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.

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.

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