In Paris, designers bring back real chic
There were standing ovations, glittering debuts and starry front rows, but the highlight this season was the fashion.
T he talk in Paris during fashion week tended to centre on two things: that the traffic was even more terrible than usual, and that this season felt like one for dreaming again.
Excitement – not something that fashion people give up easily – was palpable. This was not only because of all the debuts this season, including at some of the world’s top luxury brands that were eagerly anticipated.
Or even in the standing ovations, awarded to Jonathan Anderson for his womenswear debut at Dior and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel. The feeling in many of the best shows was of creativity being prized.
The week was certainly a blockbuster for casting and front rows, from Meghan Markle making her regal entrance at Balenciaga (her first perch front row at Paris Fashion Week) to culture-shifting guests such as author Miranda July at Celine and Lana del Rey at Zimmermann. Nicole Kidman’s daughter Sunday Rose walked for Dior and Heidi Klum was just one of the majestic models at Vivienne Westwood.
But the real source of excitement was the fashion. As one stylist enthused mid-cigarette break, it felt like a lot of designers were making clothes that women would desire again, the general consensus being that a slowdown in luxury is not going to be fixed by another nice blazer. You need to make people want the clothes.
At the best shows this week there was a shift towards clever techniques, new ideas and real chic. Not the fake kind of chic – a descriptor flung about for anything remotely “tasteful” – but the way the word is really intended: intelligent, elegant, a little bit mysterious, people and clothes that leave an impression.
This sense was present at some of the most anticipated debuts, such as Anderson’s show, where he straight-up acknowledged the magnitude of taking on such a big job in fashion with a collection that up-ended Dior “codes” such as the Bar jacket, which he shrunk to Alice in Wonderland style proportions. There was an injection of the artful playfulness that Anderson used to transform Loewe into a cultural phenomenon in his 10 years at the helm, with kooky shoes and twists on proportion and the brand’s femininity.
Backstage, Anderson said he was “looking at the tension, the push and pull between dressing up and dressing down”.
An acknowledgment that women’s lives are full of such tensions – that we need both clothes for the office and a fancy dinner; school events and the occasional jolly – could be found in other ways throughout the week.
Blazy at Chanel – in a show humming with new energy – nodded to the house’s founder, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, that great believer in freedom of dress for women.
The collection – from beautifully cut shirting to languid drop-waist dresses – was full of beauty and lightness as Blazy played with the paradoxes of masculinity and femininity with which Coco herself was long preoccupied.
At Louis Vuitton, creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere said he was focusing on “dressing for yourself first”, and this could be seen in the boldness of the pieces: opulent jackets with deep frills, cocoon-like robe coats and brushed silk skirts and jackets.
The Saint Laurent woman strides here too, dressed in sexy little pencil skirts, strong-shouldered jackets and tiered voluminous nylon gowns in a jewel box of colours that creative director Anthony Vaccarello argued could be scrunched into little balls and thrown into suitcases. Dresses, then, for party girls on the move.
Schiaparelli and Alaia were also masterclasses in grown-up elegance – interesting cuts, special details and proportions that allowed women to experiment with different versions of themselves.
Indeed, if there was a key takeout that resonated this season it was that the shows captured a sense of emboldened elegance, the kind that allows for interesting textures and unusual cuts, experimentations on personal style.
This consideration of the multifaceted woman was something Pierpaolo Piccolini, who made his debut at Balenciaga, is known for and returned to.
For his first show this was writ large in his feeling for lightness – as one rep from the brand pointed out in an appointment to see the clothes up close, Cristobal Balenciaga, the master couturier who founded the house, wanted his clothes to be light.
In an interview with Vogue, Piccolini expanded on this: “There was a lightness, the way (Balenciaga) introduced space between the body and fabric – the way it creates silhouettes really interests me. Because there’s no structure inside, there’s air.”
For Piccolini this meant his take on Balenciaga’s “sack dress” was airy and his colour palette fresh. There were feathers, dresses and coats with beautiful scarf details that could be thrown over the shoulder and blouson shorts and peacoats. Piccolini was keen to nod not only to founder Balenciaga but also previous creative directors of the house, including Demna – who introduced streetwear and cultural cachet to the brand in his 10-year tenure – and Ghesquiere.
The idea of building on what has come before but still making your own mark also was something present in Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s debut for Loewe.
Following in the footsteps of Anderson is no small thing, yet the duo showed little doubt. In part that was because they leaned into the craftsmanship for which the brand is known, putting forward clever ideas such as feathered leather and suede trousers and denim bomber jackets, and what looked like terry towel dresses made from a 3-D fabric. But also there was a sense of sporty American zip, with preppy polos, primary colour combinations and button-down shirts (albeit ones made from ombre spray-painted leather).
A show of technique – the idea that luxury requires work by the hand – is always present at Hermes. This season Nadege Vanhee took inspiration from the coastal French town of Camargue. The collection had a slightly boho feel with prints taken from the French house’s almost infinite archive of scarf prints and colours that nodded to the Mediterranean, and overall a sensual, tactile, freedom-inspiring sense of chic.
If this was a season to dream, the best shows offered clothes that should feel as good as they looked. If designers are up to the task of making women desire pieces – and buy them – they need to offer wearers ways to consider new possibilities for themselves. Chicness, after all, is as much a mood and an essence as it is anything tangible.
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