Balenciaga, Rick Owns, Dries Van Noten, Rochas, Ann Demeulemeester focus
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. Read more…
