Fashion meets fantasy at Paris Couture Week
Print Edition
CHANEL’S collection drew on the colors of the host city during Paris Couture Week, while Elie Saab on the Barcelona architecture of Antoni Gaudi. Armani Prive put on a dazzling and amusing show with a sense of humor, and Givenchy paid homage to the storied house’s late founder.
Armani Prive
The Armani Prive collection called for two shows, each comprising 96 looks, and were followed by cocktails, making the event a serious contender (along with Chanel) for the most time-consuming show on the couture calendar.
A dominant theme in the varied show was the strong, rounded shoulder.
The silhouette appeared on a champagne lame silk crepe pantsuit and a black-and-white checked jacquard jacket, both designed as daywear.
For evening, the gowns dazzled and amused in equal measure — showing that at 83, Giorgio Armani has not lost his humor.
A motif of crossed arms in crystal embroidering adorned one black silk velvet dress. Models poised their arms on a hip, a send-up of the embroidery that provoked wry smiles among fashion insiders.
Elie Saab
Elie Saab took his itinerant couture inspiration to Barcelona this season.
The famed Modernist architecture of Antoni Gaudi — and its organic lines — were the focus of many of the Lebanese designer’s gowns.
Oversize rounded shoulders, which were sometimes dramatically raised from the body, were a new silhouette variation on the house’s bread-and-butter cinched waist looks.
The industrious Saab couture atelier had got to work to weave the signature crystals, sequins and pearls together to — as the program notes put it — depict “the sinuosity of organic forms.”
The swirling stone reliefs of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs venue inside the Louvre palace accentuated the clothes’ architectural lines.
Givenchy
Givenchy stylist Clare Waight Keller proved she had depth as well as ambition in her fantastical evening collection.
This season, the British couturier delved into the house’s archives to rediscover the late Givenchy’s penchant for enveloping cloaks and capes and magic to create mystery in the 42-piece display. Booklets given to guests contained portraits of the giant of fashion who passed away in Paris in March, aged 91.
Sparkling textures, liquid sequins and icy pastels contrasted with hooded black widows in sumptuous styles that were executed with great flare.
Structured silhouettes with peaked shoulders enveloped the bodies of models who walked as if in a state of trance around the verdant inner courtyard of the historic venue.
There was much poetry in the designs, as there was in the program notes which, compared the veiny markings across some of the fabrics to “tree roots erupt(ing) across lustrous silks.”
Chanel
Mirroring the nostalgic Parisian decor, Chanel’s 67 accomplished looks came in the colors of the city.
Light gray stood for zinc rooftops, almond green for historic building roofs, anthracite for roads and gold and silver — so said the program — for “reflections of the moon on the rippling Seine.”
Pinks and mauves reflected sunrise; black and deep navy, the night. White and beige captured the French capital’s annoyingly changeable weather.
These poetical explanations were nice but unnecessary for a collection that didn’t need any gimmicks to impress. Lagerfeld raised the bar this season — and it was the inspired sleeve silhouette that did it.
Sleeves flapped and unfurled in a unique bell shape, which was achieved by an open arm zipper. It possessed a fresh sporty-meets-regal air.
The unfurling shape moved down the body into long split skirts that sported open panels at the sides and another skirt underneath.
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