With the #pfw, the Paris Fashion Week, the fashion month came to an and, between rock and avant-garde, Paris has presented, as always, the best proposals for Fall/Winter 2019-20.
If you missed them, well take a look down here.
Balmain
Today, somewhere very likely in Paris, given the local nature of Balmain, a very low-end supplier of pointed metal studs probably will not believe in his luck, because he will have already exceeded the sales target of 2019 thanks to the Balmain collection which featured more pointed protuberances than a porcupine convention in a cactus farm.
These thousands of studs, practically everywhere, were there to act as protagonists. Alongside many other decorative dichotomies, they represented one side of the theme that Olivier Rousteing said to explore in his articulation of the Balmain woman today: “She has a strong attitude, she is a troublemaker and does not care, it’s provocative, but it’s also a paradox : she can be sweet and romantic too, she can be an angel … or a devil, she can not be categorized. ”
The “good / bad” or “soft / hard” dichotomy extracted from Rousteing has seen the codes of a Parisian bourgeois with her fragrant wardrobe full of couture bouclé which, however, leaves ample space for garments with dramatically ruffled 80s shapes, which sees the contrast between the docile and feminine girl and the punk, stronger and masculine.
Chanel
Only a few days after the death of the late Karl Lagerfeld, the luxurious fashion house brought its audience to the legendary Grand Palais, set up like a real winter village, complete with snow and ski slopes. The Fall/Winter 2019-20 range marks Lagerfeld’s latest collection for the home and the show was an emotional tribute to the designer’s extensive career, history and work. Chanel’s muse, Cara Delevingne opened the show in a black and white tweed suit, coat and hat, in true Chanel style. Continuing, we saw a handful of layered garments, long coats, wide-leg pants and luxury accessories, and then ended with a selection of bold pink, turquoise and red looks. We also saw a luxury version of the duvet, as well as boots with fur details. Naturally, a range of new bags has been introduced, ranging from crossbody pieces to elegant bumbags. At the end of the show, all the models came out on the catwalk to give the last greeting to the iconic designer. The emotional show made the tears come to both the models, and to the audience holding hands the invitations that showed an illustration of Lagerfeld hand in hand with Coco Chanel, completed with the words “the beat continues …”.
Dior
Maria Grazia Chiuri referred to the archives by digging through pieces from the 50s and 60s, and came across the black leather jacket by Yves Saint Laurent, which Chiuri revisited for the FW19 collection. The models sported bucket hats in a wide range of materials, inspired by the Teddy Girls and post-war English rock’n’roll. During the presentation, we also saw new iterations of John Galliano’s iconic Saddle Bag, as well as Dior’s new Book Tote, which highlights the designer’s eye for accessories.
Among the distinctive pieces are the t-shirts with the “Sisterhood is Global”, “Sisterhood is Powerful” and “Sisterhood is Forever” logo, which add to the long series of Dior slogans that pay homage to Robin Morgan’s literary works.
Givenchy
Waight Keller has dedicated a good part of the development of this collection to a series of pleated dresses with floral print, a reworking of the same ones already presented for spring. Inspired by Japanese vases, the fresh colors of the clothes and the pictorial patterns, with their pleated pleating, touch the body without adhering.
The other work of Waight Keller in this season revolves around the tailoring, experimenting with a range of shoulder pads with exaggerated volumes, including a decadent 90s-style shoulder, a strong 40s form and boldly, a sculptural and rounded style with visible stitching. There were also a pair of quilts, one for men and one for women, and an acid-washed denim jacket, but these were decidedly anomalous pieces in what was an essentially formal collection.
Louis Vuitton
For this season, Nicolas Ghesquière has thought of the line that separates digital and the real world.
The idea was to recreate those different “tribes” or subcultures before Instagram (and the Internet, more widely) flattened the experience and made us all look the same.
The models, between metallic scaffolding and interior work painted with primary colors, have paraded on the catwalk with flat boots and men’s lace-ups, in a mosaic of textures, prints and embellishments in punk-metal style. Like the floral quilted jacket and the oversize gilet, they have qualified as the most surprising elements of the show. Eclecticism and audacity was the virtue of the entire collection.
Saint Laurent
The new collection by Anthony Vaccarello is perhaps one of the most defined aesthetic, and for Autumn/Winter he brought back the rocker-chic heights on the catwalk. With sequins, mini dresses in leather and satin, angular blazers and dramatic silhouettes, Vaccarello has definitely awakened the party animal that hovers inside us. But not only. A range of neon garments illuminated the catwalk with pink, orange and green colors. Feathered dresses, explicit shades and bright shoes shone in the pitch-black room, surprising the audience and marveling at the exciting pieces.
Comme des Garçons
All the heaviness of a world messed up by the actions of humans has been incorporated into the Fall Winter 2019 fashion show by Comme des Garçons. Rei Kawakubo leaves no room for imagination facing the fears that are the background to everyday life and taking them on the catwalk through the shapes of clothes. Here then are women wrapped in a black rubber armor with protruding hips and shoulder straps, hoods with a nightmare visor and hairstyles with an ecclesiastical appearance. No doubt: the workmanship of these garments was phenomenal, both in the pieces of sculptural rubber, and in the intensely layered 3-D embroidery.
Balenciaga
Amid the acrid smell of asphalt and strobe lights, the Balenciaga show frames Demna Gvasalia‘s vision on the streets of Paris. Like many other shows, this also seems a shelter from the background distractions with the intent to bring out the outlines: the minimal and cool tailoring with an upturned textured shoulder; coats and wrap-around jackets without buttons and minimalist-chic suits designed to please both men and women. Here are one or two things that have stood out.
His adaptation of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s monastic silhouettes such as high collars and hoods and the total absence of sneakers goes in favor of black leather shoes with a square toe and new high boots for men. We therefore witness an extreme, intellectually witty extension of the reputation of Gvasalia.
Off-White™
Virgil Abloh showed his Fall Winter 2019 collection for his Off-White ™ label, offering virtually everything from shiny leggings and tight-fitting athleisure pieces to extravagant clothes and well-tailored coats, proving to be a man of many talents. The collection also featured a series of new bags, with a luxurious silhouette complimented with the Off-White ™ “X” logo on the front. We also saw oversized boots, elegant décolleté and of course a selection of sneakers.
