Hermès Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2010

It looked as if Jean Paul Gaultier wanted to stress the origins of the Hermès fashionlabel. There was leather everywhere in the collection, which was inspired by the British 60’s television serie The Avengers.

A not-too-great-looking Lily Cole opened the show in a black leather pantsuit, zipped on the front. The rest of her outfit was made from leather as well: shoes, belt, gloves, bag. Even her bowler hat and umbrella could easily have had some leather parts.

Some crocodile leather followed, on a skirt, a belt, a pair of trousers and a jacket. After that, the leather designs became so thick they seemed more appropriate for men. Especially when the (leather!) ties and the extra-wide pants came by, the show got a very masculine feeling.

Fortunately shades of light gray, camel and brown softened the looks. Just when one of the models came on carrying a New York Times under her arm (slightly pushing Suzy Menkes, who works for the newspaper, to write a good review on the show).

Most of the woolen coats that followed, had leather collars in a different shade. A beige toggle coat popped up out of nowhere, shoulders were accentuated by leather parts and a long leopard printed skirt was seen from under a stiff leather jacket. And though we were happy most labels temporarily said goodbye to this specific animal print it later came by on several dresses, a coat, a blouse and even on one of the two hoop skirts.

There was so much animal material in this collection any PETA activist would have gone mad watching this show. Even we could hardly handle the amount of leather JPG sent off on the runway. Yet we did get very inspired on how many ways there are to wear it.

Valentino Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2010

For fall Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli got in a very feminine Valeninto mood. Their designs had frills and ruffles from the beginnening till the end of the show and were made out of the most delicate fabrics.

While videos of waterfalls were played on huge screens all over the show area the models worked the runway. The clothes they wore, were embellished with ruffles and floral appliqués. On most designs this looked great, but on a short black leather jacket, worn by Mirte Maas, it felt like ruffle-overkill.

This Valentino collection had a very romantic and classic vibe, still Chiuri and Picciolo succeeded in letting it feel more youthful than before. The fur coats, lace blouses, silk dresses and airy chiffon tops looked smooth. The shades of nude, beige, white and black worked really well with the Valentino red we saw on four dresses and a skirt. Golden studded kitten heels were the perfect detail on every outfit.

Five long evening gowns were the ending of the show. The last one in transparent Valentino red looked stunning. Yet a black lace gown with a butterfly on the right shoulder, worn by Patricia van der Vliet, was even more breath-taking.

Chanel Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2010

Global cooling, not global warming was the inspiration for Chanel’s fall/winter collection. Now don’t think the show was about durable fashion or had something to do with eco-friendly production. No, on the contrary Karl Lagerfeld even flew in an iceberg from Sweden to decorate his catwalk. After the fashion show that iceberg was to be flewn back to Sweden as well. If you ask us, this kind of superfluous actions only increase global warming.

During the show the iceberg was slowly melting, so all models ended up walking in big puddles of water. What a pity for the luxurious clothes! Karl’s long pants, floor-sweeping coats & dresses and his fur boots all got wet.

His fake fur boots, we must say. Cause the whole iceberg-thing might not have been so politically correct, Karl did use fake fur for this collection. He commented: ‘You cannot fake chic but you can be chic in fake fur’ and explained that fake fur, nowadays, looks very realistic. Because you can hardly see the difference between real and fake fur Karl decided this collection was to be a ‘triumph for fake fur’. The fur came in brown, gray, white and black and was seen on the skirts, boots, pants, cuffs, coats, bags and collars.

Other fabrics were leather and the typical Chanel tweed. Tweed was, of course, used for some of the short jackets, but we saw it on some coats, pants and skirts too. The skirts were rather short, compared to, for example those of Marc Jacobs. They ended halfway the upper leg. The collars of almost all designs were high, as were the waisted pants.

Apart from a little bit of red Karl didn’t use any colors. The show ended with the last models all wearing white designs. Even the necklaces and the large rings were white (they were metallic during the first part of the show). It all looked stunning with the real, white iceberg in the background. Yet we think an iceberg from papier-mache would have been just as nice.

Emanuel Ungaro Catwalk Fashion Show FW2010

After a week of front row appearances Lindsay Lohan was a no-show at the Ungaro fashion show. She didn’t attend the show, she didn’t show her face at the end of the runway and according to the fashion label she wasn’t even involved in the collection.

Yet it is rather strange that at the one show where LaLohan was actually supposed to be, she didn’t even stop by to say hi. We’re sensing some kind of argument between Lohan and Ungaro. Cause, if Lindsay was just not involved in this one collection she could at least have taken a seat frontrow, like she did at all the other big shows in Paris this week.

We can imagine Ungaro wanting to end to collaboration. Last year’s collection was totally slated by the fashion critics, especially due to Lohan’s heartshaped pasties. Yet at this moment nobody knows if she’s still involved or not.

On the Ungaro website we can still read: ‘Lindsay Lohan is appointed as  Estrella Archs’ Artistic Advisor. They will work together using their combined talents, instinct and intuition to define and promote the Ungaro brand.’ Yet if you keep in mind what Estrella Archs said before today’s show: (‘You have up and downs and you learn a lot, more from the downs than from the ups. I feel that I have to work, work, work and work. I’ve been doing this for a long time, with different people and different houses, and I think this is the best medicine’) you know something’s going on.

We’ll keep you posted on this matter, now let’s talk about the new collection. And let’s see if it was any better than that of last seson….

Emanuel Ungaro showed some bright colors (green, red and pink) for fall. Those colors were used for the fancy cocktail dresses, the jackets, blazers and pants. On many outfits a colored waistband was added as well. We, for instance, saw a gold/yellow pair of pants combined with an animal printed coat and a red waistband.

A lot of the accessories came in red. A pink printed dress was finished by red shoes, a red clutch and a red waistband. Though you’d think the colors would clash it looked all right. Except for the black tights and the blazers, those items took away all the fun from the dress.

The collection had many strapless and asymmetric dresses. Some kind of dots in different bright colors were printed on them. The dots also appeared on a jumpsuit, but they never looked great.

Overall the collection was pretty save. There wasn’t anything new about it. The cocktail dresses may be cute, but I think we’ve seen enough of them already. The same goes for the blazers and the jumpsuits; there wasn’t a specific Ungaro style added to them either. Besides, it seemed the brand didn’t realize we were expecting a winter collection. Or maybe they just wanted a second chance at their (horrible) last summer collection, who knows…

John Galliano Catwalk Fashion Show FW2010

The models at John Galliano’s fashion show represented a tribe of adventuring nomads. They wore large coats with fur accents. Some of them wore enormous hats, others had their hair folded into some strange architectural shape.

Like Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano used different cultural influences in his show as well. Galliano’s nomads were in fact crossing imaginary borders in search of new land.

The show was a true spectacle. Silver glitter fell from the sky and even fireworks were used. We really had to focus not to let that distract us from seriously looking at the collection.

Galliano designed a lot of coats. They first came by in gray, but later on  we could also see some green, yellow, gold and printed pink. As always with Galliano many details and accessories were added to the looks, which all deserved some attention. Tight necklaces, waistbelts, fur cuffs, floral printed trousers, feather jewelry, striped leggings and colored shoes. Not to forget the crazy hats, wigs and bronze make-up. The models looked larger than life in their voluminous designs and oversized hats.

Towards the end the fabrics became thinner and more skin was shown. Light-colored and transparent fabrics were used for more feminine designs. The show ended with a few long, gold and silver-embroidered gowns. Although we think transparencies and fur are not the best fabrics to combine in an evening gown, it sure was fun to look at.

Sonia Rykiel Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2010

Enough of the frizzy red wigs at Sonia Rykiel! This time the models had cute pony tails and large pom-pom headbands. The models were happy about it. At least, they all put on a smile at the catwalk.

Sonia Rykiel herself proved she’s not involved too much anymore by sitting front row, next to Beth Ditto. Her daughter Nathalie had to do it all on her own. And she did a very good job.

She let Dutch model Mirte Maas (we say: excellent choice!) open the show. Mirte wore an XXX-oversized woolen suit and was able to make it work. The cozy knitwear that followed, had soft colors like beige, off-white and different hues of light brown. (What a relief after all the bright Sonia Rykiel for H&M colors we had to look at for months.)

There were dresses with knitted sleeves and woolen cardigans, worn with big belts. A long bright red coat with a huge safety pin looked very comfy. We saw pant suits, fur coats and military jackets. On a lot of the pants a diagonal shoulder strap was attached. It didn’t really hold up the pants, it was just a nice detail. In some designs the shape of the breasts was accentuated by the fabric. Yet it made the models’ tiny breasts look even smaller, but maybe that was the intention.

Halfway the show a pair of cycling pants, left behind from the summer collection, was shown. It was worn over a pair of white tights. Soon after that some colors were introduced. Three outfits had collared stripes all over them and a few other designs came in kobalt blue matched with black. Luckily the collection then turned back to neutral shades. Skirts, dresses and jumpsuits came by in satin, chiffon and a transparent sort of knitwear.

So according to Sonia Rykiel the trends for next winter are: natural colors, oversized suits, suitpants, large woolen dresses or cardigans and ladylike details. We can hardly wait!

The finale was, as always with Sonie Rykiel, a big party. All models came up in light-shaded marabou coats and dresses. They were smiling, clapping and dancing and seemed to have the time of their lives. And Nathalie Rykiel…, she just partied along.

Hussein Chalayan Catwalk Fashion Show FW2010

When we arrived at Chalayan’s fashion show the building was filled with the sound of busy city traffic. After everyone was seated (in the way too small chairs) smoke was blown in the air and we heard Chalayan paying a tribute to designer Alexander McQueen on his show soundtrack.

The first few models that were sent out on the runway wore some kind of fireman hats with long flaps at the back. Stiff, dark-colored coats, jeans and grey gym shoes completed their looks.

Then the traffic sounds changed into the sounds of birds, a church clock and a tram and models in different styles entered the runway. They wore headpieces like straw bonnets, metal antenna’s with a feather at the end and some face-covering silver Lurex.

A few pairs of glasses, which read ‘mirage’ (also the name of the show) seemed to give us some explanation on the crazy line-up. Were the diverse designs and headpieces made up in one of Chalayan’s fashion Fata Morgana’s?

While the ‘music’ changed to all kinds of radio channels (we even heard Justin Timberlake’s –  Rock your body) models in big ruffled jackets came on. The jackets were purple- and red-colored and had a lot of volume. The ruffles popped up on a pair of shoes too and some models even wore red clogs.

Raincoats- and hats, capes with matching binoculars and high-waisted woolen pants were part of the mirage too. They were followed by long glitter dresses, shown in black, white, purple and blue. At the end of the show several black dresses with black and pink hats came by.

Altogether we thought it was one messy collection. It was only after Chalayan explained that the clothes represented different states in America (New York, Pennsylvania, Dallas, New Mexico, Utah and Las Vegas) the whole show idea became clear to us.

We felt like Chalayan could have explained it all a bit better…But then again, yesterday even Jean Paul Gaultier didn’t manage to portray his different countries so well in his show.

Karl Lagerfeld Catwalk Fashion Show FW2010

The latex headbands and leather leggings the models wore at Karl Lagerfeld almost were as shiny as the catwalk that was just polished by hand, right before the show. Powerful modern women walked the runway as if their life depended on it.

They looked like man-eaters attracting men with their sexy black outfits. Their streamlined clothes clearly accentuated their bodies. And it seemed like a flash of their shiny, embellished outfits would be enough to make any men indulge.

The woman must have known how much men like latex leggings, cause they were there in almost every look. Of course these leggings are easy to combine with many different outfits, yet Karl’s combinations – with skirts, dresses and coats – were superb.

Apart from the crystal embellishments Karl didn’t accessorize his looks too much. And that, we think, was a wise decision. Because when you show a collection like this, you don’t need all the extra fuss. All eyes needed to be on the strong, streamlined man-attracting designs.

Viktor & Rolf – Backstage – FW2010

During the V&R show there was not as much excitement backstage as there usually would be. The reason for this, of course, was the fact that Viktor and Rolf were dressing their models on stage, in stead of backstage. It took away a lot of the tension behind the scenes, but on the catwalk the pressure was on!

With each outfit Viktor and Rolf had to put on one of the models we were worried whether or not they would make it in time. And fortunately they did. All the dressing and undressing was done in about twenty minutes.

Of course backstage a lot of the preparations were done. Viktor and Rolf had to be able to easily take off the many coats Kirsten McMenamy wore. So they shouldn’t be too tightened. V&R had to know exactly what to do with each dress too, so the rehearsals were more than necessary. Also, the models that walked in the second half of the show did have to be dressed before entering the catwalk (they were going to be undressed by V&R).

Though well-known models like Karlie Kloss, Mirte Maas and Patricia van der Vliet walked in the show. They were hardly recognizable. They all wore caps and sunglasses and had large ponytails. Their make-up was plain: bleached eyebrows, light-colored lips and a rather pale skin tone. So the make-up wasn’t too special but the spectacular show totally made up for that.

Jean Paul Gaultier Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2010

At JPG’s fashion show influences from many different countries wore used in the designs. We got a taste of Africa, Russia, India and Mexico. The styles from those countries were represented by extravagant headwear and folklore designs. There seemed to be so many different influences, it was hard to tell which country they belonged to.

Colorful African turbans were combined with satin dresses with chinoiserie prints. Black trenchcoats or fur coats were worn on top. There were colorful printed headscarves, fur hats and metallic Indian headpieces.

The models wore Masai necklaces combined with Western motorcycle jackets. They walked in harem pants with fur waistcoats. Their neon colored leggings heavily clashed with the folklore prints on their clothes. But it was all part of JPG’s cultural fashion explosion. Words can not even describe how wacky it all looked.

While the clothes varied in almost every aspect (shape, size, fabric, color) not much was to say about the collection in general. Apart from the fact that it was a cultural melting pot.

Between all influences JPG’s famous cone bra popped up every now and then. Though we loved watching the crazy styled outfits, the coats were the best pieces of the collection.

And the message of this show might just have been about embracing the cultural differences in the world and turning them into something of your own. At least we think that would be a nice approach.

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