Bin-bag style wows Paris

TWO top fashion designers set out yesterday to prove the saying that a stylish woman can look good even in a bin bag.

Belgian husband-and-wife team Filip Arickx and An Vandevorst turned black plastic bin liners and dry cleaning sheaths into skirts and elaborate embroidered ball gowns in their debut Paris haute couture show.

Haute couture is the very pinnacle of the fashion world, with only an elite band of designers allowed to show their luxurious handmade creations in the French capital.

The pair – called A F Vandevorst – set out to challenge that aesthetic with a punkish cavalier show also featuring rubbish bag veils.

Rather than demure debutantes in puff balls of taffeta and silk, their models had the air of runaway nightclubbing nuns.

Others wore dashing hussar jackets and trousers matched with thigh-high boots and skin-tight PVC trousers. An Vandevorst said it was an ode to the joy of dressing up with what comes to hand.

“It’s about total freedom and creativity, and a women who lives out of her suitcase – transforming old stuff into new,” she said.

“She is so chic and so sophisticated she can turn anything with her natural flair – poof! – into something great.”

Two high-end US labels also made a bow on the couture catwalk as guest members.

Rodarte, a red-carpet favourite for Hollywood royalty like Natalie Portman and singer Katy Perry, said the label intends to hold all their couture shows in Paris from now on.

Set up by sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy in Los Angeles, Rodarte’s debut Paris collection mixed a take on white, red and black leather biker gear with ethereal silk organza.

New York-based Proenza Schouler also chose to show its spring/summer 2018 collection.