The odd-couple mix of bondage and big sizes
collided on the Paris catwalk Friday, in clothing that was at once roomy and
adorned with nude women who were tied up tight.
Japanese label Christian Dada — in its first official appearance on a
Paris Fashion Week runway — showed off models in ballooning stovepipe
trousers and oversized overcoats, some with belts as wide as a copy of
Vogue.
The bondage crept in with the image of a nude kneeling woman — hands
bound
together behind her back — printed onto some of the spacious coats paraded
on
the catwalk to the echoing sound of a beating heart.
The risque theme did not stop there, with designer Masanori Morikawa
saying
he sprinkled the autumn and winter collection with embroidered flowers and
elephants to represent male and female naughty bits.
“This collection is about tying, like everything, like belts, like
buckles,
like bondage,” Morikawa told AFP after the show, which was inspired by
controversial Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki.
“I’m really mixing his iconic things and my iconic things.”
Founded in 2010, Christian Dada — a mashup of Christian Dior and the
anarchic art movement — is known for an edgy, rock n’ roll influence on its
designs, which have included chain mail t-shirts and studded shoes.
Bondage, however, was not on the menu as fashion house Margiela marched
its
collection past fashion watchers in a defunct railway worker’s cafeteria in
the French capital.
Deconstruction was the byword for the men’s clothing, which was crafted
without house creative director John Galliano, who works on women’s
ready-to-wear and haute couture.
The classic Paddington Bear duffle coat was made sleeveless and
ankle-length — but still equipped with its signature clasps — in
Margiela’s
hands.
“We question the world-weary modes of the masculine wardrobe, jarring the
finite expectations of a traditional garment,” the house said in a note to
the
audience.
The brand, founded by Belgian Martin Margiela, also confirmed the
potency
of a trend already gracing catwalks elsewhere: the super sleeve.
Coats and pullovers strutted down the runway had sleeves that covered the
models’ hands partly or completely, paired with trousers that didn’t quite
make it to the ankles.
Keeping with the house’s love of making the familiar somehow unfamiliar,
its collection showed biker shorts on a bomber jacket or loose-knit
pullover-wearing model.
Cerruti’s new star designer, American-born Jason Basmajian, sent a
serious,
subdued collection onto the catwalk that was certain not to offend house
founder-Nino Cerruti.
High-end materials — cashmere, silk and sheep skin — formed the basis
for
the somber-coloured collection that deviated little from standard suit and
coat cuts.
“I imagined a luxurious, masculine chic, but without pretension, a
subtle
collection with a focus on the cut and a choice of top-of-the-line
materials,”
Basmajian told AFP.
“Working for this international house, with Italian roots and based in
Paris, allows me to take advantage of all my past experiences.
Ahead of his arrival at Cerruti last year, Basmajian had worked at Calvin
Klein, Donna Karan, S.T. Dupont and Brioni before taking his talents to
legendary British tailor Gieves & Hawkes. (AFP)
Photos: Vogue