Fendi stuns with Jenner and Hadid fur show to cap couture
Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid were employed with devastating effect by design Maestro Karl Lagerfeld to cap Paris Haute Couture Week in Fendi’s dramatic colour-infused fur collection.
Exuberant Lagerfeld, 83, made light of the spectacle’s theatre venue by making not one bow — but three.
A shot-red forest decor in Paris’ exclusive Champs-Elysees theatre led down to multicoloured blooms.
And a few yards on, sat the VIP guests, including filmmaker Sofia Coppola.
Lagerfeld’s collection for “haute fourrure,” or high fur, went Technicolor this autumn-winter season in mink and sable — with three-dimensional floral and flower-shaped fur detailing cutting a fine style.
A bright red poppy motif sheath was followed with a sienna coat with purple fur blooms. A turquoise cape dress sported oversize red fur flowers that turned, again, into poppies on the floppy ankle boots.
Later, coats with strong necklines speckled with multicolour were echoed cleverly by fur coats, with real life speckled contrasts.
Then came the stars.
Model of the minute Hadid, 20, prowled out animalistically in a loose and floaty, blue floral jumpsuit with peek-a-boo sheer sections and slicked-back hair. Jenner, 21, followed soon after in a black tulip-shaped mini dress, with cape that curved round like a flower petal.
Previous Fendi Paris fur shows have seen animal activist protests — but there was no disruption this year.
In 2007, Coco Rocha’s stunned guests at Jean Paul Gaultier, as the then 18-year-old Canadian model opened the show with a dramatic traditional Irish step jig that she danced all the way down the runway. Ten years later, Rocha stunned again. This time the 28-year-old capped the snow-themed show from the French designer by cycling down the podium in a strange white, fluffy tricycle carriage in gold leggings. Guests applauded and cheered as the soundtrack boomed out a French version of Frozen’s Let it Go.
“It’s never just another runway show with @JPGaultier!” exclaimed the model from her Twitter account.
The ever-unpredictable couturier Jean Paul Gaultier lived up to his reputation on Wednesday in a humorous couture treat for guests who included France’s Former First Lady Carla Bruni.
The 61 diverse designs loosely united around one central theme: the winter wonderland. Loosely.
But the display was mainly about fun and veered often into the wacky, harking from different continents and silhouettes. It almost defied definition.
On a snow-white runway, oversize bubble jackets in grey and gold paraded
alongside fitted jackets with snow motifs. For the head: Gaultier served up gargantuan fur Russian chapkas that competed with woolly bobble hats in blue and white.
Then there were saris — that are worn in the sun, not in snow.
“(It’s) childish and exotic … What was funny was a mix of winter. So the snow, and the pullover. And also the sari which is from a country where there’s a lot of sun,” he told The AP.
And where would a winter wonderland scene be without Scandi knits? Inspired by the 1970s craze for Swedish-style cardigans, model Anna Cleveland wore a thick blue and white cardigan with floppy knitted headwear.
Then the couturier seemed to head for the Himalayas with wrapped-up Asian-style silhouettes — with one bright red, floor length, square-shouldered gown reminiscent of traditional Nepalese dress.