Streetfashion Paris Womenswear, Day 6

What are you wearing during the fashionweeks? Your Gucci-shoes, that vintage Prada or your latest Givenchy-sweater? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: Paris Womenswear Fashion Week fall/winter 2014.

Stella McCartney Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Please enjoy the pictures for now, our review will follow shortly.

Céline Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

The Céline-collection for fall 2014 was about diversity, starting with lady-like fit-and-flare coats with off-beat button treatments. That continued with portrait collar tops tucked into wide-legged trousers. This established a subtle retro vibe that went in and out.

The thirties were on Philo’s mind when she was first thinking about the collection, especially women like Hannah Höch and Lee Miller, pivotal figures in the Dada and surrealist art worlds.

Despite the masculine elements in the collection — the oversize, man-styled trousers – Philo’s preferred emphasis was the tenderness of the clothes. That translated into pieces that were very much crafted by hand rather than manufactured. They were as sensual as the tweed knits that pooled extravagantly over platform sandals, as textured as the hazy animal prints. Philo underscored the importance of nature with the lush greenery that sprouted along the catwalk. She imagined her woman running through fields. The clothes themselves often felt bursting with life, with seams feathering and fraying.

Givenchy Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Riccardo Tisci redefined the word Womanly with his fall collection, amplifying the sensuality and subverting the traditional while layering on fantasy, modernity and luxury. The collection was about celebrating femininity and the rock woman.
Tisci created a tension between rich romance and powerful tailoring, opening with the former on buttoned-up silk blouses and skirts with soft pleats and tucks. Increasingly dreamy incarnations of that silhouette came in a leopard-print dress with butterfly wing motifs on the bust, and a butterfly print blouse with a ruffle in the outline of a heart on the chest.

As an aggressive contrast to the flou, many of the soft blouses had stark, linear strips across the shoulder blades. Similar strips and panels recurred throughout the show, adding strokes of color and geometry to his riffs on knit twinsets and tailoring cut with a Forties masculine allure.

The palette deepened and brightened throughout the show on abstract butterfly and snake motifs, leathers and opulent furs. The show culminated on a darkly seductive note: lean gowns with fitted shell-like tops and black pleated skirts.

Chloe Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Not young girls walked the Chloé runway on Sunday, but grown women, sophisticad and elegant. Women with taste, who know fashion should be fun but wearable too. And so Waight Keller’s Chloé collection full of loose fitting designs seemed appropriate for women of any kind of shape and size. Strong woolen coats (in pastel shades), leather pants (in shades like nude and burgundy), and fur sweaters (in off white and mustard) were true winter pieces. Yet some of the creations (the second ruffled dress, an airy floral printed number with sheer star shaped patches and a printed skirt with sheer white blouse, to name a few) appeared a little too chilly, even for fall. With the brand’s minimalistic highlights behind us the more sober designs remained the strongest pieces out of the bunch. Apart from a rainbow leopard creation prints failed to make a big impression, while a navy dress with golden buttons around the collar seemed a little too forced. No, forget the party dresses and sheer sexiness; the Chloé woman is on top of her game rocking her every day, slightly oversized, wardrobe, which might not scream fashion, but can make any regular day oh so chic.

Comme des Garcons Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Monster. That’s the word connected to the new Comme des Garcons-collection. Kawakubo’s green-lipped models plodded by ominously trancelike, arms bound and faces sometimes obscured, encased in piles, piles and more piles of thick, undulating padded knits, their bodies mere foundation for misshapen masses of woolen darkness and multiple sleeves. In show notes, Kawakubo said: “It’s not about the typical monster you find in sci-fi and video games. It’s more about the craziness of humanity, the fear we all have, the feeling of going beyond common sense, the absence of ordinariness, expressed by something extremely big, by something that could be ugly or beautiful.”

Haider Ackermann Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Long lean silhouettes in a palette of grays, taupes, greens and browns awaited us at Ackermann. Designs with which the designer tried to portray gracefulness through their masculinity. And so models sported gray suits with long sleeves and low V-necks. They wore skinny velvet and leather bias cut pants with short structured jackets. Floor sweeping woolen coats and dark, lean turtle neck dresses belted around the waist. If the designs and the models’ expressions didn’t breath enough carelessness, it were the hands in those pockets that added to the feeling the collection, and perhaps Ackermann himself, was at ease. Creations may have started from a menswear point of view; worn by those graceful models, looks were sophisticated and tough (especially those zip-front jackets) even sporty at times, yet never too masculine. A hounds tooth print used on the thickest kind of wool looked perfect for winter and particularly beautiful on a maxi dress paired with a black top. A sober collection with just enough fresh influences to get us excited. Simplicity at it’s finest.

Viktor & Rolf Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

Viktor & Rolf dedicated their FW14-collection to the gray mélange knit V-neck sweater. Yet as normal as a gray V-neck might be, the Dutch duo turned out some peppy interpretations, from the blanket-like smock and tank dresses that opened the show to the bedazzled sweaters with asymmetric peplums similar to ones they showed in latex during couture.

Abstractions on the sweater were often striking, particularly V-necks as trompe l’oeil prints on velvet tops. Free-floating panels of gray felt on georgette were arranged to mimic twinsets — a nifty effect. There were flashes of sky blue and orange, plus a groovy white mesh minidress fronted with knit panels and a strip of crystal embroidery. A longer version of the latter style also came in gray.

Junya Watanabe Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear, FW2014

We started our morning with an all black Watanabe collection (including the strangely cut black wigs the models wore). Dark it was, dull not at all. With every single look the designer managed to portray his strong craftsmanship. He introduced round (and rectangular towards the end) shaped patchwork details and gave his creations a 3D effect by layering multiple textures on top of each other and bundling woolen, leather and fur pieces of fabric. Sequined pieces were in the patchwork mix too, followed by architectural Michelin-like coats, one could live in. Long dresses with straps of ribbon attached vertically onto sheer fabric formed the finale of what appeared to be clothes for a night out. Some looks might come across a little too bizarre for hitting your average night club, although seen independently, without the extreme show styling, some of the tops or bottoms could definitely work in any metropolitan city.

Balenciaga Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2014

The overall look and silhouette of the Balenciaga-collection was determined by a strong, rounded shoulder; architectural arcs and folds; slim pants, all with a vaguely futuristic feeling heightened by details such as zippers.

Alexander Wang worked his knitwear premise creatively, delivering it with casual panache and a touch of tough.

He opened with impressive wool coats and jackets, big, horizontal scuba-inspired zippers making for aggressive decoration on their backs. Over each of these he put a beaver “apron scarf” with an attached kangaroo pocket knitted from shoe-laces and rubber cording. Some coats came in a polyester jersey that aped cabled textures; others were knitted and fused to outer shells of latex or leather. Dresses were structured shifts, their graphic quotient intensified with bold zippered strips, a detail used on pants as well.

For evening he tweaked the sweater motif, bejeweling the arc with lavish encrustations of pearls. He paired it with pants and a satin knot-front bodice.

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