A
model wears the wedding gown for Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Haute Couture
Fall-Winter 2013-2014 collection presented Wednesday, July 3, 2013 in
Paris. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
“It’s all cinema, it’s all from film,” said Jean Paul Gaultier,
summing up haute couture. Paris’ enfant terrible seemed to have a point,
speaking on the last day of fall-winter shows that have seen spectators
transported from apocalyptic opera houses to the circus and flung
across the four corners of the globe. Gaultier’s feline-infused couture
collection – Wednesday’s highlight – took for inspiration Italian
filmmaker
Federico Fellini
and “The Pink Panther.” The references merged with theatrical panache
to produce once of his best shows in seasons. But the cinema continued
throughout Wednesday. In Valentino’s encyclopedic show, continents and
eras were merged and had Baz Luhrmann in delight.” Haute couture, like
cinema, is unreal. It’s theatre – a romantic aspiration that’s more
beautiful, more extraordinary than reality,” said the burlesque “Moulin
Rouge” director who sat on the coveted front row.
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
With a delicious purr, Gaultier pounced back into top form with a
feisty couture collection, proving that despite a couple of off seasons,
he still has a lot of tricks up his embroidered sleeve. This
fall-winter’s muse was the female panther, which inspired a slew of
fresh ideas, including plenty of new ways to wear leopard and how to
dress in feathers to look like a cat. If it sounds eccentric, it was.
Leopard print featured cheekily on tights below one stylish all-black
crepe dress, and there were several incredible couture coats. At first
glance they looked like fur but were made entirely of feathers, speckled
like a big cat pelt and with white feathers at the edges to resemble
skin. Gaultier, ever the showman, ensured the wackiness infused the
show’s presentation as well. Forty-three looks filed by to the
infectious theme of “The Pink Panther,” showcased on models who clawed
as they walked. Guests looked on from stalls divided into lionesses,
panthers, lynx and leopards. Sometimes they applauded, sometimes they
simply laughed. But aside from all the fun, there was some serious
couture at work here. –
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CLICK HERE to take a look at what we are talking about ::
Back in 2005, Gareth Pugh
was living in a squat in London when all the important UK fashion
magazines attached themselves to him like a Fred Perry-clad tumor. Fresh
out of fashion school and an internship with Rick Owens, he was soon a
style-page wank fantasy, representative of the type of hijinks English
fashion clamors for. It was all justified. Gareth’s first shows featured
inflatable outfits and light-strewn garments. Everyone in attendance
over the age of 30 offered mealy-mouthed praise—like it was all very
well and fun and diverting but ultimately fey and immature. Attendees
under the age of 25, however, cheered the models and clothes down the
runway, feeling like somebody had finally reinvented fashion for the
21st century and rescued us all from retro regurgitation. Six years on,
fashion sites are overflowing with photos of androgynous kids addicted
to black who look just like Pugh. His line garners the type of attention
and praise usually reserved for the vaunted and dusty old guard. He
shows annually in Paris and New York, working and hanging out with all
the ritziest fashion people, like Karl Lagerfeld and Mario Testino. We’ve known him for a while, though, so we persuaded him to take a few minutes for the following little chat..Read on : View more Gareth’s Collection 
