Clubbing. Valentino SS23 Couture

January 27, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

This season, Pierpaolo Piccioli took Valentino haute couture to the club, leaving behind the highly elevated feeling he so succesfully conveyed in the last couple or years. His venue, at night, was a famous Paris joint under the Pont Alexandre. His point about standing for inclusivity is definitely intended to be heard by the wider world of young people. “Of course, I love it that haute couture is about the magic of impossible challenges,” he began. “Of course it’s about craft, and we talk about that all the time, but I also love it when couture feels effortless. It’s all about the feeling of having something for yourself. It’s kind of democratic in a way, in the idea of showing this freedom of being whoever you want to be.” On his inspiration board were photos of clubs in the 1980s, ranging from Studio 54 to London’s New Romantic Blitz Club, the Club For Heroes one-nighter and the Taboo, hosted by the outrageous performance artist Leigh Bowery. What all these scenes, underground or jet-set, had in common was that they were hotbeds for generating fashion and havens for what used to be called ‘gender-bending.’ “The difference was that then, it was behind closed doors. Now it’s something we have for life. It’s today’s way of freedom,” he argued. “So I love the idea of a club, but it’s a club for today. Thinking of inclusivity as welcoming people for who they are, and who they want to be. So it’s invitation to be free to be what you want ro be, mixed with the codes of Mr. Valentino in the ’80s.” Still, haute couture formalities were observed in a way – Valentino’s creatures of the night weren’t presented as a wild crowd of dancers, but as models walking on a runway, haute couture standards of solemnity preserved. What emerged from the darkness were pops of color, dark Parisian sexy black transparent lingerie dresses, and many varieties of strategic body-exposure. In 89 looks, Piccioli put forward individualism in tiny pelmet skirts or cutaway bodysuits implanted with giant bows worn with floor-trailing capes, a dress with cutout polkadot portholes, and white shirts and ties styled with micro-minis (one with a dramatic red sequin trench). In overall this wasn’t my favorite Valentino couture moment, but Piccioli definitely had some working on it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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That’s Haute. Jean Paul Gaultier by Haider Ackermann SS23 Couture

January 27, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Oh Haider, we’ve missed you. The news of Haider Ackermann being the next guest designer for Jean Paul Gaultier‘s haute couture dialogue felt unreal. Until the first model appeared on the ice-blue carpet under the roof of Gaultier’s house. Everything came together: the sense of the haute values of design being the point of it. The models who really delivered a show and poses. Gaultier’s haute couture house ateliers who expressed it in body-sharp tailoring, and crisply-scissored drape. And of course Haider Ackermann, the designer who with his signature style and incredible artistry could lead a couple of snoozy Parisian houses (Givenchy, for instance). Ackermann is the fourth of the designers to have been tapped on the shoulder for a one-season collaboration, since Gaultier retired. He follows Olivier Rousteing of Balmain, Glenn Martens of Y/Project, and Chitose Abe of Sacai. Ackermann, the most grown-up guest thus far, was perhaps aesthetically the least likely yet to have been invited to respond to Gaultier’s storied metier. As he admitted just before the show, “I don’t have a sense of humor at all! I have my gravity, and he has his generosity and joy – we are two worlds apart. But at the same time, we have many things in common. Because we both love women, we adore women, respect women.” The convergence he found began with Gaultier’s tailoring. “To go back to the essence of his work, which was perfect. People forget how immaculate his tailoring was. His work was magical. So I tried to go back to the pure lines, to find a calmness and moment of grace. Because I believe his work was magical.” When the women began to walk out, they slowly and with a deliberate collectivity embodied the spirit of old-world couture stances, pausing to strike poses in front of photographers as if they were in an Irving Penn shoot. The pace and the intimacy of the staging meant that every single lingering silhouette and detail could be taken in close-up. The whiteness of the cuffs on immaculate black trouser suits, cut sometimes with tailcoats and conceptual plackets of frogging, sometimes reduced to pure minimal outline. One skinny-trousered two-piece came with a diagonal slash across the jacket and a hip-level obi-cummerbund – a stunning aesthetic fusion of Ackermann and Gaultier in one look. On top of that, Ackermann proved himself as a colorist and a dressmaker, draping extraordinary serpentine gowns and varieties of chic coat dresses with contrasting linings. It made it sink in how rare it is these days that outstanding drama and chic minimalism go together. Somehow, high fashion now has a need for being loud and gimmick-y. This, without turning backwards or being in the least camp, made a progressive case for the sensational powers of haute couture in the modern world. That was Ackermann’s intention: to bring the subject of haute couture back to the clothes. He did that superbly. “I knew Jean Paul liked my work, but I never thought this would come my way. I’m already a long time in business. It’s usually like, okay, give it to the younger ones,” he said. “And so, to design is one of the most wonderful feelings. I really love my job, and this made me love it even more. It’s been like a love affair between me, and the ladies in the atelier.” The arrangement with the house is for one season only. “It makes me sad to leave all this behind. But if I’ve created 10 minutes of grace when everyone can forget about their problems, and I’ve honored Monsieur, and something that’s also necessary for fashion in 2023, then I’ll be happy.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Ball Gown. Viktor & Rolf SS23 Couture

January 26, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Viktor & Rolf seem to own the “meme” couture niche. It’s all about haute ideas that have a tendency to instantly go viral. This season, the Dutch designers focused on elevating – or rather, mocking – the concept of a hysterically saccharine ball gown. The first three dresses were classically-constructed, cupcake-shaped ball gowns, with corset waists embellished with crystals and bows and sugary pastel skirts. Then came a model in a beige corset, her peach dress bobbing along 10cm in front of her, held off her body with a hidden frame, and looking as though it were being ferried along by the mice in Cinderella. One model wore her ball gown upside down, her vision completely obscured by an inverted 3-D printed bodice and layers of tightly sewn powder-blue tulle. Others wore pretty pastel creations that were slightly askew, held by a frame on an angle just off their bodies, as though they were the result of a photoshopping error. A couple wore their debutante-style dresses perpendicular to their bodies. Somehow they kept their faces humorless as they processed through the gilded ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel in sparkling Louboutin kitten heels. The effect was giggle-inducing. “It’s an absurd take on the stereotype of a couture ballgown,” said Rolf Snoeren backstage. “Which we translated for the 21st century,” added Viktor Horsting. Snoeren continued: “It comes from a love of glamour [but] like our perfume, we want it to be beautiful and we also want it to have a clever idea.” There was a comment here about internet culture and how consuming visuals on our phones – snapping photographs and immediately being able to invert them, using filters to distort and enhance our silhouettes and bone structure – has warped our sense of reality. “There is a disconnect between what we see, and the physicality of the product,” said Snoeren. Then there is the internet’s context-less state, where one scroll can take you from a fashion show to a mass shooting. “The information that comes at us, going from making banana cake to so many people being killed in Ukraine,” said Snoeren. “It’s: What kind of world are we living in? It’s absurd,” Horsting concluded.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Fantastic Drama. Miss Sohee SS23 Couture

January 26, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s not the easiest thing to be a young couture brand and try entering the Parisian haute couture schedule. South Korean newcomer Sohee Park is the most exciting emerging talent, who with confidence introduced herself to this quite intimidating scene. Last season Sohee caused quite a sensation in Milan, where she presented a fabulously theatrical collection supported by Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce. Despite being freshly graduated from London’s Central Saint Martins, showmanship was demonstrable, as was her crystal clear vision and savoir faire. Miss Sohee’s solo debut was staged in the gilded salons of the Westin Paris-Vendôme, formerly known as The Intercontinental Hotel, where the crème de la crème of French couturiers past put on memorable shows; actually it was where Yves Saint Laurent used to present his unforgettable collections. The salon was bathed in a dark, nocturnal light, setting the tone for the mood Sohee wanted to convey. She didn’t go for predictability, but took a different route from Milanese outing. “It’s always about drama and fantasy,” she explained. “But this time it’s darker, sexier. There’s lots of black, it’s such a seductive color that gives depth and mystery. I wanted to play with the idea of shadows, so I added veils and transparencies.” In contrast to last season’s voluminous concoctions, the silhouette was kept fitted to the body with corsetry to help achieve the hourglass shapes the designer was after. Intricate embroideries of flowers, birds, and insects were inspired by the paintings of a 19th century Korean artist. They graced the chiffon-and-tulle layered trails on sinuous mermaid numbers, or the heart-shaped, sequined fringed bustiers of tight-fitted satin dresses. A cascade of black crystals dropped from the neckline of a billowy, liquid cape in absinthe green satin, which looked quite sensational. There were many attractive pieces in the show; while tightly-edited, it emphasized Sohee’s range, as well as her seductive eye for embellishments and her penchant for graceful flamboyance.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Habitat. Chanel SS23 Couture

January 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

The latest Chanel couture collection is drama-free and controversy-negative. Generally pretty and easily digestible clothes. And there were animals, too – but not in a Schiaparelli kind of way. What comes up when you research Coco Chanel’s home interior is her love for an animal theme: a model of a camel on a side-table, large bronzes of deer clustered around her fireplace, and lion effigies here, there, and everywhere. Virginie Viard collaborated with the artist Xavier Veilhan to come up with a set idea for the spring-summer 2023 couture show orbiting around Coco’s cozy habitat. A parade of something between cute Chanel drum majorettes, or perhaps, circus ringmasters, appeared on yesterday’s runway. They flipped along in their short, flared suits with the odd top hat and bow tie, shod in little white cross-laced boots with Chanel’s signature black-tipped toes. By this time, they were walking around Veilhan’s menagerie of mobile animal sculptures – a horse, lion, deer, buffalo, bird, fish, dog, and elephant – which had been trundled out to join the camel. Still, it’s not in Viard’s nature as a creative director to push a concept over clothes. Instead, here was a collection of haute couture that felt youthfully relatable. The spectacle of her march of the majorettes simply became a device for freshening up the template of Chanel day suits, led out by a charming military-jacketed number in white. That was followed by varieties of abbreviated, gilded Chanel tweeds: a short trapeze coat, de-frumpified box-pleated skirts cut as minis, and then a tiny sugar-pink coat-dress with a stand-away collar. It was a bit ’60s Mod maybe, but not too obviously. And then, at the finale, out popped the bride from a hidden door in the elephant. She was wearing a little white dress entirely covered with embroidered doves and a white bow tie. It was a charming sight.