Alber Elbaz AGAIN gives us boheme chic. Yes, it’s great, but not when you see it each season for the second year. Same sequins, feathers and prints. And those Pucci-esque gypsy themes… I say no to that, even though we’ve got some ultra appealing shades of burgundy here.
After the menswear show, I thought that Rick Owens will go full frontal, too, for women. But he totally took another direction – wild and gold were the keywords of the collection. The models had gold and sliver plated on their faces while hair of different animals jutted out of the savagely tied and layered tunics and dresses. The final effect is strong, I must say – the models looked totally out-of-this world in this type of styling. If talking of the clothes, we’ve got some interesting embroidery and detailing; the colour palette is earthy and surprisingly warm us for Rick’s dark world.
The AF Vandevorst couple presented a collection, which was very personal to them – their favourite hard rock music meets Peru, their favourite lately visited country. Long leather boots contrasted with Peruvian pom-pons while tribal-inspired way of wearing scarves looked ultra-cool with fur-trimmed dresses. And all of that was interpreted in deeply poetic black. “In our Belgian way, we took out all the colors,” An said backstage. Rose floral jacquard, patterned Quechua weaving motifs, layered Andean skirts, and Spanish colonial frill were thus all made black and once or twice white and grey. The avant-garde Stephen Jones hats were all about condors and signature AF Vandevorst fedoras. The silhouettes were long, lean, and brooding, even floor sweeping in some cases. The band playing along-side the presentation made the entire impression even better and emotional. Huge, huge bravo for An and Filip!
Olivier Rousteing’s heavy tribute to Grace Jones was visible at every point of his new collection for Balmain – the bold shapes of accessories, the vibrant patterns, the non-chalant cuts, capes and over-sized pantalons – I mean, EVERYTHING. Glamour, chic, sex – with a bit of cheesy accents – felt on the right place, like always at Balmain. A continuation on the eighties themes that we’ve seen developing successively for AW15 naturally was present. It was a collection that showed Rousteing doing what he does best: power dressing some of the world’s most recognisable faces and icons.
In the 20th century, Paco Rabanne wanted to create a wardrobe for modern women; in 21st century, we’ve got Julien Dossena who wants to make Paco Rabanne the future go-to label. The result for AW15 is pleasing – iconic chain dresses, astronaut-like mesh jackets (like the one worn by Aya Jones), voluminous varsity jackets and very wearable ankle boots. The zips were the key here, too – they were mostly everywhere, giving us some leg or exposing shoulders. The sheer fabrics there and there and brought sex-appeal which was slightly missed by Julien in previous seasons. In other words – Dossena feels like in the right shoes at Paco’s house.
By me for nuicons.com
Design & Culture by Ed 