FASHION: 08 October

Louis Vuitton takes Paris fashion week to end-phase
Louis Vuitton’s 2007 spring-summer collection took Paris Fashion Week to its final phase on Sunday after eight days of shows that left some observers wondering if business pressure had stifled the city’s name for creativity.  Paris competes with London, Milan and New York in attracting fashion labels, but is known as the place where designers can best let their imagination go, even if it does not translate into company profits.  French luxury goods giant LVMH made waves last year when it sold loss-making French label Christian Lacroix to a privately held U.S. investment company, raising questions about whether Paris could maintain its reputation for creativity.  This season the designers seemed to have sales in mind with a focus on accessories that create healthy profit margins.  At Chanel models were draped with belts, bangles and bags, while Lacroix’s show targeted a new younger clientele with skimpy swimsuits and short hemlines. Designer Karl Lagerfeld has even brought out a CD of his favorite music.  Nearly every model sent out by American designer Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton — the jewel in the crown of LVMH — was carrying a handbag, the label’s best known product.  LVMH president Bernard Arnault, who this week unveiled plans for a futuristic museum in Paris to promote the heritage of his label and celebrate creativity, said designers should be both creative and commercial.  “That’s what we’re trying to do and when a collection works well, it’s because it’s creative,” he told Reuters.  His company also owns the Celine and Givenchy labels that showed in Paris this week. Net profits rose to 817 million euros in the first six months of the year and sales of leather goods rose 46 percent in July and August.

UNINSPIRED

But several fashion critics found the week’s shows provided little inspiration.  “I think we’ve seen the struggle of big houses … when they don’t have the right designer at the helm,” said Hilary Alexander, fashion director at the Daily Telegraph. “You tend to get either a pile of boring merchandise just to sell handbags or … collections which are totally incomprehensible.”  Vanity Fair Fashion Director Michael Roberts said there were “Too many uninspiring clothes … I think you can be commercial and still come out with something inspired.”  “I think this is really a particularly off season for Paris. Hopefully next year it will be on again otherwise we’ll have a problem,” he added.  Nevertheless, celebrities flocked to the Paris shows. Actors Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher, singers Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Kanye West, Victoria Beckham and actresses  Katie Holmes  and Kate Bosworth all graced the front rows.  And there were other signs that Paris’s reputation as the capital of fashion was alive and well.  Jefen became the first Chinese label to make an appearance at fashion week and Thai Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana came seeking inspiration for her next fashion collection.  Miu Miu was the final label to show on Sunday with Italian designer Miuccia Prada presenting the line in Paris instead of Milan for the second consecutive season.  “It’s a wonderful place, and it’s a great resource for people who work in fashion,” said Andre Leon Talley, American Vogue editor-at-large. “I think Paris is a great inspirational city for fashion.”

FASHION: 07 October

Paris designers showcase summer dresses
The dress is the star of next summer’s wardrobe, and Paris designers on Saturday offered a dizzying array of options ranging from tunics to baby dolls and sweeping floor-length gowns.  French label Chloe, one of the hottest tickets in town, sent out richly embroidered ’70s-style shifts that paid homage to American heiress Gloria Vanderbilt.  Kenzo went African with brightly printed muumuus and matching turbans. A floor-length sleeveless fuchsia goddess gown with a jeweled Empire waistband recalled the hothouse glamour of Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s. At Hermes, singer Janet Jackson and other front row guests lounged in orange-canvassed deck chairs as models ambled over a set evoking a giant ocean liner in airy long chiffon sundresses printed with sunflowers or polka dots.  After several years of frilly, feminine styles, fashion is swinging toward minimalism with a focus on volume and cut. Dresses are flaring out into trapeze shapes, often with sculpted balloon sleeves, the better to show off long tanned legs.  Chloe is largely to credit for the austere styles that began flooding department stores this fall.  For next season, it stuck to clean lines with prim schoolgirl coats and Peter Pan collars. Short A-line shifts featured patchwork detail while tunics came embroidered with circular patterns of sparkling stones or more subtle wood and gilt beads.  “I loved it, it was so beautiful,” actress Kate Bosworth told The Associated Press. “(There were) bolder prints than I’ve seen Chloe do before, which is really exciting.”  Retailers adore the label, whose sales more than doubled last year. Closely watched as an indicator of trends, it is under even more intense scrutiny since its designer Phoebe Philo resigned in January to spend more time with her family.  Chloe said it would announce a replacement next week, amid reports that it has tapped Paolo Melin Anderson, a little-known designer previously at Italy’s Marni label.  The last two collections have been conceived by an in-house team under Yvan Mispelaere, who bid farewell to friends backstage before his impending departure for Milan, where he will design for Gucci.  Robert Burke, head of the luxury consulting firm Robert Burke Associates, said the minimalist trend required skillful presentation on the part of retailers.  “It’s a more intellectual sale, as opposed to an impulsive sale. It’s all in how it’s displayed, how it’s merchandised, how it’s shown in the windows,” he told the AP.  “It’s always a balance of making sure that you don’t have too much of a sea of black in your store, that you still have color and you still have some embellishment, because while the fashion world moves very fast, sometimes the consumer doesn’t move as fast.”  Even John Galliano has succumbed to the new mood of sobriety.  The British designer is famous for staging theatrical catwalk displays featuring stylized versions of the more wearable outfits that customers will later find in stores.  No more. The only excitement at Galliano’s show was the paparazzi crush around Hollywood couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, and the barreling late entrance of celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe in a long, white fringed gown.  The creations on show were pallid, literally and figuratively, with only a few shots of purple, green and electric blue to cut through the sea of white suits and nude chiffon gowns.  Draped dresses in wet-look silk jersey featured rolled sleeves that merged into a thick tube of fabric framing a bare back. Bold black and gold brushstroke and dot prints vaguely evoked the paintings of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.  Huge wire mesh hats by milliner Stephen Jones left some members of the audience nostalgic for the days when the fantasy extended to the clothes.

Sleek whites, giant hats at John Galliano show
Designer John Galliano opened his spring/summer 2007 ready-to-wear collection on Saturday with sleek white suits and ended with swish evening gowns under enormous wire hats.  His show, in an old indoor market that is now used as tennis courts, was a hit with the star-packed audience.  Actress Demi Moore showed up with partner Ashton Kutcher and sat in the same row as singers Janet Jackson and Lenny Kravitz.  “I loved it, I thought it was beautiful,” Jackson said after watching the models with fringes or partly backcombed hair and thick painted eyebrows.  Rachel Zoe, a celebrity stylist who is behind the looks of actress Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie said: “I thought it was so good.”  Galliano, who is also the designer for the LVMH-owned Christian Dior, started with a white jacket with big shoulders and a wide collar over a slim fitting skirt. He moved on to a colourful selection of short dresses ending with glamorous, long gowns set off with oversized hats.  The final outfit was pale blue with discs and swirls in shiny gold embroidery with a huge black and blue foam circles arranged on wires around the head.AFRICAN DESERT Earlier in the day, Kenzo designer Antonio Marras dazzled guests with bright colours set against an African desert which he said was a nod to tensions between cultures.  His models paraded vivid pinks and greens and African-style headgear down a runway covered with sand in an underground room in the Louvre art museum.  “Today we have really some big problems between different cultures, between different nationalities that are arriving every year from other countries and that plays into my work,” Marras said.  The bright colours represented different populations mixing together in the desert, he said.  The final dress for the LVMH-owned label was cream and covered in red flowers and jewels around the neckline. A huge train billowed out behind the model as she was followed back into the sand dunes by cut-out birds hanging from the ceiling.  On Friday night, British designer Alexander McQueen wowed the crowd with a theatrical show set in the Cirque d’Hiver, an old-fashioned circus.  An enormous cobweb-covered chandelier hung low over the stage and two string quartets played as the models displayed tailored and elegant clothes on Spanish and Edwardian themes.  He created corseted dresses, some with exaggerated hips, which turned into flowing skirts, and modern skinny trousers for the Gucci-owned label.  The finale was a long dress made of pink and purple flowers, some of them falling off around the stage.  At the Chloe show, where actor Kevin Costner was among the guests, high-waisted trousers in browns and oranges were teamed with ruffles, belts and jackets.  The label, which is owned by Swiss-based luxury goods maker Richemont is known for its romantic bohemian looks and targets a young clientele. Chloe has not yet announced a replacement to designer Phoebe Philo who quit at the beginning of the year to spend time with her family. Paris Fashion Week finishes on Sunday.

FASHION: 06 October

Yves Saint Laurent Deflowers Virgins
Always thought we would see the Prince of fashion, Stefano Pilati, standing on a purple runway. Purple rain – no make that purple spring – the leitmotiv of the Spring/Summer 2007 Yves Saint Laurent collection presented Thursday, October 5th, in Paris on a 100-meter long runway of lilacs.  A casting of the world’s best catwalkers trod, trudged and bogged down in the field of lilacs runway in the Grand Palais. A tad eccentric but certainly an eye-catching way to present a slightly over the top – yet very chic – Saint Laurent collection that one senses retailers will adore.  “I wanted to evoke the transition to spring, and violet, which represented modesty, captured that. Plus the flowers also stood for deflowering, in this case virgins,” said YSL’s creative director Stefano Pilati to FWD after the show, embracing a throng of pretty actresses as the bubbly flowed.  Spring had barely broken through in the opening looks, which featured smart gingham coats and skirts, swinging big-sleeved jackets, and some splendidly cut lunch jackets in imperial purple, a Saint Laurent color par excellence.  Pilati also tapped into the house’s Parisian chic with great khaki coat-dresses and intricately made violet lace dresses with beautiful floral embroidery.  For evening, however, there was a tad too many big tasks. Peasants’ dresses for balmy picnics were craftily constructed with lovely slashes of color, but not the easiest of wear, as were the cool, yet rather impractical, white dhoti pants.  The setting was truly impressive. Pilati, appearing from what seemed the Seine river bank to take a long bow, nonchalantly picked up a pair of high heels that got stuck on his catwalk; and the soundtrack, mostly a glorious rambling “Sweet Surrender,” was just right.  However, the lighting was far too dark, rendering the final passages gloomy, and in a baffling moment, the show had actually begun when Janet Jackson and her entourage in a scuffle and shuffle and new best friends, Posh Spice Beckham and Katie Holmes, were arriving. Jackson ended up evicting one critic from the front row, and Holmes and Beckham both were left standing, an awkward coda to a clever and intriguing runway show.

Christian Lacroix targets new young clients
Designer Christian Lacroix showed short skirts and skimpy swimsuits in his spring/summer 2007 ready-to-wear collection on Friday as he tries to win younger clients to help revive the label’s fortunes.  He has also ditched his jeans and cheaper “Bazar” line of clothing for the first time in 10 years to focus on his ready-to-wear and haute couture collections with the aim of taking the brand upmarket.  “I think today we’re in a process of renewal,” Christian Lacroix President Nicolas Topiol told Reuters after the show.  “It’s really this idea of scaling it up and connecting the couture with the ready-to-wear and having a younger target.”  The loss-making label was sold by luxury goods giant LVMH last year to the Falic Group, a privately held U.S. investment company.  Lacroix will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year and Topiol is hoping to keep existing clients and attract the next generation at the same time.  “We’ve got a clientele of a certain age who are still gorgeous and now they have daughters and we can dress them as well,” he said. RED HAIR, MINI DRESSES Short hemlines have been a feature of the Paris ready-to-wear collections this week. On Friday morning, Chanel paraded girls in tiny skirts and Lacroix carried on the theme.  Models with bobbed red hair and wooden platform shoes displayed a range of mini dresses with small sleeves and revealing backs.  One wore a white lantern dress covered with big yellow disks. Another had a red taffeta balloon dress with shaded houndstooth print and a jet embroidered bustier.  Swimsuits sparkled with multicolored embroidery around almost bare stomachs.  Rachel Zoe, a celebrity designer behind the looks of well-known faces such as Americans Nicole Richie and actress Lindsay Lohan, was there to check out the skimpy trends.  “You know what, everything this season is very short. It keeps getting shorter,” she said after the Lacroix show.  But Topiol noted that what designers send down the runway is not necessarily what clients will eventually buy. Hemlines can be lowered and cleavages can be raised in the showrooms. Parisienne designer Sonia Rykiel also went for low backs and short lengths. But her emphasis was on having fun and her models seemed to be enjoying themselves, comfortable in flat sandals and relaxed styles.  They sported sparkling black and white visors and tiaras adorned with flowers to accompany a collection in pinks, whites and yellows.  The backstage was decorated with brightly colored instructions to “pleeeeease smile” and “walk with energy.”  The message from the flame-haired Rykiel to women who might buy her clothes: “Take care of everything — politics, children, illness, the environment.”

Short hemlines dominate Chanel show
Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld launched his spring/summer 2007 ready-to-wear collection on Friday with models parading trademark Chanel jackets over underwear-revealing skirts.  Victoria Beckham and actress Katie Holmes sat in the front row as models paraded tiny sequined skirts or short dresses under pink-and-gray striped cardigans pulled over the back of the head.  A tip from Lagerfeld for any potential clients who might be put off by the sky-high hemlines: “If you don’t like it very short then you put it over trousers.”  Chanel shows always draw a star-packed crowd and singers Lenny Kravitz and Kanye West were also in the audience, enjoying the men’s collection.  One model wore a stripy cardigan under a belt with the traditional Chanel logo and another wore an evening style sleeveless black jacket over tight black trousers.  “It was beautiful baby,” Kravitz whispered to the pony-tailed Lagerfeld after the show while West said he particularly admired one outfit decorated with pills.  “I loved a lot of the looks in there,” said West.  Guests to the show were given bags stuffed full of eyecream, and makeup and the models carried the handbags and wore the oversized sunglasses that are all important for profit margins at luxury goods houses.  “I don’t show anything that is not for sale,” said the 68-year-old Lagerfeld.  “Whatever you see on the Chanel runway you can have it in the shop. You have to go early because those things disappear quite quickly and the sales girls have a tendency to hide them for their favorite clients.”  It was the second show of the week for Lagerfeld who presented clothes for the label carrying his own name on Monday.  The Chanel models strutted around a dazzling white stage highlighted by the sunlight streaming through the glass roof of the Grand Palais.  The Palace, which was built for the 1900 World’s Fair near the elegant Champs Elysees avenue in central Paris, also provided the setting for the show of another iconic French label, Yves Saint Laurent, on Thursday night.  Designer Stefano Pilati bathed the entrance in a violet light and girls in spiky-heeled shoes stumbled along a runway was made out of earth and thousands of violets and a violet scent wafted through the building.  He opened the collection with a black and white belted coat and continued with baggy trousers that met at the ankles.  Actress Catherine Deneuve and Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova looked on as he finished with a violet flowery dress with ruffles and a cutaway back.  Paris Fashion Week runs until Sunday.

FASHION: 05 October

Stella McCartney show has family touch
Paul McCartney had a front row seat on Thursday at his daughter Stella’s spring-summer ready-to-wear collection which the heavily pregnant designer dedicated to her family.  McCartney, who has one young son with publisher husband Alasdhair Willis, showed wearable outfits in natural colors combined with a touch of silver lame glamour and splashes of electric blue and green.  “It was the best — not that I’m biased,” her ex-Beatle Dad joked after he had filmed the enthusiastic applause at the end on his mobile phone.  The invitations continued the family theme with an illustrated Roger Hargreaves Mr Men children’s book, called Little Miss Stella. It tells the story of how Little Miss Nobody is transformed into a Little Miss Somebody when Little Miss Stella makes her a smart new outfit.  “I always like the idea of the invitation that you can keep. I’ve always liked the idea of you giving them to your kids or to your grandkids,” she said after the show.  The models started in comfortable all-in-one shirt and shorts combinations in white and beige. Backless dresses had fine straps and ruched sleeves.  One was electric green held up with thick black elastic straps. Another was made out of pink discs.  Black trousers were teamed with a silver shirt and models paraded short lame dresses with puffed sleeves.  Jewelry was made of large silver balls and shoes were broken wedge heels, or raffia sandals with covered stiletto heels.  “She’s a mother expecting another child so she has silhouettes that are wonderful to go from having a child to not having a child, from gestation to non-gestation after the birth, and I thought her sense of lames were beautiful,” said American Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley.  “I thought it was her best collection in her entire career.”  The 35-year-old McCartney was appointed designer to French couture house Chloe in 1997 when she succeeded Karl Lagerfeld.  In 2000 she renewed her contract with Chloe amid reports that she had turned down an offer to work with Gucci because it would require working with leather.  The strict vegetarian was signed with Gucci to develop her own brand in 2001.  “Stella McCartney is a fantastic brand with a great future and with an even greater designer and we are totally in love with her,” Robert Pollet, chief executive of the Gucci Group, told Reuters.  “It is a very important part of our portfolio.”

FASHION: 04 October

Karl Lagerfeld: The Ties Have It
No one seems 100 percent sure about the future business direction of the house of Karl Lagerfeld, but his collection shown Wednesday in Paris was focused, snappy and really rather elegant.  Combining elements of the Sixties “It” Girl and Eighties Pop with Lagerfeld’s signature expressionist style, this Spring/Summer 2007 collection looked impressive from start to finish.  Echoes of Andy Warhol’s superstar Edie Sedgwick could be picked throughout the show as models appeared with black and turquoise eyeliner, their straight blonde hair fringed and cut to one side, courtesy of Odile Gilbert, the recently anointed Chevalier.  Power shouldered jackets with cathedral high collars and chopped off sleeves joined slinky cocktails cinched at the waist with sleeves belted above the elbow and mannish tuxedo pants with black leather Obi belts all made for authoritative and sexy clothes. A series of shirts with multiple ties also made for great commercial looks in this early morning show staged in the grandiose entrance to the Continent’s greatest University, Le Sorbonne.  Paired with devilishly sexy floral tights, black patent leather heels and, above all, some great glued to the thighs jeans, it all made for a cool fashion moment.  For evening, not all the ruffled faded violet chiffon robes worked and seemed out of step with the rest of the austere silhouettes.  As it’s well known, the new management at KL’s parent company, Tommy Hilfiger, closed down the brand’s New York office this summer and moved it in Paris, raising many unanswered questions about future direction for this fashion label.  “Let’s see how this collection does,” replied Michael Arts, a key member of the Hilfiger management buy-out, when asked about the company’s future plans. “We want to center Lagerfeld in Europe, where we think there is great potential, especially in things like jeans. Things will be a lot clearer in January.”  At least on the catwalk, things seemed pretty clear to us this morning.

Jean-Paul Gaultier Goes G-4 at 30
Jean-Paul Gaultier celebrated his 30th anniversary with two runway shows – a look back on his three great decades and a visit to a one never expected to visit with the Enfant Terrible par Excellence – a gym.  Glittering in silver dust, Gaultier’s workout space was a wonderful tongue-in-cheek commentary on our body culture and a great tease of fellow designers like Yohji, Stella and Neil, with their active deals with sportswear giants – adidas or Puma.  While Yamamoto has his three stripes Y-3 logo, jealously guarded by corporate trademark lawyers, Jean Paul used four stripes on great looks Tuesday, October 3rd.  Though the setting was ironic, the clothes were cool. After a bossy sports commentator voice demanded, “Are you ready to work out?” and Olivia Newton John yelped “Let’s Get Physical,” the models dashed out in elongated baseball jackets, Gaultier motif silk tops, boxing shorts and to-the-knee sweat pants. Sequined, cut asymmetrical or paired with Lonsdale belts and mega visors – it all made for a great moment.  Instead of being obsessed with what women wear inside gyms, gals sporting these threads wanted to look sharp leaving them. We’d share a glass with them any day – even a power shake.  Gaultier had begun by celebrated his three decades with a show of 30 iconic looks, staged in his atmospheric late 19th century headquarters. Most of them – from Madonna’s famed corset and the skull-to-toe hounds-tooth dandy, to the piercing tribes, the Rabbi Chic show of 1992 and his 1976 runway show debut – would work on any catwalk today because his ideas have had that much influence.  “Aerobic couture,” said the designer backstage, just seconds after embracing Janet Jackson and confirming she’d received the invitation to his mega bash on Saturday night.

Ann Demeulemeester: She Dreams of Cloth
For Ann Demeulemeester’s 20th anniversary, she got a very special birthday present: a poem spoken from backstage by legend punk chanteuse Patti Smith  as models solemnly processed down the runway wearing Demeulemeester’s poetic vision for next spring, which she presented on Tuesday, October 3rd in a warehouse on the edge of Paris.  I started my first show with a poem of hers, ‘Wave,’ and she invented one on the spot [today],” said Demeulemeester post-show, as the stunned throngs congratulated her for creating such a poignant moment in a mostly humdrum Spring 2007 fashion season.  “Tattered coat and your scattered hopes and your silver dreams, unfettered, unspoiled, and she sees lace, white eyelet cloth, billowing into the sea…Easter…Muslim nets form tents. She dreams of cloth…silver charms,” intoned Smith as the soundtrack of a baroque harpischord gave way to her hypnotic words inspired by Demeulemeester’s collection, the soulful manifestation of a rock star’s inner life. It’s an anti-fashion message that has been consistent throughout Demeulemeester’s career.  This season, she reworked the waistcoat and tuxedo tailcoat, softening them and giving them volume that extended from the waist. Vests were doubled up and cut from suiting and shirting fabrics; jackets were rumpled and tied back with a single lace and worn over loose ombre shirts belted at the waist. Some pants were cut as loose trousers while others were slim, but not skinny – and paper thin, with some made from a beautiful eyelet fabric Demeulemeester also used in billowing blouses.  Demeulemeester, whose rock chic aesthetic can often appear severe, with the implication that only serious intellectual eccentrics with a penchant for sleeping in their clothes need apply, presented a softer, lighter collection cut from cloth we are all certain to be dreaming of next season.

FASHION: 03 October

Dior’s Galliano goes back to basics in Paris show
Christian Dior’s showman designer John Galliano, who astounded the fashion world with gothic chic and mermaid gowns, yet again took his audience by surprise on Tuesday, this time by going for straightforward and understated.  To loud hip hop beats and “going back to basics, this is where it all began” lyrics, models with Joan of Arc hair styles paraded in sober gray and beige cotton or wool suits, or a khaki Audrey Hepburn-like sleeveless dress.  It was a tribute to Monsieur Dior, the designer who made soft shoulders, waspy waists and flowing skirts a trademark.  Under the glass cupola of the 1900 Grand Palais, Galliano showed the extent of his art in a beautifully-crafted beige silk embroidered wrapped dress with a revealing back or silk tops adorned in the front with discreet rows of small chain.  “Galliano is one of the greatest designers in the world. He loves the woman and makes her look good. He has originality and leaves great room to freedom of expression,” said Italian actress Monica Bellucci, the new face of Dior make-up.  American singers Lenny Kravitz and Janet Jackson lent further star power to the show, stirring a media frenzy as they arrived, fashionably late, at the Grand Palais.  “Dior is an extraordinary trademark … Mr Galliano is extremely creative,” Bernard Arnault, chairman of the LVMH luxury group which owns Dior. Asked whether the designer’s shows gave a lot of publicity for the brand, Arnault said: “Yes, judging by revenues. Sales have risen a lot.”  LVMH, which also owns the Louis Vuitton brand, TAG Heuer watches and Dom Perignon champagnes, last month reported a 46 percent rise in half-year net profits, reaping rewards from a global hunger for luxury goods.  Billowing evening dresses, in pink, beige or black, adorned with sequin, tiny buttons on the side and shoulder straps intertwining in the front or in the back, or one stunning pink number with a dramatic decollete, punctuated Galliano’s shows.  The man himself made a brief appearance on the catwalk, saluting a devout audience in a gray suit spiced up by a huge white pocket handkerchief and a Borsalino hat.

Balenciaga: Lucy Skywalkers Rule
We have seen the future of fashion, or at the very least, next spring and summer, and its name is Balenciaga.  In a strikingly cool collection, the house’s designer Nicolas Ghesquiere set a whole new direction for fashion – android chic. High-tech and hard-edged industrial, the collection transposed the models from familiar faces into the sexy knights of a fabulous round table.  “I wanted robotic and android, a beautiful future,” Ghesquiere told FWD backstage. He succeeded, banishing from our memories with one show the retro glut that was Milan.  Kicking off with re-worked tuxedos and dress shirts, cut close to the torso with power shoulders and priestess high collared white shirts, worn with cigarette pants and metallic belts – all of them looked chic, hot and thoroughly wearable.  Other great ideas included beautiful circuit board silk prints used in warrior robes, liquid gold and silver mesh pants, a Chinese dressing gown meets tuxedo coat and cosmic biker leather jackets with shoulder wings.  A trio of gold mesh dresses, each impeccably draped, evoked sighs from the carefully edited audience of just 150 people. A finale of woven strap Lucy Skywalker android pants garnered bursts of applause.  Ghesquiere’s fancy front row of Janet Jackson (with an immense heavy for security), soccer star and Japan’s biggest fashion victim, Hidetoshi Nakata, Parisian actresses Isabelle Huppert, Clemence Poesy and Joana Preiss and Amira Casar, appeared in awe by this beautiful collection.  The Olsen twins sat nearby open-mouthed throughout the show, as these pompous little munchkins got to see what a real, as opposed to celebrity, designer can do.  Ghesquiere also hit the mark with accessories which included a fantastic new high heel, composed of faux metallic straps and a machine tooled chain platform that everyone is going to want to wear. Plus, most models wore Balenciaga’s excellent new eyewear – wraparounds or goggles with chrome semi-circular studs, as if ground control was monitoring their every move.  Remarkably, Ghesquiere, the champion of bigger volumes in the past two seasons, went pencil thin for spring, showing a bare handful of the bigger proportions.  Backed up by a great soundtrack – DJ Michel Gaubert brilliantly mixed the abstract Hip-hop group Cut Chemist with doses of Salt-N-Pepa – it made for an epochal show.

Sharon Wauchob: Edgy and Embellished, but Evolving
No news can sometimes be good news, but in fashion, one expects designers to re-invent their collections every so often. Reinvention was not on the menu for Sharon Wauchob’s Spring 2007 collection, shown on a rainy Monday, October 2nd at the Sorbonne, France’s most prestigious university. However, fans of her deconstructivist play with passementarie won’t be disappointed.  This season, the Irish-born Wauchob riffed on the tuxedo in an almost all-black collection, save for a few token versions in white. Known to be a creative designer, Wauchob didn’t stray from her aesthetic of twisted garments that cascade with individual strips of fabric and ample trimmings, where the line between garment and accessory is blurred.  However, there were signs that Wauchob might be moving into a newer, slightly more refined direction. For example, for every jacket with exaggerated proportions (bell-shaped sleeves that extended past the hands or softly pointed oversized shoulders), she paired it with simple black cuffed trousers, some with a wide stain ribbon trim on the cuff or thin layer of tulle peeking out from the hem.  Other Wauchob signatures – thin jersey tops cut to drip off the body with layers of twisted fabric, held up by thin straps – were counterbalanced by more structured pieces like her best look in the show, a short, minimal pleated tent dress with cape sleeves. Other examples of pleating in the show were strong, like silk pleated ruffs with raw edges added as a detail to sleeves and collars.  If Wauchob continues in this direction – allowing key motifs to shine, like the pleating, without all the unnecessary embellishment added just for the sake of being complicated, this edgy designer will surely evolve into one with a level of sophistication she certainly is capable of.

Michel Klein: Sizzling for Spring
Talk about a big injection of sex and sass. Michel Klein, who’s built his career and strong US retail success on cultured expressions of the chic Parisian lady, ramped up the volume this season with a flesh revealing fashion moment on Monday, October 2nd in Paris.  Klein staged his Cher Michel collection in the Carrousel du Louvre, as big Barbie doll-like bad gals with huge hair strutted out, attired in flirty chopped up cocktails dresses or and power suits.  These came in color blocks of gray, white and black in cool wool or silk and all looked great. Worn with naughty, strapped heels and lots attitude, they were all a break from what Klein did before.  Once Klein did super sophisticated fare with lots of miniature buttons and trompe l’oeil, now he sent out animal print cocktails and red carpet silk robes that were so off the shoulder, one model showed a little too much skin all the way down the catwalk.  Huge, Charlie’s Angels-style mounds of hair topped the heads of a casting that featured the right mix of currently hot gals.  “I decided to do sexy, baby,” beamed Klein backstage, as Parisian chic gals like Ines de la Fressange and Georgina Brandolini embraced the designer.  Michel hits 50 over the weekend, although the designer plans to put the celebration on hold until this Friday with a private bacchanalia for his best Paris buddies. For a man at the half-century mark; this collection marked out a whole new life.

Gaultier, Westwood jostle fashion world in Paris
Jean-Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood showed in their latest ready-to-wear collections that they have lost none of the cutting edge that has made them the enfants terribles of fashion since the punk years in the 1970s.  Gaultier, who is celebrating his 30th anniversary in fashion treated the industry’s glitterati with a pre-show retrospective of some of the iconic clothes that made his fame — Madonna’s famous bustier cone, the denim sheath dress fringed with ostrich feathers, or the floor-length sailor gown.  “I like the eccentricity and the opulence,” Burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese told Reuters. “Everything he does is so unique. He’s continuously reinventing himself. He’s had the most iconic looks in the past 30 years, not quite like anyone else.”  Thirty years on, Gaultier again took the audience by surprise as he turned a catwalk into a fitness room, equipped with glittery exercise machines, sending models racing along in elaborate training suits, pumped up by songs such as Diana Ross’s 1982 hit “Muscles” and excerpts from aerobics classes. Wearing eyeshades and high-heeled Converse shoes, models paraded in baseball jackets in embroidered satin with shorts reading Gaultier on the buttocks as a recorded voice screamed encouragingly: “Now, we all want to have thighs of steel.”  A more chic Gaultier woman wears straight or puffed-out taffetas gowns, held by a large satin belt at the bosom, in electric blue, pink or orange. Model Lily Cole wore an emerald number shortened in the front to reveal some sporty Aladdin trousers, and topped with a sleeveless baseball jacket.  In a world where appearance often takes precedence on content, Gaultier played with fashion diktats, sending on the catwalk a Botero-esque woman, a wink at the recent controversy about underweight models, another in her 50s or men with long hair and heavy make-up paired with flappers-like women.  The sight of Gaultier leaping on the catwalk with a whistle in his mouth at the end of the show even drew a smile on the stony face of Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue magazine. CAN BARBIE HAVE A CONSCIENCE? This is the question Vivienne Westwood asked in her latest show, as the flame-haired style icon criticized the gap between the lavish universe of fashion and a poverty-plagued world.  “I designed a sort of Barbie doll in a box, with a hole in her head, totally spoilt,” Westwood told Reuters backstage after her show where some models paraded out with a mane of golden hair and large belts reading “I am expensive.”  “The message is ‘I am expensive and I am subsidized by all the poor people in the world’. We’re terribly spoilt. We have a responsibility to ourselves to do something,” she said, calling again for the release of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist convicted for the 1975 killing of two FBI agents.  The fashion grande dame, who launched the punk look in the 1970s, clashed fabrics and designs in patched-up dresses, a classic knee-length black suit with a Stetson hat, or customized T-shirts worn to a wrapped skirt with a puffed-out behind.  One ballroom gown’s bottom looked like a satin diaper or sumo fighter string and was covered up with a long trail in the back. The dress attracted appreciative whistles and cheers from a packed audience, watched by Janet Jackson and numerous buyers for Harrods, Galeries Lafayette or Japanese stores.  Some of the models were as cheeky as the fashion priestess herself, parading out with watering cans or smoking cigarettes like 1980s Westwoodian muse Sarah Stockbridge.

FASHION: 02 October

Viktor and Rolf cater to glamour world, high street
Want to buy glamorous attire from a luxury store or rather get it off the high street? Fans of Dutch duo Viktor and Rolf can have it both ways this autumn.  The twin-like designers presented a luxurious collection for well-heeled shoppers on Monday, just weeks before their more affordable line for fashion giant H&M hits the stores.  Putting on a ballroom-inspired show, the flamboyant duo made clear their cooperation with the Swedish retailer would not reduce the glamorous and luxurious attire of their main line.  With chandeliers dangling from the ceiling and front-row guests sipping champagne, Viktor and Rolf paraded out models in tight transparent tops and star-embroidered shorts to the sounds of an orchestra.  “We are die-hard romantics. But at the same time we are also conceptualists. So we wanted to do something light and entertaining. That’s how we came to think of ballroom dancing,” Rolf Snoeren told reporters after the show.  One model wore a trench coat featuring gold-shimmering stars at the waist, flaring out over a wide tutu-style skirt.  The show stayed faithful to the conceptual bent of Viktor and Rolf, who for a decade have delighted the fashion world with catwalk shows bordering on performance arts or theater.  Eight ballroom dancers in tails paired up at the end of the show, swirling over the catwalk underneath a giant disco ball.  “Fashion is more than just a nice dress on a hanger. Fashion is about dreaming,” Viktor Horsting said, wearing similar dark glasses, a black jacket and jeans as his design partner. The duo said they were looking forward to the H&M line coming out. 

MULTITASKING YAMAMOTO

With that cooperation, the two follow in the footsteps of other designers taking on multiple jobs on and off the catwalks.  Germany’s Karl Lagerfeld and Britain’s Stella McCartney also designed lines for H&M and Japan’s Yohji Yamamoto produces outfits for German sportswear maker Adidas under his Y-3 line.  Pierre-Francois Le Louet from trend consultancy Nelly Rodi said there were no risks of devaluing a designer’s main line if the cooperation with the high street store only happened once.  “It’s risky if it’s happening each season, and if the lines are too significant or too creative,” he said. “The essence of a house’s creativity must not be expressed in the second lines.”  Hilary Alexander, fashion editor for the London Daily Telegraph, agreed.  “There are many young women and girls who love what Viktor and Rolf do but who can never afford it,” she said on the sidelines of the show. “I don’t think it is diluting or downgrading their main collection.”  Yamamoto, whose cooperation with Adidas to produce upmarket lifestyle clothes has just been extended until 2010, won much applause for his latest Y-3 collection at New York’s Fashion Week last month.  On Monday, the Japanese designer presented a slick selection of asymmetric women’s suits for his main ready-to-wear line.  “I wanted to make sure that we are elegant and avant-garde,” the soft-spoken designer told Reuters after the show, which saw models strutted out in big-collared jackets or wide-sleeved waistcoats, with apron-style blouses attached.

Martin Margiela: Conceptual with a Twist
An obligatory right of passage for anyone who seriously considers themselves card-carrying fashionistas attended the show by Martin Margiela, who staged his Spring/Summer 2007 collection in Paris Sunday night.  Margiela’s shows are works of performance art, as much designed to dislocate the audience’s sensibilities as it is to present the clothes.  He is one of those designers who exists outside of trends – using non-professional models, bizarre soundtracks and insisting his staff dress like semi-impoverished lab technicians.  Margiela’s big idea this season concerned the flesh, whose color appeared in most looks, including taught tank tops with protective shoulders, the bodice of evening robes with lengthy slits and swimsuits with black bras on the exterior.  His is a fashion conceived in the mind long before it’s drawn on a sketchpad; his clothes, when they work, are Cubist in nature, making you see things in a slightly different way.  Bias cut multi-stripe dresses, one-legged pants, and some great accessories – like see-through plastic boots with Perspex wedges – all looked suitably Margiela, i.e. the familiar with a twist.  Margiela staged his presentation in Paris’ greatest art college, les Beaux Arts, but subverted the Renaissance revival space by installing huge white curtains. These were raised at the finale, as the “models” and staff all came out on the runway drinking champagne from plastic flutes. This collection certainly deserved a toast.

Rick Owens: Polished in the Palais
Rick Owens opened his first European boutique this August and staged his finest show in many seasons this Sunday right, October 1st, outside his cool, new emporium located in Paris’s most beautiful square, le Palais Royal.  Draped lovingly, gathered throughout and twisted appropriately, Owens worked with putty hued chiffon, black silk and sheer white linen to make a collection that was unexpected, arty and very feminine.  Owens’ cleverest look was a series of askew and ever-so asymmetrical white linen tops: cut tight at the arm and flared slightly off the torso, they all looked great, as did some rather odd versions with hoods covering the models’ heads.  Erratically proportioned skirts with delightful folds and bows fashioned clothes that made a statement yet did not overpower those wearing them. Micro-boleros in shrunken leather and long, tentacle wrapped, sleeveless cocktail dresses also stood out in this show, held before scores of idolizing fans, including Lenny Kravitz and Emmanuelle Seigner, dressed in a lengthy arcade on the eastern side of the 18th century square.  After several seasons where Owens’ seemed stuck in a creative rut, over-indulging in gothic futurism, this was a welcome return to form.  “I think maybe I was trying too hard,” Owens told FWD. “But please don’t write that I am picking up Parisian style. I am just a guy from Porterville [California], interpreting Paris as I once saw it in Seventies magazines,” The American designer’s boutique has done great business since opening this summer, selling to many customers unfamiliar with his label. This was a collection that can only be great for business.