IN GRAND STYLE
▶ Paris Fashion Week concluded this week with a hybrid of virtual and physical presentations, and a mood that was decidedly celebratory. Selina Denman has the highlights
Balmain
One of Olivier Rousteing’s most ardent supporters was on hand to pay homage at the Balmain show, as it opened with an emotional message from Beyonce, who credited the creative head with injecting diversity into the fashion industry.
“[You] brought a new mindset to help persuade fashion to finally begin to reflect the real true beauty of today’s streets, the beauty that you and your team see daily on the diverse, impressive boulevards and avenues of your beloved Paris,” she said. “For 10 years you have been determined to keep pushing that door open ... wide open.”
Queen Bey’s hit Halo then played in the background as 1990s supermodels Naomi Campbell and Carla Bruni took to the runway, kicking off a high-octane show that celebrated a decade of Rousteing’s creativity – from his stiff, structured 1980s silhouettes, to slinky gold and metal gowns, and his famously giant shoulders.
The show played out in the La Seine Musicale concert complex on the outskirts of the city, and was open to thousands of members of the general public, as part of a two-day celebration complete with merchandise stands, food stalls and performances.
Saint Laurent
Former French first lady Bruni and actress Catherine Deneuve were among those to witness Saint Laurent’s triumphant return to Paris Fashion Week. Having renounced the fashion week calendar in 2020, the brand made a strong comeback, sending models down a runway at the base of the Eiffel Tower, with the glittering monument serving as a largerthan-life backdrop.
Anthony Vaccarello served up skin-tight bodysuits and sharply tailored eveningwear in a collection that oozed glamour.
Tuxedo dresses appeared in pale hues, paired with bright blue gloves, while thick gold bracelets and spiky heels added the creative director’s signature edge.
Dior
Christian Dior brought a burst of colour to the Paris Fashion Week calendar, as Maria Grazia Chiuri explored the maison’s output under Marc Bohan, who was famous for modernising styles and loosening silhouettes in the 1960s and 70s.
Cinched Bar jackets were swapped for short, boxy cuts with rounded shoulders, and paired with mini skirts and shorts. Technical fabrics such as scuba material were woven into the collection, adding an unexpectedly sporty touch, while go-go boots and low-heeled Mary Janes from the 1960s and 70s were repurposed and served up in hot pink and bright orange, with laces and white, rubber soles.
Finally, neon leopard prints and pastel camouflage patterns were set against animal motifs that were blown up and applied with embroidery techniques.
Chanel
Chanel’s Paris Fashion Week presentation was infused with optimism. It was shown to a pared-back audience in an annex near the Eiffel Tower, since the brand’s usual location, the Grand Palais, is being renovated ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics. The theme was the lens, and models posed theatrically as real photographers huddled around a red carpet podium freestyle, instead of lining up in their normal scrum. “I used to love the sound of flashbulbs going off at the shows in the 1980s,” Virginie Viard, Chanel’s creative director, said in her show notes. “I wanted to recapture that emotion.”
Hermes
The Fresh maison transported its guests to an airport on the outskirts of Paris, where its spring/summer 2022 collection was unveiled on a circular hangar and a plane landed in the background as part of the finale.
Designer Nadege VanheeCybulski presented a collection that celebrates the idea of women moving freely in their clothes, combining practicality, comfort and sensuality in the form of drawstring trousers, structured bra tops and athletic silhouettes.
Set against a backdrop of burnished yellow, the collection was a sunny salute to post-pandemic dressing, with buttery leathers, soft knits, loose-fitting jumpsuits and sturdy thick-soled sandals and shoes. Gentle shades of yellow, dusky pinks and soft shades of orange dominated, with a smattering of subtle prints. It felt, above all, optimistic.
Vivienne Westwood
Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood presented a typically eccentric collection that mixed glam rock references from Westwood’s 1980s heyday with historical musings and a healthy dose of humour. It incorporated plenty of deadstock fabrics, but also Kronthaler’s baby blanket and a cuddly toy from his childhood.
A cacophony of influences collided on the catwalk, in what has aptly been described by some as “fashion mayhem”. Orange boots that expanded into Michelin man-worthy chaps were held up by straps, which wrapped around the neck, shirts doubled as turbans, and capes extended upwards and outwards as if attached to an invisible clothesline. Some may question the collection’s wearability; few will dispute that it was a whole lot of fun.
Lanvin
Daisy prints and Batman motifs might sound like odd bedfellows, but not so on the Lanvin runway. Creative director Bruno Sialelli continued to draw on the house’s Art Deco archives, ramping up the glamour by yet another notch and calling his latest collection “bold and joyful and free and unapologetic”.
The show kicked off with gently flowing baby doll dresses in feminine shades of lilac, turquoise and purple, which were paired with towering platform heels. Next came an explosion of floral prints and motifs lifted from 1940s Batman comics. The caped crusader made an appearance on men’s shirts, women’s crop tops and slinky metallic evening dresses. The piece de resistance: Campbell rounding off the show in a black superhero cape.
Saint Laurent made a triumphant return to Paris Fashion Week after renouncing the fashion week calendar in 2020
Givenchy
The vast La Defense Arena set the tone for Givenchy’s show, which was a celebration of big ideas. On a futuristic white oval runway, models were followed by black robots on wheels. For his first live show, creative director Matthew Williams served up an interplay of luxury and utility and lavishness and austerity, giving traditional silhouettes a futuristic revamp.
“I wanted to build on the tradition of Givenchy’s history while also really looking
towards the future,” said Williams in his show notes. “To do this, I worked with people I admire across different disciplines who have truly unique perspectives, including the artist Josh Smith, whose iconic work is incorporated throughout the collection, and the musician Young Thug, who created the entire score for the show. The collaboration and this collection offer people a remarkably immersive and special experience.”
Traditional masculine tailoring fabrics, including mohair wools, Napa leathers, cotton herringbones and Prince of Wales checks, were juxtaposed with neoprene and applied to corsets, peplums, shorts and mini skirts, as well as more conventional suiting. Delicate Broderie anglaise was left exposed, while tulle and other plays on transparency added lightness to the collection.
Meanwhile, Smith’s intense colour palette and signature motifs, which include reapers, pumpkins and other “personal totems”, were embedded on to menswear and womenswear, introducing a sense of joy to proceedings.
Balenciaga
Design wunderkind Demna Gvasalia presented a special 10-minute Balenciaga-inspired episode of The Simpsons. The episode opens with Homer realising he has forgotten to plan anything for Marge’s birthday. He finds a magazine where she has written the word “someday” across a Balenciaga and emails the brand, although he struggles with the name, settling on Balenciaga-ga. “My wife gets this weird sadness on her birthday,” Homer shares. “I know she always wanted something of yours, so can you send me the cheapest thing with your label on it?” The team in Paris, assuming this is “one of those American gags nobody gets”, sends a dress (with a police escort). Marge is delighted with her gown, complete with Gvasalia’s trademark oversized shoulders, which promptly gets stuck in the door frame; Homer is less enthused by the $22,050 price tag. Marge wears the dress for a short while before sending it back, with a note thanking the brand “for the dream. I’ll always remember those 30 minutes of feeling a little bit special.” Gvasalia is so touched by the note (“this is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard, and I grew up in the Soviet Union”), that he decamps to Springfield to visit “the style deprived” and invites them to star in his next show in Paris. Bart, Lisa, the baby and even Homer, clad in a red Balenciaga puffer jacket and single drop earring, all take a turn on the runway, but it is Marge who steals the show, earning a standing ovation from the notoriously hard-toimpress Anna Wintour.
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton’s presentation was disrupted when an Extinction Rebellion activist burst on to the catwalk to protest against the fashion industry’s impact on the environment with a banner that read “Overconsumption = extinction”. Friends of the Earth, Youth For Climate and Extinction Rebellion said about 30 people were involved in planning the protest. It was an unexpected turn in a show already decked in drama. Models walked along the Louvre’s Passage Richelieu, which was lit up with antique chandeliers, in a re-enactment of a “grand bal”. The collection paid homage to the 18th and 19th centuries, with flowing capes, cropped jackets, high-neck collars and dresses that jutted out at the hips, but still felt futuristic. “Tonight, time is of no consequence. Yet time is everything. It dissolves functions and codes. It unites wardrobes. Day becomes night. The humble uniform becomes sumptuous,” read creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere’s show notes.