This is a dedication to delicatesse by Elie Saab. He celebrated it so nicely by creating designs that offered a light and graceful mood by exploring degrees of transparency. Saab sprinkled his signature crystalline embroideries across fragile tulle and airy crinoline dresses, in hourglass and fishtail columns, and on new flaring Fifties shapes.
Everything was kept in a pale palette of ivory, pinks, icy blues and hot coral and spots of black. There were areas that were free of embroidery providing a clear view of the shoulders which were the designer's favorite body part of the season. Dense embroideries were clustered around the waists and trickled down to the hem of the skirts.
This collection is such a delightful display, full of wonderful confections that are perfect for the red carpet or for any other special occasion. One should not miss out in getting a dress that is an Elie Saab creation. The perfection of these dresses are most admirable because they speak of light and grace and delicatesse.
Within the space of the Grand Palais there were unseen birds singing in the dense forest of oak trees and pines. Wide plank steps led to the circular amphitheater within. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is the perfect inspiration for the guideline of this collection. Shakespeare would be quite amused, I'm sure. Karl Lagerfeld hit the note of haute in haute couture this season with a magnificent collection for Chanel. Clothes exquisite as can be with the usual craftsmanship of the petits mains that only can execute such high quality work with such finish that is perfection.
The setting was romantic and had an underlying mystery. Models wore piles of falling chiffon leaves in their hair and their eyes were encircled with feathered lashes. The standout for this line up was a message that Lagerfeld gave to make a point and that is: framed shoulders. This was a recurring theme in the collection and done in many different ways. Lagerfeld said "It brings life to the face." Exquisite tailored looks opened the show which included a pretty group of pale ribbon tweeds and a black dress with an embroidered yoke and collar.
Not only was there a focus on the framed shoulder but there was a diversity in the line up as well. Most of the day looks - like those beautiful ribbon tweeds - were short with volume, yet out came a trio of looks that had skirts falling to mid-calf.
Evening was quite a fest. Lagerfeld continued to do the shoulder thing as well with floral fluffiness on sleeves, a flurry of white flowers on a black sheath. There were some dense floral embroideries on some structured confections that intended to look like prints and were quite precise in its workmanship.
The finale looked like a dreamy story that was told. A pair of cutaway feathered beauties, one pink, one dusty green, worn with black leather gauntlets and boots came out. Following that were twin brides that looked delicate and diaphanous in aged white gowns and a ring bearer (Lagerfeld's godson). This is shown as gay marriage is being debated fiercely in France right now.
Why not now? The world has changed significantly and it is changing fiercely now. So why not now? It is the perfect time. Especially if you have the right dress and feel graceful especially when it comes from Chanel!
Valentino creative team Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli came up with an astonishing collection. There were some fine touches like the spaghetti-like embroideries coiled on coats and dresses. There was a model that stepped out in a black, birdcage-like cape made out of fabric tubes and the entire audience broke out in a spontaneous applause. Chiuri and Piccioli celebrated the feminine with grace and demonstrated intoxicating haute couture craftsmanship and beauty.
The cuts were precision and resolutely modern. Suits and coats were structured and conveyed a futuristic gloss doing away of any prim and proper air of what a suit is thought to be. One beautiful long sleeved gown was made in a glossy wool of a blush faint rose and had almost no detail but a high bud-like neckline and fabric just opening like petals in the back.
Going beyond flowers these designers created labyrinths on a Fifties skirt in strips of lace and dresses that would be exquisite statements for the spring. Beautiful embroidery depicts the spring season and it is all done poetically.
According to the program notes, it took 600 hours in the atelier on a dress that has a frothy bustier, with a skirt of black tulle with an outline of silvery birds flurrying against the sky. Piccioli and Chiuri wished to convey the lightness and the beauty of a garden, forgetting the labor that goes into creating the pieces.
Valentino Garavani embraced his two successors showing that they are continuing his fashion legacy. What a long way they have come! They deserve to have many, many flowers thrown to them.
According to Jean Paul Gaultier "It feels like a new beginning." He has many reasons to feel that way, including his recently signed deal with Gibo Co. SpA to again produce his women's ready-to-wear (the designer launched with Gibo 32 years ago). The couture collection he showed suggested an impressive creative refresh as well. Gaultier decided to be taken seriously while creating designs that made him a star in the first place.
Indian Gypsies helped Gaultier to manifest his collection for spring season. He stayed away from the cartoonish and gimmicky to convey the message of haute couture. Plenty of elegance flowed down the runway. A beautiful one shouldered black and white dress that celebrated the signature Gaultier sailor stripes was an example.
A calmer side of Gaultier was expressed as well with a voluminous white tunic and pants and a shantung trench over a sating gown. Yet there was a burst of color through lavish embroideries and patchwork that have the power to gather joyful attention. A stunner was a gold gown with black transparent insets topped with a vest of gold and black fringe and a crystal embroidered skirt that put an Indian spin on Mondrian.
Gaultier continued to add his signatures like the trench, the smoking, cone bra as well in subdued ways. What is a Jean Paul Gaultier collection without them anyways? I think we would be somewhat bored and it is always great to see so many different versions of them. Especially from Gaultier.
Stéphane Rolland has once again created a colleciton that is absolutely full of artwork that is unique, smooth and clean. A dreamlike quality always seem to be the aura in all of his designs. This season he decided to be more monocharamtic and the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum was the perfect place to show this collection. Some of these designs may be worn at the Cannes Film Festival this year. I am sure that Paz Vega, who was sitting in the front row, will wear one of the gowns with a dramatic fishtail. Many of Rolland's designs will be great for editorials for sure.
There were more structured pieces that were perfect to wear for some use and would make an amazing statement like a black trouser suit with stiff ruffles running across both sleeves. For the finale the oldest model in the world and yet a striking beauty, Carmen, came out in a beautiful white number with a flowing cape that made her look ravishing with her white hair pulled back.
Stéphane Rolland is one of a kind and so are his designs. Haute Couture has been good for him and he has been wonderful with Haute Couture. He is never a loss for design and concept. He is a wonderful talent and that is all there is in his being.
What can be said for Alexandre Vauthier? What came to mind for his spring couture collection was the word "tuxedo". It all started very strong when the first look opened the show. The line up was sleek, elegant and had a touch of glamour that came in forms of clean-cut tuxedos and satin catsuits that were lightly draped. Straight cut pants were topped with rich mink tops with bare backs.
It was all going fabulously until some evening gowns and dresses came out that were exposing a boob here and a boob there and was neither functional nor chic-fully done. Alexandre Vaultier lost his restraint and just did not finish strong. The end just had no appeal whatsoever. If there was a bit more fabric then there would be something to be left for the imagination and a lady can feel like a lady.
Giorgio Armani has always been drawn to far flung locales and cultures. The countless reference points have always been an inspiration to his work. This collection he said, would display "an echo of different cultures. As if you are touring the world and taking different references from different cultures and obviously make them more of today's world."
The lineup was streamlined of looks in high intensity, high shine fabrics, an exotica rendered in a moody palette shot with red, nonspecific tribal-esque patterns and bold accessories, including the ubiquitous fez. The designer's primary focus was on pants that were cut lean under short, crisp jackets or waistcoats. These were done neatly with details of cut such as curved closure, plisséd edges, geometric hems and short puffed sleeves.
For grander moments, he raged from the simplicity of a lovely long black sating dress with a hint of vibrant embroidery, to the sleek intricacy of a graphic, red-and-black, jewel encrusted peplum top over a black mermaid skirt.
Armani made a big push with accesories. Bags and shoes in matching prints and big bar broaches were demonstative but at the same time was a bit confusing.
Elegance and class is the element that radiates out from these designs and when worn feel absolutely wonderful. Class is the message that Armani always gives out and at the same time allows anyone to pick and choose any piece to wear separately or completely. One more thing is that there is always the touch of feminine sexiness and that is Armani.
Bouchra Jarrar shows that she is a French designer that has a unique and incredible point of view. This collection had a real sense of practicality and modern elegance that was sleek, clean and lavishly simple with the Jarrar touch.
She offered coats with military buttons, lapels trimmed in beaver fur, rustic English felts and muted houndstooth were paired with sleek tuxedo pants in midnight blue.
There was an assymetric elements that had a side closure or a sloping collar or a quarter moon of fur flung from one lapel. A a short waisted shearling looked sexy and pretty chic and would make a perfect piece to have in any wardrobe.
Dresses were simple and clean and came in a creamy ivory color. A beautiful tank dress with a scooped back that was slightly off kilter had an impact in it's simplicity.
All in all these clothes have a futuristic allure to them. Jarrar knows herself so well as a designer and she consistently proves that she is someone in demand to make clothes that are parctical in a special modern haute couture kind of way. And there is a demand for that.
This collection was called Voltage. Iris van Herpen did in fact showed astonishing designs that were electrifying. "Inspired by a childhood dream, a desire to understand control and re-create lightning." The impact for her show featured a living sculpture standing in the center of the room with what looked like purple lighting passing through her body.
Miss van Herpen is known for the use of innovational techniques and produced, according to her "the first 3-D printed flexible dresses. These pieces were intricately designed and had a life on their own, making movements on their own independent of the models' bodies. There was a voluminous minidress that was matched with a huge wrap which transformed in a seashell armour. There were wearable dresses in black in layer of slightly see through knitted fabric as well which were delightful.
Iris van Herpen is a fantastic designer who always thinks out of the box. She reminds me a bit of Alexander McQueen but van Herpen's inspirations are always drawn from nature and its organic physiology and from that she produces unique and original creations.
I hope to see more of her work and I am sure those of you in the fashion atmosphere hope as well. She is definitely brilliant and unique.
Inspired from the maze-like streets of Tokyo, Christophe Josse created a variety of looks with embroideries that were intertwined and had intricate serpentine trimmings. The collection was mostly in black and white. Small bodices and wide skirts were the main silhouette.
In the mix there were some looks that had some comfort such as a black sleeveless dress with embroidery on the front. There was a pop of color such as a pale pink gowns in satin and chiffon and navy blue.
Overall this collection was fabulously feminine and had the right light touches that made everything look pretty.
Perfect!
Meticulous, manicured hedges by Belgian landscape artist Martin Wirtz was the stage for the anticipated Christian Dior couture presentation. It is definitely a pretty turn from the elaborate and beautifully dense setting of flowers from fall. Raf Simons said this is the very idea of spring. And so it was when the confections made their presence. The models were all done up and styled with small feathered caps of hair and wore sparkling red lips dressed in these originals.
The theme is similar to the allure to his fall couture and this time for spring it is even better.
The presentation started with a bustier dress with a black bodice, simply draped, with a delicious skirt in a Fifties cut and length.
Simons continues to reinvent the nipped in the waist tuxedos, and the bustiers worn over cigarette pants that models' hands were tucked into. There was a reference of Dior's iconic "Bar" jacket in flare at the hem of scoop-neck satin tops and in the ethereal, trumpet-shaped bridal gowns that came at the climax of the show.
Simons continued using the great ideas from his debut. Instead of embroideries on the front and back of his dresses, they were planted in an asymmetric fashion on fitted gowns and on a short sleeved dress in a sea foam color.
Simons gave some looks a modern and futuristic feel by using colors that were bold and unique like using neon yellow embroideries on a black bustier or tinting the edges of floral shapes with a shade of red on a cream column of Guipere lace.
Simons said he is taking things slow in the makeover of Dior. He didn't want to do a heavy concept, hence the idea of the garden, flowers, spring and the evolution of that.
The snow made Paris beautiful yet the streets were slushy. After viewing this impeccable collection spring is not such a bad idea after all! Wearing any of these Christian Dior creations will make spring even more fabulous!
The setting was the splenderous Italian Embassy in Paris which Giambattista Valli chose for his fourth couture presentation. This time he revealed a collection that was mostly sleek and sculptural.
He opened the show with a wasp silhouette, minimalist evening coat that was cinched in the waist and made of silk fabric that was of an abstract lynx fur print.
This set the tone what was about to come as the main template for the collection. Black and white animal prints on short or long dresses or bearing light decoration. Coats and dresses embroidered with flowers with petals composed of feathers was an example of Valli restraining from hedgelike volumes thus showing his restrained side. There was also a sexy like a bustier dress with animal print veiled in black tulle which was graphic as well.
Purely elegant were the wonderful dresses that were nipped in the waist with multi layered tulle twinkling with tiny crystals. Youthfully sexy were the very short dresses in heavy curtain brocades with swaying Watteau backs.
At the end the finale looks were just grand in heavy silks and bearing long trains with structured bodices and sweeping skirts that were regal and sublime.
Valli continues to design haute couture beautifully. He offers impeccable design and craftsmanship that are all sublime in detail, texture and creativity. What a beautiful spring it will be for 2013 for the House of Giambattista Valli!
Alexis Mabille is now an official Paris couture house. He celebrated by creating a venue in bubble gum pink that will match up with the frothy designs he sent down the runway. The show opened with a sheer pink chiffon blouse that had white sleeves and a pink peplum that was quite a froufrou paired with narrow pink razimir pants.
There was netting throughout from a white flirty cocktail dress layered in a dotted veil to a couple of dresses that had curtain like Neoprine mesh that were sweeping the floor. Some of the dresses had some bows and flowers on the shoulders that were just not the right touches.
The only look that was the strongest was a black belted tuxedo dress that was cut away in the front that revealed plenty of leg. Why couldn't Mabille create more looks like that?
I do like Alexis Mabille's sense of whimsy but this time it made me raise an eyebrow and made me go through his collection fast!
"How can we outdo ourselves?" is the question Marc Jacobs asked at the same time the grand, gilded merry-go-round was being disassembled. A deliciously wicked tale of two Belle Epoque archrival divas came to mind. Jacobs had read the story by Louise J. Esterhazy column from the W magazine of yore, and retold it during a preview with the disclaimer that memory might not serve exactly. When one lady - Sarah Bernhardt? - found out that the other planned to arrive at an important ball wearing her jewelry collection en totale, she promptly trumped her nemesis by showing up in a plain black dress, trailed by her maid, who was bedecked in all her mistresses' bijoux. Marc Jacobs thought that no girl will be carrying a bag this season and that it will be carried for her.
Two massive steel doors opened and a full scale, navy blue locomotive with the name Louis Vuitton emblazoned on the tank in gold lettering, pulled into the temporary LV station at Cour Carré du Louvre blasting steam into the front row as it jugged along. All aboard were elegant ladies in crumpled pony skin hats with fluffy floral add-ons and sky high, square toe mary-janes. They all disembarked one by one, each greeted by her own uniformed porter to handle her fantastic bags. These bags were in splendid ostrich, mink, croc and more.
The clothes were as equally splendid in layers of patchworks, pony hair, holographic tweeds and jewels. Craftwork on these clothes were exquisite. Its focus was yielded extraordinary fabrications, such as jumbo mosaic beading, a floral pony hair "plaid" on coats and skirts, and holographic tweeds in trippy shades of green and purple. Each square of the incredible patchwork leathers had been numbered and meticulously pieced together like a puzzle.
Marc Jacobs said he did have a lot to work with even though this collection looked simple and brilliantly rich. This time he did outdo himself and I am sure he will do the same in the next spring season.
This was a journey to the center of the Earth by Chanel. Rich-toned minerals of sparkling hues, where the granite sand glistened and huge stalagmites of various greys and purples soared high beneath the Grand Palais. Lagerfeld quipped in a preview that "nature makes a good designer, no?"
The clothes were the absolute Chanel sportif. It was beyond wearable and perfect pieces to choose from and make your own. The colors were deep purples, blues, greens, grays and some reds. All chic looks on the runway and off. All of it looked chic. There were great long coats, great new suit variations, many with sporty jackets.
Everything was shown with pants, some were of the skinny ones and some mimicked jeans, some were knitted. A peekaboo lace version went under a graphically patterned fur jacket.
For evening there was plenty of sparkle and shine.
There were metallic-shot tweeds, metallic blouses, coats and jackets with exaggerated graphic metallic panels that look like cut amethysts.
Raw-cut stone jewelry, a split personality shoe- half bootie and half mary jane, with acrylic and rock crystal heels all tied these Chanel pieces together leaving room for the clients to pick and choose anything and everything for their wardrobes.
Karl Lagerfeld does the house of Chanel justice with his ever evolving ideas and visions. This was a magical and functional collection that he came up with for fall/winter 2012 that is a nice spin on sport mixed with chic.
