Céline Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Phoebe Philo presented confident, distinctive women with a taste for classic luxury in her runway-show for Celine. That luxury looked advanced and individualized with a quirky cut, proportion, color or print. There was a sense of cosmopolitan practicality and versatility. Like the girl in the brown trench, crinkled as if it had been folded in a suitcase and worn with a leather hood tied around the neck, pants and galoshlike pointy leather boots. The woman in the black-and-blond fur coat over a casual navy V-neck sweater, aqua blue T-shirt and pants that zipped down over white heels, carrying a large, plain black canvas tote, like a reusable shopping bag, could have been trying to look like she wasn’t trying to look chic at the grocery store. A model — in a modernist Josephine dress, draped and gathered at the hem over lace tights and gold shoes — might have been headed to date night. Those carrying big fluffy blankets with their tuxedo tailoring and exotic prints, suggested travel, as did the model in a lightweight white trench done in a map print. We’ll definitely find parts of this collection back in mainstreet collections.

Balenciaga Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s talented designer, is genuinely experimental and unafraid to realize and run with audacious ideas. In a short time, that approach has garnered him a great deal of attention and a reputation as perhaps the coolest designer on the planet right now.
Again, Gvasalia displayed that sense of bravado, his collection packed with twists, turns and grand gestures made with a deliberate street attitude. The collection was inspired by the house photo archives, where he found pictures with the poses of [Cristóbal] Balenciaga’s house models as they clutch fabric and strike couture attitudes.
Gvasalia delivered a raw take on haute motifs, opening the show with a bold coat-and-dress series. One side of each coat was pulled way over and fastened on the opposite shoulder – and this was not a styling tric but the actual cut – apparently to give the look of a swath of fabric thrown over a model’s shoulder. These shapes looked bold and fresh, with a wearability range from runway only to real-word chic.

Dior Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Maria Grazia Chiuri built her new collection for Dior on the color blue. And according to the houses founder – Christian Dior – navy blue is the only color that can compete with black, since it has the same qualities.
Chiuri opened with daywear: a hooded monk’s tunic in cashmere cut to jacket-length and belted over matching cropped pants. She listed uniform dressing among her references, and leather berets and cross-bodies slung with the bags in back imposed a militaristic ardor on some of the dark, unfussy clothes.
Chiuri went more obviously Dior with jackets over graceful full skirts, but less so with denim, which looked fine and young. Evening proved interesting, as Chiuri’s models wore her moody, ethereal tulles and embroideries with relaxed attitudes.

Junya Watanabe Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Junya Watanabe likes the ounk-era and this time het drew inspiration from the source: London. His punks were dressed in electric yellow and red plaids that were patchworked with black leather, sequins, traditional tailoring fabrics, a host of floral and jacquard upholstery plus leopard prints done the classic way. Everything was collaged: amorphorous capes and dresses crafted from circles and pointy triangles, some fused with motor jackets, many worn over pleated kilts and layered with fishnet sleeves and tights.

SS2017 Catwalk Trend: Graphic Content

Warning: this trend report contains some graphic content. And with graphic we mean bright stripes, hearts and other symbols. Chloé pulled off a pleated, vertically striped dress to strut around on the boulevard. As Peter Pilotto introduced a voluminous frock that would work perfect for the exact same occasion. Opening Ceremony introduced the ultimate city chic midi dress with horizontal stripes (in yellow, black, blue and red). As Proenza Schouler turned things up a notch by adding fur endings to a colourful 5/6 dress and introducing a bright striped fur coat (in blue, orange, black and white). And the Proenza boys weren’t the only ones with the striped fur. Fendi’s fur experts sent out a comfy duo colored body warmer. As Altuzarra and Marc Jacobs (incl. Gigi Hadid with colored dreadlocks) presented their own interpretation of this summer’s graphic trend. Feel like lining up for a striped look yourself? Click through our gallery for some catwalk inspiration and remember to pick the brightest of colors and make a statement. Go bold or go home !

Dutch designers shine in Paris

Paris is for many young fashion-designers still the place to be during the international fashionweek. They hope editors and stylists find a little hole in their schedule and visit their showroom and presentation. Well, it was certainly worth visiting Esther Dorhout Mees at the Totem showroom at 6, avenue Delcassé in Paris. Her feminine and conceptual style is still there, this time reminding of a aquarel painting.

Two other designers who presented their latest designs were Lotte van Dijk and Klaudia Stavevra,the 18th generation of the fashion design master of ArtEZ University of the Arts Arnhem. At Atelier Néerlandais they showed their highly personal visions on the future of fashion and femininity.

Lotte van Dijk (the Netherlands) based her collection on the way painters depict textiles. The bold and striking brushstrokes of Marlene Dumas inspired van Dijk to start her process by painting large images of garments including floral dresses, denim pieces, lace gowns and army coats. These paintings were used to create her
bold silhouettes, painted on top of the final garments or translated into jacquards.
Oversized, easy shapes in combinations of jacquards with plastic, canvas or tarpaulin are manipulated by belts, gathering towards the body, or by folding the big darts outside. Lotte is nominated for Hyeres 2017.

Klaudia Stavreva (Macedonia) presented her collection BOSSTVRVA. Inspired by the Sworn Virgins of Albania – women who assume the life and rights of a man, vowing not to marry or have children – she proposed a new, inverted way of power dressing – both sensual and strong. Modified garments, shapes and embellishments reference classic menswear, work wear, military dress, and Macedonian folkloric dress. Luxurious detailing, embellishment and fabrics clash beautifully with the hard signature menswear references.

Chloe Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Claire Waight Keller said good bye yesterday. She’s ending her six year tenure at Chloe with a last fall-collection. Her aim was to send with an optimistic collection that was also about escapism.
Waight Keller’s take on escapism is pragmatic and pristine, rendered via patterns — prints of opium poppies and a Wonderland mushroom motif.
One thing the designer definitely wanted to escape: a retrospective approach. To that end, she tempered her penchant for flou, along the way sacrificing the Chloé girl boho allure that she has worked so deftly in the past. In its place: little dresses cut short and straight in a late-Sixties vein. As for the tailoring, it looked strong. Let’s wait and see what she will bring next season – she will definitely be working at another fashionhouse.

Balmain Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Next fall the glamazons of Balmain will be dressed in raw pelts with a stitched-together feel. One of the models looked particularly fierce in a black dress assembled from crocodile skins, a tribal-looking metallic lip ring tracing a gleaming line across her mouth. Other options included a shearling sleeveless coat, or a tunic top pieced together from panels of glossy ponyskin. “It’s all about a return to the forces of nature. I wanted to create strong Amazons. Women’s power today is extremely important, and I think I reflect that with this collection. It’s very feminist,” Olivier Rousteing told WWD backstage.
The wealth of craftsmanship and materials on display was impressive. Rousteing is proud of the house’s historic ateliers, which turned out dresses and tunics in elaborate patchworks of crystal mesh, jacquard, leather appliqué, embroidery, velvet, fringe and metallic studs. This was craft of the highest level.
Rousteing diluted the impact of some dresses by adding panels depicting wolves, the wolf designsalso returned on T-shirts that anchored a boho rock star wardrobe of maxi cardigans, eyelet-studded leather and thigh-high boots.

SS2017 Catwalk Trend: New Nautical

If any designer should fully exploit the nautical theme for upcoming summer it’s Tommy Hilfiger. And so the all American designer did just that with a collection filled with anchor details, navy blue and stripes. Fashion ingredients that seem to never really lose their taste. But Tommy wasn’t the only creative opting for a sailor chic summer of 2017. Thom Browne, Proenza Schouler, Diane von Furstenberg, Tibi and Anna Sui all had their nautical references. Be it in the shape of double breasted jackets and high waisted pants or their navy, white and red palettes. Here’s to a trend that never gets old. Just follow Gigi x Tommy’s lead. Are you ready to rock the boat?

Dries van Noten Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Dries van Noten’s show yesterday marked a milestone: it was his 100th collection inclusing women’s and men’s. And he took the opportunity to look back, but without being nostalgic. He chose to celebrate with the clothes and the women who have telegraphed their power from the beginning – literally generations of runway models. He opened with Kristina de Coninck, followed by a roll call of his favorite go-to girls from the Nineties on — Amber Valletta, Anne Catherine Lacroix, Carolyn Murphy, Alek Wek, Cecilia Chancellor, Élise Crombez, Erin O’Connor, Esther de Jong, Guinevere Van Seenus, Kirsten Owen, Liya Kebede and Nadja Auermann — who shared the runway with the familiar faces of today.

Van Noten dressed them to play up their strength, both as individuals and as a gender. And it did work, powerfully and easily. Van Noten crossed traditional masculine and feminine elements on his runway.
Van Noten’s other big message: prints – he’s a master of the genre. As part of looking back, he revived favorite patterns from his archive, overprinting them with additional motifs so that nothing is today as it was then.

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