Paris: September 27 and 28
By Rebecca Voight
It’s blazing Indian summer in Paris, which poses a bit of a problem because the collections kicked off here this weekend. But even a rare sunny day couldn’t keep me away from the Palais de Tokyo, Paris’s contemporary art happening space, where Gareth Pugh posed a series of neon poles for a futuristic show of light and dark with razor sharp tailored armor.
Pugh is the current wild child of British fashion who’s jumped the pond to show in Paris for the first time after winning this year’s 150,000€ ANDAM prize sponsored by the French government and a list of major players including LVMH, Galeries Lafayette, L’Oreal, Longchamp and the Pierre-Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation.
The pre-show scene was a feast for the eyes as the crème of England’s avant-garde style posse was on hand for the event. The British seem to be taking Pugh’s Paris show as proof that he’s the next big thing after John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.
And this group arrived in armor. Imagine a sort of chic Mad Max with bondage elements thrown in, notably heavy metal harnesses worn as jewellery. But the one thing they all had on was club feet boots in tarnished metallic leather. Yes, you heard it here, it’s a boot, or bottine, that laces up the front and has a very high wedge heel with a slight cutout under the arch to give the wearer the look of someone with serious foot problems. It took me about two minutes to realize that big, chunky footwear is slimming.
Pugh’s light and dark mood was played out in a collection entirely in white fronts and black backs—including the stockings and very clunky sandal boots—that grew increasingly surreal and precise with the models looking a bit like insects by the end of the show. Beginning with Elizabethan neck ruffs, Pugh articulated the arms of jackets and torsos like skeletal armor. The best piece here was a sweeping coat covered in wet-look vinyl scales that combined Pugh’s ominous stance with drop dead chic.
Over at Balmain the concept isn’t so lofty. The fact that the who’s who of fashion press was all in attendance and Milla Jovovich was front row at this show is noteworthy. Designer Christophe Decarnin is channeling Versace, Michael Jackson and Madonna in her Desperately Seeking Susan heyday. That means pleated silk body dresses dripping with diamanté, souped up band-leader jackets, super-bleached, holey jeans and tutus. It’s sort of avenue Montaigne-meets-the-mall.
Bruno Pieters is one Belgian designer who isn’t into melancholy. Last year he won the ANDAM award and became art director of Hugo, Hugo Boss’s avant-garde collection. Pieters dedicated his spring collection to Pierre Cardin and one could see the homage in square shoulder white satin jackets over little black dresses reminiscent of Betty Boop.
Rick Owens’s partner Michelle Lamy is handling the production and sales of Gareth Pugh, but the two designers are quite different, although they do share a taste for over-the-top boots. Owens’s sexy nun-like women in head scarves came out in a puff of smoke in flesh baring short-legged jumpsuits with boots topped by a loose, floppy ruffle that resembles elephant hooves. Owens is really a sculptor and his Los Angeles roots are evident in an elegant, modernist style that doesn’t pay too much attention to prissy Parisiana. Putty and black are his favorite colors, skirts and shirts wrap sleekly around the body.
Nina Ricci gave everyone a front-row seat in a series of long rooms with walls made of the backs of huge canvases. It felt as though we were in the back room of a great art dealer. Olivier Theyskens might be the most feminine designer working today. An Edwardian streak runs throughout his pieces—read: leg-of-mutton sleeves, rows of mini buttons, hourglass waists, pin tucks. He indulged that for spring with a collection that takes the old lady on a modern bender. His masterpiece this season—and the best thing I saw this weekend—is the white-leather Edwardian bomber jacket. Pure genius. It’s shown draped over a scarf thin floral modern Edwardian dress, short in the front with a wispy train in the back. The collection of delicate and complex sundresses for the evening is almost all on the bias, often in flesh tones and topped with mutton sleeves, bias jackets or little crochet cardigans.
My weekend ended where it began in black and white with AF Vandevorst. This Belgian deign duo is all about the flirt with bright red, pouty lipstick worn like a seduction uniform. Everything looked like it could be pulled off in an instant: sexy white mini shirtdresses, black satin sleeveless jackets and dresses in bedspread lace wrapped around like a spa robe.
Shown: Nina Ricci Spring 2009. Photography by Peter Stigter
Rebecca Voight is a Paris-based freelance writer.
GARETH PUGH | BALMAIN | NINA RICCI
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