Paris Fall fashion collections began awkwardly. Milan had been so stoutly clear:
Bottega Veneta, Jil Sander, weird but wonderful
Prada.
Now we were 27 floors above the Left Bank, in an office, and the funny
thing was — what were the chances? — all of Paris on Thursday morning
was soaked in a thick fog. The gray matched the mood of designer,
Nicolas Ghesquiere Balenciaga.
It wasn’t intentional. Briefly, Mr. Ghesquiere’s idea was to capture
the different styles of office attire among women. “Balenciaga Inc.,” he
said backstage. Balenciaga Chic is probably what his fans would prefer
to see instead of belted double-faced coats, turtleneck sweaters with
cream A-line skirts (though lovely) and chunky sweat shirts in a kind
of, um, animal motif. Another blousy top featured cartoon graphics with
sayings like “Join a weird trip.” On one level, a spoofy take on
corporate dressing is welcomed. All those strange proportions and codes
might work as an odd little mirror held up to reality. At one point
fashion designer Ghesquiere sent out what looked like jumpsuits; the
upper half was a conventional blazer, and the bottom might have been
track pants in parachute silk prints, finished off with a belt so that
your rear end was guaranteed to look enormous. In New York, we’ve all
seen that mishmash of styles on the subway: the thick leather jacket,
the ’80s trousers and two-tone elf boots, the touch of metallic animal
prints. And the attitude is admirable because it really isn’t about Fashion. But on another level, you don’t need this point of view from
Balenciaga.
It’s a bit pedestrian. Although the collection had a number of strong
pieces, like the skirts and many of the tops, there is just not enough
merit to the idea to keep you interested. Fashion Designer
Rick Owens opened his Paris
collection
with floor-scraping coats and pebbly wool dresses, the models’ heads
covered in knitted caps that formed cages over their faces. Their lips
were bright red. In his fashion, designer Owens was elegant. And he
raised the bar with beautiful leather jackets, among his most beautiful,
with dolman sleeves; cropped at the waist, they were worn with slim,
draped wool skirts in a slightly contrasting tone. After his
January Paris men’s show, with its Oscar Wilde allusions that landed like a heavy volume, designer
Dries Van Noten use of 17th-century Asian silk prints in his women’s
show on Wednesday felt comfortably at home in his world. Maybe Mr. Van Noten can’t be funny on a runway.
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PARIS FASHION WEEK
starts today – an epic nine-day-long marathon that ends next Wednesday.
It’s the mother of all fashion capitals, the home of fashion’s biggest
and oldest names, from Chanel and Dior to Balenciaga and Givenchy.
If energy levels are beginning to wane among the fashion press, who
have now been on the move for three weeks, Paris is always certain to
inject a new verve. –> Instagrams of #PFW 
The
action gets underway today with Anthony Vaccarello – who is rumoured to
be Versus’s next collaborator. His sexy, skin-tight dresses are a given
though, and we look forward to seeing them worn by his model muse, Karlie Kloss,
who is a regular on his catwalk. Wednesday’s big show is Rochas and all
eyes will be on creative director Marco Zanini, who is rumoured to be
leaving for recently-revived fashion house Schiaparelli. 
