PARIS – Bye, New York! Ciao, Milan! Bonjour, Paris!
The world’s largest travelling circus of fashion editors, models, buyers and journalists has descended on the French capital, clutching their metro maps and city guides, to cap the ready-to-wear fashion season.
For fall-winter 2015-16, the dizzying 92 scheduled shows mean the nine-day “week” almost tears at the seams, with events starting early in the day and finishing later than ever at night.
Tuesday – day one – saw collections dominated by rising star Anthony Vaccarello, who has been chosen as the creative designer of Versace’s sister line, Versus.
Here’s a look at the highlights:
ANTHONY VACCARELLO’S MATCH MADE IN VERSACE HEAVEN
The Italian-Belgian designer is the fashion man of the moment. One of Paris’ younger emerging talents, Vaccarello has made a name for himself with provocative styles that are revealing without being vulgar. So the announcement this January that Vaccarello would get together with his spiritual sister Donatella Versace to work on her Versus diffusion line looked like a match made in heaven.
In Tuesday’s show, the 32-year-old showed exactly why he’s been tapped by the Italian super-house.
The vibe felt very ’80s and very Italian, with sharp shoulders, studs and thigh-high stripper boots with lashings of black leather and suede. Splits in the side of an asymmetrical little black dress was adorned with sexy belt fastenings. Stars motifs added a feminine twinkle in the collection that seemed to bridge more than ever the similarities between the Versace and the Vaccarello universes.
PARIS CELEBRATES JEANNE LANVIN
Along with Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, she towered high for decades as one of the pillars of French fashion. Now iconic designer Jeanne Lanvin, who died in 1946, will be honoured in a new exhibition opening this week at the Paris City Fashion museum at the Palais Galliera.
The show will be inaugurated by Paris’ Mayor Anne Hidalgo and celebrates Lanvin as being the oldest operating fashion house in France. It’s a rich legacy that has spanned the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
“Jeanne Lanvin” will run until August 23.
EACH X OTHER
Each X Other describes itself as a “new androgyne collaborative art and fashion brand, a magnetic point where roads cross and people finally meet.”
At their strong debut show in Paris, brand founders Jenny Mannerheim and Ilan Delouis stuck to this mantra and injected a nice whiff of menswear to a highly cool showing of linear styles. With a funky, contemporary art space backdrop at the Palais de Tokyo and a cryptic Goethe quote on the wall, it’s clear this house is trying to set itself up as a space where art meets fashion.
It worked.
Dark, silken jumpsuits with round collars contrasted with the sharp lapels and square shoulders of a menswear tuxedo. Subtle chevron patterning gave a twist to a cream overcoat. And huge textured knitting in an oversize blue cocoon sweater was an invitation to a cuddle.
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