Paris Fashion Week: The Week That Was
The last city of the fashion month circuit, Paris serves many purposes. It ties together everything that’s been building up in the other cities. What you’re noting down as trends through New York, London, and Milan, finally culminate in the city that lives and breathes fashion. Shows take over landmark locations (read Saint Laurent’s Eiffel Tower takeover), traffic stops for the show happening outside as much as inside (we see you fashion week peacocks), and creative collaboration become conversation starters (Louis Vuitton’s Nicholas Ghesquière sat front row at Chloe, and Dries Van Noten brought magic in association with the OG fashion dreamer, Christian Lacroix). So with our hearts in Mumbai and eyes on Paris, we bring you the top four shows — believe us when we say it was the hardest choice we’ve ever made — and the trends we’re counting on come summer of 2020.
Chloé
There were no artistic collaborations with far-off Indian artists, no feminist proclamations on T-shirts, but Natacha Ramsay-Levi’s fifth collection for Chloe was everything a modern woman hopes to have in her wardrobe. Pinstripe shirt dresses, but with a twist of fabric and jewellery that are a lesson in unstudied sophistication. There was less of the global wanderer vibe and more of everyday French polish with all the markers of pure insouciant Parisian style.
Saint Laurent
In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Anthony Vaccarello served up a wardrobe that made a strong case for sparkle and shine. As the towering building twinkled, so did the sequin-speckled suits. And while Noami Campbell stunned in one such shimmering smoking suit (a revival of Yves Saint Laurent’s OG), the rest of the show packed ultra short shorts (the kind Kate Moss would wear to Glastonbury festival circa early aughts), but paired with tuxedos and matador-style jackets, folklore and urban legend inspired jewellery, and dark denim city shorts and Bermudas, lest we forget that black can be re-channelled and reiterated as a hot weather classic.
Balmain
For Olivier Rousteing it was a celebration of colour. Not just in the rainbow-hued colour blocked clothes but also the models who were of different shades and shapes. But between the bold cobalt blue and blood orange, there were palate cleansers, little doses of minimalism, but infused with something off-kilter. With Rousteing, it can never be straight-laced. So there were half black, half white jumpsuits, slits at the waist, and peek-a-boo mid-riffs that are all but necessary in the book of Balmain glamour.
Dries Van Noten
What do you get when you put together the fantastical aspirations of 80s designer Christian Lacroix and the urban know-how of Dries Van Noten? A match made in fashion heaven. The push of plush glamour and the pull of elevated everyday wear met in a simple white tank top but with an 80s mutton sleeve (singular) and reams of ribbons. You’ll have to see it to believe it. As with everything magic.
