What has Paris fashion week taught us?
With the end of Paris fashion week comes the darker, colder period of fashion – the end of glitzy front-row photo opportunities, the end of catwalk models on street style blogs, the end of the Lindsay Lohan obsession . . . well, not quite. But as the curtain falls on the Parisian collections, it’s worth taking stock of the highs, the lows and the downright absurds.
via eonline.com
The biggest news of Paris fashion week – aside from Lily Allen’s performance of Not Fair in Chanel’s barn – was the fruition of LiLo’s creative consultancy at Ungaro. The Spring/Summer 2010 collection for the prestigious fashion house was universally panned: glittery heart-shaped pasties covered models’ nipples (hardly necessary – after all, international catwalks are renowned for frequent, unashamed glimpses of bare nipple), dresses were short, tight and bright; Lohan and Ungaro head designer Estrella Archs walked the catwalk, hand in hand, facial expressions betraying a less than harmonious behind-the-scenes relationship.
Lohan, for her part, put on a brave face; years of acting may have helped. Her wide smile was given an extra layer of pantomime by significantly plumper lips and red, puffy eyes. Archs looked nothing less than indignant, an expression unbroken by bemusement or any hint of mirth. (Lest we assume this is Archs’ natural facial expression, at the presentation of her namesake line a few days later, the designer was all smiles.)
Speaking of mirth, Louis Vuitton has proudly carried the mantle of whimsy for the past few seasons. As the economy has become dour and humourless, extravagance, fun and embellishment have become standard in haute couture collections. And now that rabbit ears have been universally adopted by celebrities and fashionistas (that over-used description of someone who is fashion-forward and somewhat shameless), the French fashion house has found a new “thing”: afros.
In the same week that Mattel was panned for producing a black Barbie with straight hair (albeit with plumper lips and a flatter nose), Marc Jacobs, designing for the French fashion house, sent models down the runway in multicoloured, oversized afro wigs in a representation of what he termed “the hippie-cyber, tribal-punk world”. Eyes will be firmly fixed on the “it” crowd for signs of this motif becoming a trend. Yes, Mary-Kate and Ashley, we mean you. Aside from anything else, this may be prove a prime opportunity for a glorious friendship between Louis Vuitton and Mattel.
Giles Deacon received the pressurised honour of closing Paris Fashion Week 2009 with his collection. Never one to shy away from the odd scattering of whimsy himself, Deacon produced what Womens Wear Daily termed: “What Tippi Hedren would wear for cocktails with the Flinstones.” There was something nearing the psychedelic about Deacon’s collection; perhaps he, too, is frustrated with the realisation that our lives do not and will not, any time soon, resemble an episode of The Jetsons.
Giles Deacon S/S 2010
Bright colours, even brighter fabrics, a recurring spider theme – models’ cleavages adorned with (don’t worry, fake) spiders – and, yes, dinosaur bags. Absurd? Yes. Lovable? Definitely.
What, then, are the morals of Paris Fashion Week? It’s not a given that actors, despite having given up acting and spending all of their time at openings dressed in skirts shorter than their next day’s column inches, have a clue about fashion. Afros are for everybody and will give people something to talk about, should you turn up in the sartorial equivalent of yesterday’s news – and the future has arrived in the form of plastic arachnids and puffy stegosauruses. Adieu, Paris, it’s been formidable.
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