hasn’t it always been thus? But when the shows bang the drum for a total look and the high street stores march to their beat, you wonder how people find their fashion identity in among the cacophony. John Galliano’s debut ready-to-wear collection for Margiela made this point as he sent out a mad ensemble of clownish characters interspersed with the models – their faces painted with neon, they hunched and stalked down the catwalk in floral velvet and shoes with oversized straps.
One resembled the crazy bag lady you wouldn’t want to go near. Another walked like a sullen teenager desperately trying to find herself. What Galliano was really saying was that imperfection and individuality should be celebrated and the clothes also reflected aneclecticism that moved between the house codes of Margiela and Galliano’s own tastes. It was a statement of intent for Galliano’s return to fashion and one that sets the tone nicely for his tenure at the house.
Did he emerge at the end to take one of his famous outré bows? Of course not. This is Margiela after all.
There were leather blousons and slouchy trousers in JW Anderson’s collection for Loewe (Getty Images)
Phoebe Philo at Céline was asking herself about the fine line between sexiness and sensuality. (Thus far, Philo has eschewed the former.) Paraded on terracotta floor tiles to a Spanish soundtrack, her clothes exuded warmth and sultriness with undone slip dresses, loosened corsetry and fabrics developed to evoke what she called a “tattered glamour”.
It was sensuality articulated for Céline. Raf Simons at Dior was eager to embrace something more savage and sexual as he had all his models trussed up in thigh-high latex boots with perspex heels and an abstracted animal print. Yet a subtle approach ensured these clothes were never overly sexualised:
well-cut mannish overcoats and menswear fabrics were the main stylistic takeaways. After JW Anderson’s conceptual debut at Loewe last season, he turned to something more hot-blooded with leather blousons, slouchy trousers and a tinge of ‘80s raciness. As befitted the Spanish leather goods house, the bags were alluring but it was Anderson’s seductive way with leather in the clothes this time that made this a stand-out collection.
Complex constructions in white and black lace featured in Rei Kawakubo’s collection for Commes des Garçons (Pixelformula/Sipa/Rex)
Leave it to the Japanese to go their own way. Yohji Yamamoto’s dresses under construction were spellbinding to watch if not at all connected with what other designers are doing. It’s why his shows still hold the viewer still as you watch tent-like dresses bob up and down in slow motion along the catwalk.
Likewise, Junya Watanabe and Rei Kawakubo rule the Saturday of Paris Fashion Week because their ideas hit you directly and deeply. Watanabe was playing with the many dimensions of clothing and so Chinese lantern-like constructions and honeycomb folds of fabric took garments into bulbous 3D form.
It was a technique extremely well executed, to the point where you couldn’t really fault it. Kawakubo carried on her emotional treatise as at Comme des Garçons she presented the most beautiful tribute to mourning you’ll ever see. The act of making someone beautiful before they leave the world and the ceremony of separation inspired Kawakubo’s sculptures on the body of black and white lace, bows and gold brocade. These were sombre cocoons, moving slowly and as a model passed another, a look of longing was exchanged. This was a show not for the head, but for the heart. Berlin-based British composer Max Richter’s soundtrack tugged at you as you thought of the things that really matter in life. Trust Kawakubo to put things into perspective.
Susie Lau is a fashion journalist who blogs at stylebubble.co.uk. She is covering New York, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks for BBC Culture.
