CONFLICT FORCES SOMBRE TONE AS PARIS SHOWS OPEN
Attendees urged to reflect on ‘dark hours’ in Europe as celebrities turn out to support the final collection by late Off-White founder Virgil Abloh
The stars came out for the opening night of Paris Fashion Week, which looked set for a return to pre-pandemic normality until the war in Ukraine forced organisers to strike a sombre tone.
“War has brutally hit Europe and plunged the Ukrainian people into fear and upheaval,” said Ralph Toledano, president of France’s Federation for Haute Couture and Fashion, in a statement on the first day of the women’s autumn-winter collections. He urged attendees in Paris to experience the shows “with solemnity, and in reflection of these dark hours”.
The conflict will cast a pall over a fashion week that was back in full pomp, with only 13 of the 95 fashion houses on the official roster staying fully online.
Opening night struck another bittersweet note with the final collection by Off-White founder Virgil Abloh, who died from cancer in November at 41.
But the show was a dazzling affair, with celebrities including a heavily pregnant Rihanna there, and a striking effort to position Off-White in fashion history.
That was partly done with the models, who included megastars of today such as Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner alongside veterans Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford. And it was partly in the clothes, which pulled in ideas from across recent decades – from glamorous polka dot cocktail dresses to huge shaggy bodysuits – all reimagined with the brand’s trademark street swagger.
Abloh, a former Kanye West collaborator, turned Off-White into a fast-growing label and was recruited to head menswear for Louis Vuitton before his career was tragically cut short.
Off-White was returning to the catwalk for the first time since the pandemic struck – and is not alone. The biggest names, including Dior, Chanel and Hermès, are among 45 brands holding live shows as pandemic restrictions ease across Europe.
Dior’s affirmed feminist designer Maria Grazia Chiuri used the male gaze, as reflected in female oil portraits across the centuries, to make a fashion statement about female empowerment and subjugation.
The label’s feisty ready-towear display in Paris, set in the Tuileries Gardens, was also just a beautifully conceived collection – one of the Italian designer’s finest – which served to start the shows on strong creative footing.
An installation of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Lady with an Ermine hanging in the entrance led fashion insiders, including pop star Rihanna, model Elle Macpherson and tennis ace Maria Sharapova, inside the venue to discover wall-to-wall paintings.
Though the art at first seemed more at home at the Louvre Museum, on closer inspection the female subjects sported contemporary jarring double eyes and seemed to symbolise a sort of new female vision.
This, the work of Italian artist
Mariella Bettineschi, was Chiuri’s starting block – one she used to explore and deconstruct historic female fashions.
Corsetry, the 1940s bar jacket (the house signature), as well as sheer layering reimagined the codes of yesteryear.
But this time, for Dior, they were all about protection or armour against the world – with lashings of fashion tech.
Head hung down combatively, the first model sported a fierce, minimalist black body suit with white lines – both like a skeleton and a cutting pattern.
Multicoloured leather gloves evoked the form of 18th century styles to the elbow, imagined in contrasting biker styles with padding at the knuckles.
A silver bar jacket had dark sporty ribs. Corset-like tops had fastenings made of plastic toggles, in one of a multitude of fashion forward touches. A black perforated corset was stiff and impenetrable.
There were many perfectly executed moments, some of which even evoked a Japanese warrior. Chiuri was trying to say: women have been subjugated for so long, so now we’re going to use clothes to empower ourselves as we move into the future.
But one question was on the minds of fashion critics: is Dior’s obsession with history perhaps a sign that it cannot move past its heritage to fully embrace a fresh fashion aesthetic?
Saint Laurent’s creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, explored the geometric universe of art deco for a rare catwalk show that diverged from channelling the house founder’s designs – in favour of his interior decor.
Yves Saint Laurent, who died in 2008, was said to be devoted to the famed 1920s artistic movement that combined modern geometrics with rich materials.
And yet, the designer never much used the styles to inspire his fashion shows – they were seen instead in his choices for furnishing his Parisian residence.
Here, Vaccarello fixed this. The 40-year old Belgian designer put on a Saint Laurent show doused in this shape-rich movement – seen on the catwalk in front of the glimmering Eiffel Tower in stacks of gold, silver and bronze bracelets, sharp V-necks or thick angular shoulders that sloped down.
War has … plunged the Ukrainian people into fear and upheaval
RALPH TOLEDANO, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE’S FEDERATION FOR HAUTE COUTURE AND FASHION