Paris: Ready-to-Wear Overview

by Kasia Koniar

Twice a year Paris, the Mecca of fashion becomes the playground for the Ready-to-Wear week of frenzy and excitement related to the new emerging styles from under the scissors of the most gifted designers. The entire City hums with an array of events, art expos, parties and cocktails, which are an inevitable part of the week of madness. Fashion editors, models, designers, stylists, celebs, and buyers all sport apparent shadows under their eyes due to the lack of sleep. Thankfully adrenalin and champagne bubbles help in overcoming the fatigue.

This season the fashion week opened up on Sunday Oct 2 nd with shows by the likes of Rick Owens and Yohji Yamamoto. Louis Vuitton majestically closed off the week on Sunday the 9 th with a show as well as almost an entire day of parallel events, like the LV Boutique opening on the Champs Elysees, a cocktail and an after party.

There were many exciting moments during the past week, one of the highlights was the reopening of the main part of the Grand Palais, a place of cultural and artistic expositions, which was closed for renovation since 1993, and which several houses chose as the venue of their shows, these included Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent.

Three young talents emerging since a few
seasons are ravaging the world of Parisian fashion, Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, Olivier Theyskens for Rochas, and the controversial newcomer Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy

Balenciaga was the first major show at the Paris Spring Summer ready to wear collections. The entire happening was experimental, surprising and stunning. Ghesquiere, based the first few white dresses on Cristobal Balenciaga’s designs, then let out onto the runway a sort of romantic/goth rock and roll silhouette, with skinny pants, tight jackets and rococo flowy shirts richly ordained in lace and embroidery. Amazing black lace dresses followed with at the end a slight overdose of lace decorations in white frilly waves and almost rococo excess. Regardless, the outcome was magnificent, true craftsmanship!

At Rochas the colors were rather subdued, and melancholy as the drawn out music accompanying the models’ steps. First on the runway we saw pantsuits,
and it is important to add that it is the first time Olivier Theyskens introduced those into his line famous for romantic gowns and dresses. They were shown in solid earthy tones and with a bag resembling a small violin case. However, the young designer does have a special touch when it comes to those elegant and delicate Edwardian Silhouettes, the long dresses were absolutely breath taking, not surprisingly, his inspiration came from Monet’s paintings.

The clothes at Givenchy’s show were surprisingly restricting and too engineered as opposed to Ricardo Tisci’s last Haute couture creations which were somewhere between romanticism and gothic subtlety. The tight dresses and clunky shoes gave an impression of torture devices.

John Galliano showcased a circus like performance with couples of midgets, tall men and women, fat ladies and other wonders of nature with only scarce models here and there. Jean Paul Gaultier on the other hand used many peasant and eastern European elements, while making children and men accompany the models on the hey covered runway. A very beautiful and voluptuous bride closed the show. Perhaps fashion is finally taking a new look at beauty?

Overall, the ready to wear proved that even if femininity subsides, even if frilly peasant accents can still be felt here and there, there is a general tendency to introduce bolder shapes and cuts, straighter and more constrained lines. 60’s inspirations are even apparent in the fuscia, purple, mustard, chocolate, bold reds as well as black and whites. Above the knee shorts and imprimés are everywhere. Ladylike elegance will surely accompany us to the beaches next summer.