Junya Watanabe Catwalk Fashion Show SS2011

With coffee and croissants being served the Junya Watanabe fashion show was a good start of a busy fashion day in Paris. His new collection was pleasant to watch as well, although it was much of the same thing.

Black/Navy and white stripes were used throughout the whole collection. The stripes were combined with prints of lifebuoys, anchors and sailing boats. Plus the girls wore straw hats. But to conclude that Watanabe was inspired by a nautical theme, would be wrong. He stresses there were NO nautical references in the show. Instead he claimed Tokyo Dolls were his inspiration. The models in fact promoted the style of Harajuku teenagers. Alright Watanabe, if you say so.

The clothes looked easy-going (some outfits appeared even more comfortable than pajama’s) and playful. Loose-fitting striped pants and dresses as well as many trench coat variations.

Who walked in today’s show we’ll never know, cause Watanabe covered all the faces of the girls with a white fabric and gave them bright colored wigs. Next time robots instead of models mister Watanabe?

Daily favorites in Paris

Friday was Lanvin-day. Besides Balenciaga, Celine and the Japanes designers the fashionworld is eager to receive the message Alber Elbaz has to tell. His connection with women is unbelievable, he can sense them and translate their needs into modern, urban chic. As he did yesterday. But the collection is not complete with the beautiful and strong jewelry from designer Elie Top. For summer he got his inspiration from bees, flies and butterflies. I’ll have to start saving money now, I guess.

Also: the setup of the Lanvin shows is giving me goose-pimples all the time. A dark, long runway with just one accent (last season a stairway to heaven, yesterday a line of poles) and models that seem to appear from the dark. Their long walk builds up the tension.

When I saw the pictures of Yamamoto I was struck by the faded colors in one outfit. The show seemed very Yohji with big dresses, draped and folded. But I loved the way he mixed the colors with his signature black.

And then Dior. It was a very commercial and upbeat show, and that’s what it should be if they want to sell. It seems Galliano is only allowed to push the boundaries at haute couture, and that’s a pity. Anyway, windbreakers and parkas never looked so sexy. And as a real Dutch girl I really liked that.

Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

Alber Elbaz is one of the few designers who thinks about what women want before he starts designing. He thinks about their lives, their work, their obligations, their worries. And he tries to make the best possible clothes for them. Next spring he offers them many choices from long flowing skirts to flat and smooth day-dresses to pantsuits inspired by athletic wear (his pantsuit is an elongated jacket over skirts and stretch leggings) . There was even a nylon raincoat.

Elbaz doesn’t like perfection, he loves wrinkles. And his collection seemed a hymn to skin: wrinkled in pleating, stretched in all those sheaths. It was a spectacular foundation on which he could use heavy colors. From elegantly taupe to acid yellow, hot pink, and aqua. The designer doesn’t like pantsuits either, so the focus was at his favorite uniformstyle for women: dresses. They came in one-shoulder styles, in a navy stretch fabric, with two dark zippers at the front and a belt. One navy dress had sleeves to just above the elbow and a deep V-front.  Simple flat sandals were the key-shoe.

The shoes in fact were the reason the show started one hour too late. When Elbaz noticed during the rehearsal that the models couldn’t walk on the high heels he planned for the show, the designer decided to skip the shoes and change them for other. That’s what I call respecting women.

Christian Dior Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

The Dior spring summer 2011 collection was inspired by sailors, the fourties and pin-up girl Bettie Page. The result was colorful, feminine, light and a lovely mix of sailor and elegance.John  Galliano made up the story of an imaginary Polynesian naval base where the sailors could kill their time by looking at Bettie-Page look-a-likes.

The British designer mixed the sexy 40’s pin-up clothes with Polynesian colors and flowers plus sailorstyle. A windbreaker never looked so sexy and elegant.  There were sailorpants in white and khaki, navy shirts and casual jackets and parkas. The more feminine touch came from short dresses in tropical colors and prints plus Hawaian necklaces with flowers .

Issey Miyake Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

Issey Miyake presented a collection with special effects in the clothes: black and white checks that bled at the end, digital prints of raffia that dissolevd into a blur.

Balmain Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

At Balmain Christophe Decarnin continues to mix rock, punk and glam into a sexy collection. Safetypins, studs, torn and bleached jeans, scratched leather and faded prints seemed to be the key-elements – and a huge inspiration for rip-of collections to come.

Decarnin told the press he’s a punk fan, and that his office is full of Sex Pistols-pictures.  So he sent out his punk-princesses dressed in faded stars-and-stripes tanktops, acid bleached jeans and biker-jackets with studs and safetypins all over. And not to mention the micro-shorts and mini’s.

It all lookd young, raw and energetic – but to make punk a high end fashion-trend again is a bit too easy. First: the street does it better and more authentic, second stores like H&M and Berschka already sell stuff like this and third who’s going to pay a few thousand euro for an old bikerjacket while you can do it yourself ? We’ll see.

Zac Posen Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

It was the first time Zac Posen presented his collection during Paris Fashion Week. It looks he brought American glamour to France. But is also looked as if he thinks women have nothing better to do than going to cocktails and parties – besides a few daytime-clothes his collection was all about eveningwear.

There was no visible fashion direction at all, not the minimalist nor the 70’s glamour or color. Instead he throwed in black lace, feathers and fur for his showgirl boudoir-theme. Most of the time it was over the top, but there were some beauties like black ombre silk gown with feathers on each shoulder. We definitely will see that one back at the red carpet.

Hakaan Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

Hakaan Yildirim was this year’s winner of the french Andam-award and the designer – with roots in Turkey and based in London – presented a solid collection in head to toe cream or black for the first time in Paris. He must be a hot ticket, since he somehow managed to get supermodels like Daria Werbowy to walk the show. She opened the show in a slouchy jacket and tapering trousers.

His overall look was minimalist-sexy, with a long elongated silhouette and floorsweeping mermaid dresses. He also presented tunics and minidresses asymmetrical cut and with pleated inserts.

Rochas Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2011

For his Spring Summer 2011 Collection for Rochas Marco Zanini was inspired by a recent trip to his mother’s country of origin Sweden. In the small town of Fjakelmyra he met local artist Slotts Barbro who is well-known for her traditional canvas prints and asked her to create some exclusive prints for Rochas.

To these typical Swedish prints poetic phrases of French writer Françoise Sagan were added as: “Les merveuilleux nuages” or “Dans un mois, dans un an..” on head scarves, skirts, dresses, and knitted cardigans.

Another eminent pattern, besides the Swedish folkloric print, was a peonies floral print from the early 20th century Bucol archive. Long silk satin slip dresses were washed, hung to dry without ironing to give them a vintage boudoir feel.

The color palette ranged from Indigo blue, mud brow, chartreuse yellow to grass green.

Zanini played with all different kinds of silk: silk satin for dresses and blouses, taffeta for flower printed full skirts, hand-punched silk shantung to give texture to a white full dress, lightweight woven raw silk with topstitched silk lining for loose jackets. The overall mood of the collection was romantic and a bit folkloric.

Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour Paris! Having breakfast at the courtyard of Hotel d’Albion, the temporary headquarters of Team Peter Stigter. Discusisng the schedule for today with runner Muriel Schouten, streetfashionphotographer Joris Bruring, chef de bureau Lisa Klappe, colleague Jonas Gustavsson and editor Jetty Ferwerda. Peter Stigter is there of course, he took the picture.

Check out the blog daily. Our plans for today: Rochas, Dries van Noten, Gareth Pugh and we take a look at the show of good old Pierre Cardin – see what he’s up to.

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