Paris Fashion Week: Fall 2013’s top 3 moments

Paris reigns everlasting as the monarch of style, elegance and tradition, but she also ranks high for innovation and sartorial experimentation. Because of this rare gift, the City of Light continues to be a magnet for a motley crew of bloggers, eccentric journalists and international admirers (oft times known as shoppers) who make the fashion pilgrimage twice a year to bask in her glow. Designers at the top of their game have dazzled us once again. After Chanel’s global statement, Jean Paul Gaultier’s punk parade and Alexander Wang’s debut at Balenciaga, here are three of our most magical moments from Paris Fashion Week Fall 2013.

Alexander McQueen
Mommy-to-be Sarah Burton showcased a capsule collection worthy of royalty. Five main looks (plus one variation for each) revived England’s Virgin Queen Elizabeth, albeit a more eccentric version thereof. Pearls, pleats, lace, feathers, bejewelled face ornamentation, and exaggerated silhouettes simply took our breath away.

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who was once upon a time with Max Mara, as was another little known designer names Karl Lagerfeld, presented in a church, which saw photographers literally on their knees. Clearly, his eponymous collection is a far departure from the mega Italian fashion house. Down his runway, models wore dresses digitally imprinted with the Victorian painting of ginger-haired Ophelia; others with a silver embroidered tapestry of razor blades, scissors and screws; and another in tartan featuring a giant wolf-face chest plate.

Hermès
Staged in the hallowed halls of Lycée Henri IV, a prestigious prep school that has groomed the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Guy de Maupassant amongst many others, the Hermès show made a deliberate nod to the house’s legacy of tradition. With a bibliothèque backdrop, Christophe Lemaire brought us back to quintessential French chic with a sober palette, clean lines and luxurious fabrics. Calf length leather skirts, pleated slacks, cape jackets and refined evening dresses made us sigh with the quietest, most meaningful whisper of “Oh la la.”

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