Fendi caps fashion week during culture-hopping show
PARIS — Fendi’s ultra-white, sanitized runway for once put the couture, not the decor, in the spotlight to cap Paris Fashion Week, Thursday.
That allowed guests, including Bond star Lashana Lynch and Korean actress Song Hyekyo, to take in every bead, paillette and spliced paneling that went behind this impressive fall display.
The Italian house’s designer Kim Jones wanted to “step away from Rome” with creations that drifted between different eras, cities, memories and cultures, beginning in Japan.
Haute couture is the age-old Parisian tradition of producing exorbitantly priced, madeto-measure garments for the world’s richest people.
Here are some highlights of the fall-winter 2022 collections, on Thursday, that featured several up-and-coming brands:
Fendi’s Kyoto
“We are looking at fragments of different cities, namely Kyoto, Paris and Rome,” said Jones. “The fragmentary nature of things is echoed throughout ... like snatches of memory.”
Jones went back in time, and back to the atelier, in a show that revamped old-school artisanal techniques — with aplomb.
Kimono fabric from 18th century Kyoto — with beautiful patterning — was cut up
into strips and shards to construct one abstract gown in gray and beige with a clean white sporty collar. Like many looks in this collection, it also had a futuristic feel.
A sprinkling of sheer tulle gowns with Japanese maple leaves were the exception that proved the rule in this overall tasteful collection, which used humor and design quirks to keep energy levels up.
The shimmering floorlength gowns were the high in terms of creativity, aesthetics and fun. One dazzling floor-sweeping, silver tectonic panel dress sported another dress hanging from its back, incredibly, sweeping the floor a second time.
The art of the invitation
The age of email and rising environmental awareness hasn’t made much of a mark on the fashion industry’s invitation code.
Season after season, gasoline-guzzling couriers crisscross Paris to personally deliver elaborate, often handmade, show invites, as top houses vie for the wackiest or most imaginative idea.
Olivier Rousteing’s invitation for his one-off Jean Paul Gaultier couture featured a yard black branded diagonal ribbon wrapping a card. It was held in place by a white couture pin. Sure enough, in Wednesday’s energetic display — the wrapped diagonal ribbons featured on a runway look
in life-size.
For Fendi, a hollow white architectural arch revealed the house logo through its window. While Schiaparelli’s featured an atelier sketch of a woman adorned in flowers with a widebrimmed hat and gold bracelet — styles that defined Daniel Roseberry’s fall collection aesthetic.
Julie de Libran drips couture
Months after opening her first Paris boutique, another up-and-comer, Julie de Libran, was in an eclectic mood. Fall was a chic display with lots of sparkle and a bit of everything.
Set in a leafy patio garden with sweet-scented jasmine blossoming at one side, the collection conveyed an intimate feel.
Indeed intimacy and the personal touch are hallmarks of the designer, who since launching her house, in 2019, has hosted clients and reporters in her Left Bank house for shows and fittings. This handson approach is increasingly rare but encapsulates the beating heart of couture, the luxurious art of made-to-measure gowns.
On Thursday, the show provided many gentle contradictions.
A square-shaped gold embroidered jacket had a feel of 1930s Hollywood glamour, worn above a silver mesh ribbon collar style that could have been worn by the New Romantics of the 1980s.
One cap-sleeved column dress was sublimely simple with multicolored textured paillettes
and embroidery.
Yuima Nakazato goes blue
A contemplative set — worthy of a staged play — awaited guests at Japanese couture upand-comer Yuima Nakazato’s fall display.
It was entitled “BLUE.” That was the color of gargantuan fabric boulders in the set, strewn across the stage-cumrunway that set the tone of contemplation, peace and harmony — which filtered down into the couture.
There was also more than a whiff of a distant Star Trek planet in the abstract blue blobs that models walked by. Indeed, Nakazato’s work revolves around technology, and the house says he uses non-gendered creations to “explore the future of clothing.”