Models wear creations by British fashion designer John Galliano as part of his Fall-Winter ready-to-wear fashion collection 2010, presented in Paris, Sunday March 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
(AP)
Sober workaday chic and theatrical extravagance battled for the hearts and minds of the fashion glitteratti on Sunday, day five of Paris' marathon fall-winter 2010-11 ready-to-wear displays.
Celine designer Phoebe Philo — a critical darling whose return to fashion after a yearslong hiatus was the event of last season — delivered a collection of sharp, clean-lined work staples for professional women who want to be fashion-forward — without looking like their teenage daughters. Swiss label Akris also served up tasteful grown up clothes for professional women, in sumptuous cashmeres with crystal rhinestone embellishments. Both shows were a welcome respite from the over-the-top looks at other Paris shows.
Though it couldn't last. (And nor would we want it to.)
In a multibillion dollar industry concerned with the bottom line, the French capital is widely seen as the last bastion of true creativity, where fancy, flight and madness are accepted and even encouraged. John Galliano, the British eccentric who has long born the torch of overwrought creativity, was in excellent form, with a rollicking theatrical spectacle that involved enormous sparklers, exaggerated layered looks and copious amounts of fur.
Givenchy's maestro of masochism, the super talented Riccardo Tisci, plumbed the depths of the Id, serving up a mouthwatering collection of kinky looks concocted from such apparently innocent ingredients as old school ski sweaters and neoprene, the fabric wetsuits are made of.
Karl Lagerfeld, the ponytailed Kaiser of contemporary fashion, also looked to scubadiving for a latex and vinyl-heavy show of vaguely wetsuit-y looks.
Sonia Rykiel, the queen of knitwear, broke with popular convention requiring models to wear irritated expressions and march angrily down the catwalk. Her models, sporting whimsical trompe l'oeil dresses and cute knit overalls, jaunted happily down the runway, slapping high fives as they passed one another and even — gasp — smiling!
It was a mixed bag at Hussein Chalayan. The Turkish designer drew on a hodgepodge of disparate influences — think Puritan milk maid, Argentine birdwatcher and knitting enthusiast — turning out a collection in which randomness seemed to be the sole real theme.
Paris' eight-day-long ready-to-wear displays enter day six Monday, with displays by Beatle daughter Stella McCartney, whimsical label Kenzo and flailing French house Emanuel Ungaro.
GIVENCHY
It's amazing how kinky an old-school ski sweater can be.
In the hands of Givenchy designer Tisci, even the most naive and tenderhearted looks are imbued with a brooding, dangerous sensuality. Case in point, Sunday's show, which faintly pulsated with latent S&M impulses.
The display, held in a cavernous high school where the body-heat generated by the closely packed audience members was the sole source of warmth, started off tamely. Except for the rhinestone-covered knit gloves and bags, the camel colored jackets and pantsuits that opened the show looked almost utterly unremarkable. But the momentum built quickly.
