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.

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.

Saint Laurent Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Anthony Vaccarello’s collection for Saint Laurent was not about chic. Looking chic is the furthest thing from the mind of this Saint Laurent girl. She wants to look aggressive cool: peak-shouldered jackets and micro dresses, high-shine vinyl (or leather), ruffles and a tricked-out sleeve. Such clothes are in-your-face fashion, pulsing with sexy attitude. Part two of the Saint Laurent collection was a series of impeccably made, basic (as in really basic) clothes: jackets, sweaters, pants, jeans, a tank-top. The pre-finale men’s wear fell completely into this category — ultra-cool, ultra-wearable, just clothes.

 

Liselore Frowijn Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2017

Liselore Frowijn designed her fall collection in the name of the greater goo: crafting an outdoor/nomadic/global collection as a commentary on “human unity and freedom.” The looks were pileups of quilted bombers, tunics and wide-leg pants that referenced traditional Indian garb, brushed wool scarves, ponchos and long tailored coats done in gradient colors. Planetary prints inspired by Alfred Eikelenboom and gold Spandex-ish layers added an otherworldly feeling to the eclectic mix.

Versace catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear FW2017

The Versace collection featured much more than positive thoughts as Love, Courage and Equality. The show opened with black tailoring that beautifully projected the refined woman power at the core of Donatella’s message — short, round-shouldered coatdress over sheer underpinning marked with “Equality”; cropped jacket over slim, low-slung skirt that exposed a slice of skin at the midriff. She went on to further develop elements of street and sport that have lately infiltrated her vocabulary, often in contrast to flou. It made for some great-looking clothes, especially sheepskin outerwear with edge and sexy draped dresses in a graphic open-weave tweed. Versace also showed impressive sportswear, including a snappy camel coat over graphic red-and-black sweater, checked skirt and chambray shirt, its tails hanging out, flashing “Strength.”
The ideas came rapidly: decorated denim and mink; sheer appliquéd dresses and Ts; girly dresses with flounces and cutouts, and others, athletic-inspired with overlocked seams.

Missoni Catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear FW2017

President Trump— or reaction against him — has been all over the runways, or more accurately, all over show notes and backstage conversations in New York and Milan. Angela Missoni’s reaction made it onto the chairs in another way as well — in hats. Hundred of pink pussy hats, the accessory symbol of feminist outrage over the Trump presidency. But it did not mean the collection had a political message, it was all about chic.
Angela Missoni dived into the family archive embracing the house patterns and colors in all their flamboyance. But Missoni managed to control the frenzy, keeping to one pattern per look or subtler combinations. And she favored linear silhouettes, creating a sense of sporty chic.

Bottega Veneta Catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear FW2017

While so many designers are trying to make sense of streetwear motifs at the luxury level, Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier once again proved his differen status, this time with a collection all dressed up, slick and polished.
The shoulder proved the major focus, anchoring a lean silhouette that projected power-woman determination. The men’s wear reflected similar polished and tailored panache, while projecting a slightly gentler attitude.

Prada Catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear FW2017

Miucca Prada still believes in style as a mighty power to fight for women’s rights. She took traditional trappings of glamour — feathers and embroidery — and lavished them on everyday staples: pencil skirts, cardigans, tailored jackets, bear-hug outerwear, a chemise here and there. Often, these came in weighty fabrics — corduroy, thick knits, tweeds, shearling — put together in audacious collages of color and pattern, atop heels fastened with giant buttons or big, furry multicolored mukluks. Orangey tweed and leather jacket over bright yellow skirt with red embroidery and blue white feather hem? Cocktail dress with feathered bonnet? Prints done in collaboration with artist Robert McGinnis? Whatever their politics, fashion ladies will succumb to the seduction.

Gucci Catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear FW2017

There was a lot going on at the Gucci-show yesterday. The shock of the new is over. The shock now is in the overload of outfits and the beautiful details. In a very short time, Alessandro Michele has established a clear signature: all eccentricity, gentleness, cross-references, magpie pilings and especially, highly decorative clothes and accessories. He’s not interested in seasonal flip-flops. He likened himself to an alchemist, mixing far-flung ingredients into a heady concoction.
On the runway, the fall lineup looked like more of the same, plus men’s. Although some things changed.The sweet geek with whom Michele launched his women’s vision now looks less innocent.This time, she wore her quirks and her references — Orientalism, men’s wear, Forties, Seventies, Eighties, flowers, animalia, a soupçon of Chanel and much, much more — with sly audacity. The men remained of the modernist sort, which to say gender fluid, as were some of the girls. If there was news in terms of cut, it came on the men’s side, in suits in shrunken proportions.

For all their visual overstatement, the glory was in the details, the craft, the countless subtle creative ideas and choices, many of them experimental.

Marc Jacobs Catwalk Fashion Show NYC Womenswear FW2017

The models at the Marc Jacobs show wore real clothes of the casual sort — early hip-hop with a soupçon of Seventies sportif in a palette of warm neutrals shot with red, wine and maroon. It was not at all tricked-out or exaggerated like last season. The anchor look was a short coat over a little dress, often in Twenties-inspired laces, or wide, extralong pants that puddled over boots. There was fur, both real and faux, and thick, patterned knits.

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