Paris: September 30
By Rebecca Voight
Who needs colors when you have great lighting? At Nicolas Ghesquière’s futuristic show for Balenciaga, fabrics changed color as they were hit by overhead light beams. The shimmering collection of sequin tube dresses, metallic fringe and tiers of iridescent, crinkled ribbons sewn together for a bubbly effect, had a chic Barbarella quality in simple shifts with space-uniform seaming and drop-waist tank dresses. The glitter factor was balanced by narrow, matte trousers with intricate insets in an intriguing mix of fabrics. And Ghesquière has seen the future of the handbag as well. Balenciaga’s square clutches in shiny croc and lizard spell the end of the big, messy bag.
Tuesday was a big Japanese day with Issey Miyake, Comme des Garçons and its stable of brands (Junya Watanabe and Tao) and Tsumori Chisato all showing.
Junya Watanabe’s models looked like cotton pickers on some exotic Caribbean island, but instead of cotton in their do-rags, they carried huge bunches of dried flowers. They were dressed in a patchwork of African prints (apples, hearts and leaves), heavily-pleated and pulled across the body in an artfully haphazard way. Watanabe teamed this with jackets, bias-cut skirts with fishtail hems and baggy trousers made out of faded blue jeans. He’s perfected his Edwardian jacket: Hourglass curvy with a plunging neck and polite little collar in old denim, linen and white eyelet.
Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons wasn’t in such a lighthearted mood. With a mission to discover “tomorrow’s black,” her all-black show featured dresses with balloon shapes and jagged hems in matte and vinyl leather. Kawakubo took the soccer ball as her model for patchwork dresses split at the seams. Voluminous coats mimicked topiary and mens suits were redesigned as overalls.
Tsumori Chisato continues to refine her artful approach to fashion, lavishing seemingly endless amounts of handwork on her airy fairy pieces. This time she covered ombré-dyed pleated silk with swirls of appliqué strings that looked like pen doodles. The pen-and-ink-style patterning continued in tear-shaped white lace edged in black. There were plenty of ruffles here, as well as patchwork and prints in accordion pleats for a dense style saturated in ethnic color.
Issey Miyake inaugurated its new Paris shop and exhibition space today at 11 rue Royale, in the heart of the chic shopping district near rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré. Dai Fujiwara took a zen-like look at the Amazonian jungle for his “Color Hunting” collection, dedicated authentic colors from nature.
Starting with 3,000 color samples taken to South America to compare to the tropical forest, Fujiwara and his team chose eight of these shades for the warp threads in the house’s unique A-POC weaving technique. Transparent tunics, in sophisticated polyester fibers created especially for Miyake, looked as though they were touched with jungle dew. The collection contained a number of new fabrics: Butterfly, inspired by the reflection of butterflies in river water, is made from a blend of silk and Criatura combines yarns in different thicknesses for a texture that recalls a reptile’s scales. The highlight of the show was the Niemeyer dress, inspired by the Brazilian architect.
Veronique Branquinho was also inspired by nature, using huge landscape prints to cover satin sheaths, some with clever belts threaded inside the dress, with views of the sea and the mountains. Branquinho’s simple menswear tailoring, inset with metallic bands, looked sharp.
London’s Sophia Kokosalaki is in the cocktail business. Her collection begins at about 6:00 p.m. and parties until dawn. She’s into what is starting to look like a major trend this season: unapologetically short tunics worn as dresses and billowy, transparent skirts that leave nowhere to hide. Kokosalaki looked to ancient Egypt creating a collection of turquoise, lapis lazuli and gold sent out on models with top knots sheathed in mini fez hats. It’s all shiny and bright in standouts like short shifts covered in gold passementerie and python that gleam like the interior of a Pharaoh’s treasure chest.
Manish Arora is the biggest new name to come out of India and he’s been showing his Paris collections dripping in embroidery and beading for the past few seasons. There are two great things about Arora: the incredible construction and the fact that he’s so full of fun. It’s all kitsch Bollywood and contemporary art inspiration. Stately eveningwear this is not.
Arora took retro clown costumes —shimmering with dense beading and embroidery—as his inspiration and reworked them into chic bias jackets. Even his stiletto sandals had harlequin checks. His collection, like many others this season, was filled with tutu minis, but in his hands this means a carousel skirt, with all the horses, that actually turns. The colors here are absolutely saturated for dresses in feathers and beads meant to look like some kind of science fiction peacock and bathing suit rompers in a riotous patchwork of color and pattern.
Jean Paul Gaultier went backstage for a collection of dancers’ warm-ups, which shows everything he can do with light jersey layering. Beginning with dresses that unwind into a flying cape over a leotard, he continued with jersey pants with suspender straps, echoing French mime Marcel Marceau’s stage uniform, and finished off with a play of hide-and-seek lingerie in satins and stretch.
Ann Demeulemeester has seen the angels and they turned up in her spring collection in the wadded and pleated layers in simple T-shirt cotton knit that created a mini-cherub silhouette. From her fine jewellery collection were silver necklaces and dangling earrings that looked like miniature Calder mobiles. As usual she can never get enough hanging strings on her clothes. This season it starts with heavy metallic and diamanté, or jet beading and embroidery on filmy chiffon that melds into long diamanté fringe
Shown: Balenciaga Spring 2009. Photography by Peter Stigter
Rebecca Voight is a Paris-based freelance writer.
BALENCIAGA | SOPHIA KOKOSALAKI | JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
 and Tsumori Chisato all showing.
Junya Watanabe’s models looked like cotton pickers on some exotic Caribbean island, but instead of cotton in their do-rags, they carried huge bunches of dried flowers. They were dressed in a patchwork of African prints (apples, hearts and leaves), heavily-pleated and pulled across the body in an artfully haphazard way. Watanabe teamed this with jackets, bias-cut skirts with fishtail hems and baggy trousers made out of faded blue jeans. He’s perfected his Edwardian jacket: Hourglass curvy with a plunging neck and polite little collar in old denim, linen and white eyelet.
Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons wasn’t in such a lighthearted mood. With a mission to discover “tomorrow’s black,” her all-black show featured dresses with balloon shapes and jagged hems in matte and vinyl leather. Kawakubo took the soccer ball as her model for patchwork dresses split at the seams. Voluminous coats mimicked topiary and mens suits were redesigned as overalls.
Tsumori Chisato continues to refine her artful approach to fashion, lavishing seemingly endless amounts of handwork on her airy fairy pieces. This time she covered ombré-dyed pleated silk with swirls of appliqué strings that looked like pen doodles. The pen-and-ink-style patterning continued in tear-shaped white lace edged in black. There were plenty of ruffles here, as well as patchwork and prints in accordion pleats for a dense style saturated in ethnic color.
Issey Miyake inaugurated its new Paris shop and exhibition space today at 11 rue Royale, in the heart of the chic shopping district near rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré. Dai Fujiwara took a zen-like look at the Amazonian jungle for his “Color Hunting” collection, dedicated authentic colors from nature.
Starting with 3,000 color samples taken to South America to compare to the tropical forest, Fujiwara and his team chose eight of these shades for the warp threads in the house’s unique A-POC weaving technique. Transparent tunics, in sophisticated polyester fibers created especially for Miyake, looked as though they were touched with jungle dew. The collection contained a number of new fabrics: Butterfly, inspired by the reflection of butterflies in river water, is made from a blend of silk and Criatura combines yarns in different thicknesses for a texture that recalls a reptile’s scales. The highlight of the show was the Niemeyer dress, inspired by the Brazilian architect.
Veronique Branquinho was also inspired by nature, using huge landscape prints to cover satin sheaths, some with clever belts threaded inside the dress, with views of the sea and the mountains. Branquinho’s simple menswear tailoring, inset with metallic bands, looked sharp.
London’s Sophia Kokosalaki is in the cocktail business. Her collection begins at about 6:00 p.m. and parties until dawn. She’s into what is starting to look like a major trend this season: unapologetically short tunics worn as dresses and billowy, transparent skirts that leave nowhere to hide. Kokosalaki looked to ancient Egypt creating a collection of turquoise, lapis lazuli and gold sent out on models with top knots sheathed in mini fez hats. It’s all shiny and bright in standouts like short shifts covered in gold passementerie and python that gleam like the interior of a Pharaoh’s treasure chest.
Manish Arora is the biggest new name to come out of India and he’s been showing his Paris collections dripping in embroidery and beading for the past few seasons. There are two great things about Arora: the incredible construction and the fact that he’s so full of fun. It’s all kitsch Bollywood and contemporary art inspiration. Stately eveningwear this is not.
Arora took retro clown costumes —shimmering with dense beading and embroidery—as his inspiration and reworked them into chic bias jackets. Even his stiletto sandals had harlequin checks. His collection, like many others this season, was filled with tutu minis, but in his hands this means a carousel skirt, with all the horses, that actually turns. The colors here are absolutely saturated for dresses in feathers and beads meant to look like some kind of science fiction peacock and bathing suit rompers in a riotous patchwork of color and pattern.
Jean Paul Gaultier went backstage for a collection of dancers’ warm-ups, which shows everything he can do with light jersey layering. Beginning with dresses that unwind into a flying cape over a leotard, he continued with jersey pants with suspender straps, echoing French mime Marcel Marceau’s stage uniform, and finished off with a play of hide-and-seek lingerie in satins and stretch.
Ann Demeulemeester has seen the angels and they turned up in her spring collection in the wadded and pleated layers in simple T-shirt cotton knit that created a mini-cherub silhouette. From her fine jewellery collection were silver necklaces and dangling earrings that looked like miniature Calder mobiles. As usual she can never get enough hanging strings on her clothes. This season it starts with heavy metallic and diamanté, or jet beading and embroidery on filmy chiffon that melds into long diamanté fringe
Shown: Balenciaga Spring 2009. Photography by Peter Stigter
Rebecca Voight is a Paris-based freelance writer.
BALENCIAGA | SOPHIA KOKOSALAKI | JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
FASHION WEEK | SPRING 2009){kind=link}