FALL-WINTER 2020-2021 FASHION TO THE END

What meaning do runway shows, and clothes themselves even, have when humanity is barely coming out of such an unprecedented crisis? The consequences of what we have just gone through are going to be felt for a long time to come, on all corners of the earth. Our priorities have shifted, our sense of time redefined. Above all, our connexion to other people seems now more vital than ever. But this surge of life affirmation also pushes us to reconsider our feelings for all the things that give meaning to our lives. Fashion, despite its apparent superficiality, is part of that. Even before everything became frozen by the pandemic and confinement, the 2020/2021 Fall-Winter fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris had set the tone: solemnity. Designers are beings who inhabit the world deeply. They tirelessly reassess reality, break it down and re-interpret it in order to transcend it. This season, we saw many a sepulchral silhouette ring the bell for the end of innocence—while at the same time evoking a sense of mysticism. At Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia elaborated “a metaphor of a world that seems to be drowning in post-apocalyptic problems”. At Paco Rabanne, Julien Dossena multiplied, under the sacred vaults of the Conciergerie, half medieval, half futuristic ceremonial-like robes. At Valentino, black took on universal accents, like a canvas on which destiny is to be reinvented. Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton composed a song that spanned eras, playing with time, and reminding us that we are always the recipients of a history, that we are all descendants of what came before. As a counterpoint to these haunting sentiments, the runways were also filled with bright colors (often in bold associations), vibrant prints, bouncy dresses… like magnificent odes to life.