Six memorable looks from Paris fashion week,
which wound up Wednesday after nine days and more than 90 major
autumn-winter
shows:
Time to get your Dallas wardrobe out of storage. The 1980s are back with
shoulder pads, big belts, big bows and big earrings. Even stirrup pants were
spotted. Saint Laurent went full-throttle killer miniskirt glam, but the
decade was also there in the hugely influential Vetements and Balenciaga
shows, Kenzo, Veronique Leroy, Maison Margiela, Lanvin and Giambattista
Valli.
“Don’t mess with me,” said many of the clothes coming down the catwalks.
Bikers, cowgirls and Indian braves abounded, and many outfits had an air of
armour about them. Loewe, Louis Vuitton and Taiwanese star Shiatzy Chen all
went for black leather bustiers, with the last two pairing them with
skinhead
and dominatrix boots to up the kick-ass attitude. Valentino even toughened
up
the tutu, with Sacai, John Galliano and Margiela all taking a military
bearing.
High boots are definitely in. Males excited by this may like to know they
are for walking all over you. From thigh-high Puss in Boots to skinny,
cavalier, lusciously soft suede, riding boots and S&M, they were everywhere.
Balmain, Rick Owens, Ungaro, Barbara Bui, Wanda Nylon, Masha Ma and Luis
Buchinho built much of their looks around them.
When in doubt, go big. This seemed to be the maxim in a year clearly in
thrall to Vetements’ designer Demna Gvasalia. Stella McCartney, Celine,
Hermes, Chloe, Yang Li and Hermes all fell for the oversized look while the
wittily avant garde Jacquemus took it to a new level.
Paris has a new sheen again. And it is not just from all the leather. From
the first day when Anrealage debuted its symphony of space age grey, to
Dries
Van Noten’s deliciously judicious use of gold lame to Saint Laurent’s flashy
uptown girls, the catwalks have gleamed with shiny fabrics and surfaces. It
reached a pinnacle in Haider Ackermann’s jewel-toned glitter ball of
hard-edged glamour.
If all that aggressive glamour is too much for you, there was respite to be
had in the romantic velvety embrace of a quietly gothic Victorian look.
Finely
cut 19th-century coats and suits you could imagine a liberated gentlewoman
wrapping herself in popped up in Lemaire, Veronique Branquinho and most
memorably in Aganovich, and seemed to find echoes in Van Noten’s magisterial
take on decadent Edwardian dandies. (AFP)
Photos: British Vogue