DISPATCHES FROM PARIS FASHION WEEK
Hermes, Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld shine brightly in City of Light
It was threatening to rain PARIS again, but luckily the footwear of choice this Paris Fashion Week was thick-soled trainers and combat boots. All the better to puddlejump and stay a step ahead of the relentless paparazzi outside the shows.
The fashion troops filed into the Palais de Chaillot on Monday afternoon, the 1930s palace next to the Eiffel Tower, for the Hermes Fall/Winter 2017/8 ready-to-wear show.
A relatively intimate show, attendees included fashion media demagogue Suzy Menkes, international editor for Vogue online, in a cobalt blue jacket. Sitting in an S-shaped configuration, just two rows deep, we were here to see the newest collection by relative newcomer Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, who arrived in 2014, from the Olsen twin’s line The Row, and who is credited with infusing a bit of street sensibility into the venerable French house.
But Hermes would not be Hermes without reference to its equestrian heritage, and Vanhee-Cybulski has drawn on it for designs that could be described as discretely bourgeois.
This collection was no exception with its cummerbund-style belts, and elegant great coats. There was lots of leather, of course, in bright blue culottes, a mustard yellow flight jacket, and a standout shearling-lined emerald green car coat. Paired with all this leather were striking, colourful printed blouses in pink, green and orange in prints from the 1960s archives: antique keys, hands and nails.
Footwear was Hermes maroquonerie designer Pierre Hardy’s lace-up leather boots, with upwards of 20 eyelets and stacked heels meant to reference the French pastry millefeuille. On the models arms, structured Kelly bags, one of the most iconic designs named for Grace Kelly, this season with interchangeable patterned shoulder straps to make them more modern and versatile.
The next morning, at the Palais Royale, fashion’s elite convened again for Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2017/8 show, the sine qua non of Paris Fashion Week.
Chanel ambassadors Farrell Wilson and actress Lily-Rose Depp (with mother, actress Vanessa Paradis) were in the front row, with American Vogue’s Anna Wintour and model Cara Delavi- gne of bold-eyebrow fame. Filmmaker Sofia Coppola and actress Ludivine Sagnier were also in the house. Even Chanel veterans were stunned by the production values. Dubbed “Ground Control” the set was configured around a massive black-and-white Chanel rocket ship that reached 37 metres up to the famous glass roof of the Grand Palais.
The clothes were signature Karl Lagerfeld: he took the traditional Chanel references (tweed, bouclé, rhinestones, stripes, pearls, trousers …) and made them modern. The theme was decidedly space age 1960s, the models wearing silver gogo boots and bejewelled headbands with hair backcombed at the crown like Brigitte Bardot. There were handbags that doubled as muffs, fingerless silver gloves, plenty of silver lame, in jackets and dresses and backpacks. The sparkling black evening wear (a night sky!) was a sophisticated foil to the more street smart parts of the collection, but was kept lighthearted with flowing chiffon dresses with a black-and-white astronaut print.
After Lagerfeld gave his bow, with young godson Hudson Kroenig (who also walked in the show) there came the grand finale. This being Chanel, you knew there had to a blast off. 3,2,1 … and the rocket raised up from the ground in a cloud of smoke and fire to the Elton John’s Rocket Man.