The best thing that happened at Paris Fashion Week
Olesya Iva
FEBRUARY AND BEGINNING OF MARCH - HOT TIME for the fashion industry: one after another are the main world fashion weeks, where they show the collections of the future autumn and winter of 2016. We have already talked about the most interesting shows and moments of weeks in Milan, New York and London. Now it's time to remember the best of what happened in Paris, where key shows for the fashion industry take place. We tell what really outstanding happened and how it can affect us.
Show Chanel in the brasserie
Each season, Chanel shows the most speculation: the show is traditionally held in extravagant decorations, but in which this time - fashion editors, buyers and customers can only guess. Last season, the Grand Palais was rebuilt into Chanel Boulevard, and the show was held in the format of a feminist rally. At this time, the Grand Palais was turned into a Parisian brasserie, and these decorations perfectly approached the new autumn-winter collection in retrostatistics.
In addition to the iconic tweed items for home fashion, Karl Lagerfeld showed jackets, trench coats and bags with three-dimensional 3D elements, maxi skirts, perforated jackets and multi-layered blouses. Flared trousers, velvet and chokers appeared at the show. Attention is given to bags in the form of a Chanel jacket (an obvious nod in the direction of Moschino), as well as knitwear with roomy pockets. It is noteworthy that the show was presented and several male images that this season has become a frequent occurrence. For example, male models appeared on the Rodarte show in New York and Gucci in Milan, not to mention the impressive appearance of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson at the Parisian show of Valentino.
Prêt-à-porter debut show for Galliano for Maison Margiela
"Galliano seized the house" - this was the title of articles about the new collection. And it’s true that John Galliano made it clear by this show who is now finally and irrevocably reigning at the Maison Margiela ball (from the name of the fashion house, as we remember, they threw out the name of its founder "Martin"). Probably, the role was played by the fact that most of the world's critics welcomed John's first couture collection for MM and this added to the designer self-confidence. So, in the second women's collection - prêt-à-porter - we saw a lot of Galliano and extremely little Margiela. There were almost clown neon makeup by Pat McGrath, and the overall theatricality of the presentation.
From the former Margiela inherited except that fleecy shoes, twisted seams, gloves, reminiscent of household, specific decoration, experiments with viscous and deconstructed fabrics. But in the company with them appeared velvet, elements of military form, Victorian sleeves, sequins, leopard and snake skin, flounces - in fact, everything that the tendencies of the next season consist of, therefore Galliano was lucky.
The last thing I remember about the show is the way Galliano clapped rapidly in the hope that he would come out in the final of the show. However, as in the old days of anonymity at home, no one came to bow. It's funny that while Galliano is busy at the new place of work, Bill Gatten is involved in his personal brand. And I must say, John Galliano is not in the best hands: the new collection has failed at all.
The triumph of styling at the Givenchy show
We live in an era where fashion moves the image, which, in turn, is skillful styling. A brilliant stylist will be able to progressively apply even the most mediocre clothes. The most striking proof is the phenomenon of Edie Slimane in Saint Laurent: he is first and foremost a strong stylist, not a designer. Gucci's new creative director, Alessandro Michele, is following his way, and it looks like the Italian house will have success and a quick increase in sales.
Ricardo Tishi decided to jump on the same train, having brightened up the show of traditional sexual and evening dresses for the house with styling, as if borrowed from FKA twigs concerts. Yes, this technique is far from innovative, from last year, but at the Paris Fashion Week it caused a resonance. So, makeup artist Pat McGrath and her team decorated models' faces with stones, massive earrings and nose ornaments. Silence says that he borrowed the idea from Mexican cholas, but in fact, it appeared much earlier. There were no braids and wet strands framed by models with face rings. Now the favorite style of Hels-ready will rush a bullet to the masses, most certainly to the deep discontent of the subculture.
Variety of hairstyles at the Louis Vuitton show
Another example of the victory of modern stylists is the Louis Vuitton show, which is supported by the talented W Magazine editor Marie-Amelie Sauve, assistant Nicolas Ghesquière since his work in Balenciaga. The collection of a respectable house was represented by girls with pink hair, disheveled bangs, afro hairstyles, curly hair, redheads, blondes, brunettes, shaved to zero, with short and long hair. It is unlikely that the show would have turned out so spectacular if it were not for the bold approach to the casting. The Louis Vuitton collection itself turned out to be extremely simple and wearable: fur coats, mini-skirts, pointed-toed shoes, ski jackets, tweed and its imitation, multi-colored suits, brooches, aviator glasses, and also bags in the form of boxes.
New sexuality on the show Christian Dior
New collection of Raf Simons for Christian Dior has become the most commercial for all the time of his work in the house. The first images were pretty damn simple: a little black dress, a sweater and a short skirt, a jacket and a turtleneck. So, Raf once again outlined the general idea of all the shows on fashion weeks - wearability. The second important point we saw in the movie "Dior and Me", which was recently released on the screens: it is important for Rafa to make couture wearable, and in prêt-à-porter to continue and even to recreate these ideas of high fashion. Thus, the spring couture collection was devoted to David Bowie and the psychedelics of the 70s, and in the new prêt-à-porter collection, Raff continued to work with the same themes, ideas and silhouettes.
Raf also clearly showed how today looks like new sexuality - both modestly and bravely. Latex sidewear coexisted with laconic dresses, psychedelic tights in obtyag - with laconic coats of pastel colors, skirts with cutouts - with modest shirts. In addition, Raf touched on the theme of retro-futurism, showing things like a classic cut, but sewn from a mesh covered with glossy plastic.
Retrofuturism and Lady Gaga at the Balenciaga show
The Prada show in Milan allowed us to talk about the return of retro-futurism, which will clearly become one of the key trends of this and next year. In Paris, Raf Simons and Nicolas Ghesquières worked in this style. However, Alexander Wang interpreted it most brightly. On the one hand, many of the silhouettes in his collection, from coats of cylinders to dresses, barrels, were borrowed straight from the archives of the house Balenciaga 50s. On the other - feed and materials (metal rings, red tweed) made things modern and relevant.
At this show, styling also played a role: classic, feminine things made of tweed and wool were combined with coarse boots on a flat turn and massive pearl cuff earrings. Attention was also drawn to avant-garde details: the boats are decorated with fur, the collars are made in the form of belts, the brooches in the form of sabers are decorated with coats and skirts, and the bags and clothes seem to have been sprayed on the bags. The main point was the appearance on the podium of Lady Gaga: the pop diva came out from behind the scenes and defiled the catwalk in the direction of his guest space in the hall.
Masks on shows by Rick Owens and Undercover
"Our body is our fortress," Rick wanted to say of a new monumental collection consisting entirely of sculptural-cut things. The first use of decorative sequins in the history of the brand was surprising. However, I remember the show with gold and silver cracked masks on the faces of the models. In them, the girls looked like sculptures or actors of the ancient theater.
Jun Takahashi, creator of the Undercover brand, went even further and added a social context to his show. So, the models stepped on the catwalk in creepy plastic masks from the plastic surgeon's office. The faces of the girls were pinched, as if they had just had rhinoplasty, changed the shape of the lips and cheekbones. Given that most of the models of the brand’s clothes are designed for respectable women, the subtext was not even ambivalent, but triple. As Style.com correctly noted, "it seemed that young girls were posing as mature women who had just undergone surgery to regain their youth."
Variety of makeup Сéline
The new collection of Phoebe Failo for Céline caused a storm of enthusiasm and positive reviews among critics. Phoebe remained faithful to working with new tailors' techniques (many things were deliberately "unfinished") and materials (holey wool). With all the innovations, the designer showed a wearable collection, once again demonstrating how a modern woman looks and feels the spirit of the times. There are comfortable slipons, practical shopper and shoulder bags, animal prints and monochrome accessories, laconic dresses and evening dresses in linen style, shirts and skirts below the knee, knitted dresses and overalls. Another important point of the show - a variety of makeup. Each model was made an individual make-up, which suited to a specific outfit. Thus, Phoebe showed that her things can be an individual, not a universal approach.
Mobile scenery on the Kenzo show
Kenzo creative directors Carol Lim and Umberto Leon, working on the collection, clearly anticipate how the footage from the show will look in Instagram. Last season, the show was held in a skater park, where huge screens were posted with greetings in different languages - as a result, almost the most video was uploaded to that week from Kenzo. This year, they created mobile holographic decorations that moved throughout the show along with the models. The constructions were controlled via Wi-Fi.
The core of the collection was things for outdoor activities and layering: anoraks and ponchos were combined with midi skirts and straight cut trousers, voluminous jackets with light dresses. As the designers say, if a blanket falls into the hands of their client, she can easily make a skirt or jacket out of it. Attention should be paid to caps and scarves wound around the head in the Arab manner. Not without the traditional for Kenzo things with bright prints, as well as wearable and commercial things: light pleated skirts and trouser suits.
Breasts at Jacquemus, Lemaire, Acne and Saint-Laurent shows
If a month ago everyone was discussing naked below-the-belt models at the Rick Owens show, then after the Paris Fashion Week there were so-called nipples moments at the shows of women's collections. Bare breasts glittered in a show by Jacquemus, Acne and Saint-Laurent, raising the question of her perception and the right to expose her publicly. Lemaire showed voluminous things, for the most part, hiding the figure, but included in the collection "tit bags" - bags in the form of a female bust. The most interesting in this respect was the show of Jacmus. He included the most bows that expose his chest. However, his collection is also interesting from the point of view of design ideas. In the new season, he set to work with conceptualism, and, judging by her, Maison Margiela took quite the wrong creative director. So, Jacmus got carried away with the deformation of the cut, with surreal details on the clothes. No wonder, since the designer has experience with COMME des GARÇONS. Models walked barefoot on the catwalk, their faces were either covered with cardboard masks, or were painted over by other portraits. We should also mention the cuts on clothes and the silhouettes of things: they looked like figures cut out of cardboard by a child. Unfortunately, the video from the Jacquemus show of bare breasts is not visible: the recording has been censored by YouTube.
Photos: Getty images