What’s hot at Paris Fashion Week?
It was all about the details this season for designers across the city. Whether redefining house codes or adopting new narratives, the overall feeling was mature, poised and laced in Parisian charm.
Confidence made effortless
Isabel Marant SS23
At Isabel Marant, the spirit of “extreme lightness” was exercised through wearable looks that were heavily rooted in Y2K nostalgia. Marant’s vision, brought to life by characterful models including Bella and Gigi Hadid, proved that for designs that gave women confidence either “leaving the club or freshly back from the beach” - she was the designer. Saint Laurent too, was focused on staying true to the brand’s house codes with its slinky fabric hoods repeated across the brand’s archive and now celebrated once again for a new season. With acknowledgment of Yves Saint Laurent’s invention of the iconic Le Smoking tuxedo suit for women in 1966, the current creative director Anthony Vaccarello presented his own take on the suit. This time around it is much softer, styled with weighted overcoats and sunglasses. The colour palette ranged from deep brown shades to red grape and olive green and alongside statement accessories and big shoulders, perfectly showcased Vaccarello’s appreciation of the 80’s era.
Botter SS23
Suits remained the craze at Botter too, but for co-creative directors Lisi Herrebrugh and Reshemy Botter, the show was a chance to highlight an environmental issue close to their hearts. Titled “The Plastic Sea”, the duo collaborated with bioengineers and environmental researchers to develop a combination of new sustainable fabrics for the collection. A tactical viral moment came when models walked down the catwalk, their hands completely submerged in condoms filled with dyed water.
Lights, Camera and even more Action
After two years of Covid disrupted fashion weeks, designers are raring for an opportunity to provide a performance that showcases their collection in new innovative ways. At Chanel, creative director Virginie Viard drew inspiration from Alain Resnais’ 1961 film Last Year in Marienbad. Across the collection Viard looked at the complexity of the film’s heroine known only as “A” played by actress Delphine Seyrig – a heroine who was actually dressed by Gabrielle Chanel herself for the production. The collection was shown in a dark cinema-style room flicking through scenes from the black and white film playing behind the runway.
At the Musée des Arts et Métiers’ Salle des Textiles, Coperni’s co-creative directors Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant had their guests in the palm of their hands. As scientist Dr. Manel Torres came out with a colleague, he used a new technology to spray model, Bella Hadid with a white substance. Over a 7-minute period, the liquid spray gradually turned matte to create a stunning feminine dress. A fashion moment that went viral before guests had even left the show space.
Exaggerating the details
Louis Vuitton arrived in Paris not only with the biggest set of the season by means of a monstrous scarlet flower-spaceship installation designed by French artist Philippe Parreno and Hollywood production designer James Chinlund. But, Nicolas Ghesquière, Vuitton’s creative director also claimed that he manufactured the largest zip to date.
For Loewe, exaggerating the details was a priority too and a giant fibreglass red anthurium formed the centrepiece to Jonathan Anderson’s SS23 show. Anderson’s fascination with anthuriums arise from their typically artificial look, “almost like objects of design”. This season, the designer has drawn on the connections between the online world and nature, constantly seeking to understand the balance between what is real and what is imagined. Even across the collection where the anthurium was placed on shoes and worn as bras, it was difficult to tell if they were natural or synthetic.