Paris Fashion Week switches focus to elegance
Amid the usual celebrities and the odd runway stunt, designers seem to be blocking out the noise and focusing on the clothes this season.
Could Paris Fashion Week be mainly about … the clothes?
There’s been the celebrities, and another runway stunt by French brand Coperni following the internet-breaking “spray-on” dress last season. But following the pared-back minimalist mood and idea of “uniforms” at Milan has been a focus on rigour, silhouette and elegance in Paris. As Anthony Vaccarello put it backstage after his elegant and power-shoulder heavy Saint Laurent show, “I really want to bring back the idea of being ‘dressed’”.
Yet while there may be plenty of nipped-in, ’40s and ’50s-inspired silhouettes, little leather gloves and sharp tailoring this season, all of it has something of a twist, and a promise of a new way of, well, getting dressed.
Take Balenciaga. It was the first show back for creative director Demna, formerly known as Demna Gvasalia, following the global scandal and condemnation that surrounded the two holiday advertising campaigns the brand posted in November 2022. Demna has been a chief arbitrator of the fashion noise but this season there was a feeling of trying for a new slate.
In the show notes, Demna wrote of his childhood fascination with clothes, and how he had wanted to reignite this love – he concluded the notes with: “This is why fashion to me can no longer be seen as entertainment, but rather as the art of making clothes.”
The clothes this season kept his established oeuvre of black oversized tailoring – this season with a sort of “reverse tailoring”, jackets had trouser loops, and double pairs of trousers hung below, padded shoulders and knife pleats but also reflected some of the silhouettes of the French house’s founder, Cristóbal Balenciaga.
This idea of discipline and essential elegance was reflected at Alexander McQueen also, where creative director Sarah Burton told reporters she was examining the “anatomy of tailoring”.
Naomi Campbell opened the show in a black jumpsuit with a corset bustier, and impeccable pinstripe suits, worn with ties, were contrasted with elements of the dark imagination that has always pulsated in the Alexander McQueen universe, this season rendered in blood-red sinister looking orchid prints.
The tie, so virtually absent from the working man’s wardrobe it’s now practically subversive, was a key motif for Valentino this season. In a gender fluid collection for Pierpaolo Piccioli this season, the tie was used as a way to unpick codes of dress, new ideas of day clothes as a contrast for the beautiful and tactile touches of the maison —found here in the rosette-adorned and sequin mini-skirts and feather trimmed skirts and shirts.
So yes, it’s been an elegant and stripped-back season, but this has in turn provided the right kind of foundation for designers to explore new ideas.
