Eye on Couture: After today the bars were raised higher for Paris.

When designers do wonderful work from a previous season, they need to think about the next wonderful collection they can create because the bars a raised higher. Today in Paris there was a demonstration of it.
Nina Ricci's collection was called "Portrait of a Lady" and it was based on the work of artists John Singer, Marlene Dumas and John Sargent. Very feminine with classic and contemporary mixtures of cut and style, this was one of Peter Copping's more sophisticated endeavors for Nina Ricci.
Another one of these collections where there was a play of masculine and feminine was Dusan. Dusan Paunovic's vision came across as an experiment with shapes and some eighties influence. The jodhpur style pants were an accent and some were tucked in boots and I liked the wool dresses with bat wing sleeves.
The inspiration for Roland Mouret's collection was New York. And what can be found here are great sportswear pieces from maxi to midi and casual to dressy. What is wonderful about the dresses is that they are cut to precision and made perfect for the body.
Isabel Merchant came up with a look that is youthful and artistic. Patchwork in some pieces with some Native American influences of water color feather prints and fringes hanging on dresses and pants were creatively done. The only thing is that the fringes were everywhere through out and was a bit gimmicky.
I LOVED Issey Miyake. This collection was the last show for Dai Fujiwara as creative director. He has designed for Miyake for 5 years and spent 12 years training under Issey Miyake himself. The successor will be announced in a few months. Loved the black and white pieces that opened the show. Triangle shapes, prints and patterns, origami, zig-zag and some bright as well as a sprinkle of jewel tones were just some great artistic elemtnts that colored the entire collection. What a wonderful collection Mr. Fujiwara!
Maison Margiella Couture was like a couture collection. The dresses looked like coats because they were made of heavy wool, techno materials and pastel printed shearling. There some beautiful soft dresses as well with some well done draping and some beading. The deconstruction, which is his trademark was definitely present.
Hardware and software was mixed at Lanvin. Alber Elbaz did a wonderful job in adding metal fixtures on some suits. Gradually there were some large medallions and 3-D flowers. There were amazing silhouettes. Some sleeves were done with the perfect extravaganza. And there were bold prints and wonderful pops of colors that quenched my thirst for Lanvin. Alber Elbas, you did it again.
Yes, the bars were raised and the the designers went over that bar leaving an imprint of some of the best work. Funny thing is that now the bars are raised higher, once again.

Nina Ricci Fall/Winter 2011

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