ARIS, Greece — Following Milan DIOR, the spotlight in global fashion shifted to the final stretch of ready-to-wear shows in Paris on Tuesday, as the industry looks to the future with all of the final fall trends.
This week, however, displays in the French capital will pay tribute to deceased designers Vivienne Westwood and Paco Rabanne.
Here are some highlights from the fall-winter 2023-2024 collections unveiled on Tuesday, including Dior:
DIOR’S QUEENS
Dior’s guests were treated to a surreal world in the Tuileries gardens in Paris.
The round runway was filled with a giant, multicolored octopus installation. Its fabric tentacles were lit up with thousands of tiny lights. A Portuguese artist named Joana Vasconcelos was interested in how organic form interacted with the “feminine realm of artisanal savoir-faire.” It was a beautiful background, especially when paparazzi flashes caught guests like Charlize Theron and Maisie Williams, model Elle Macpherson, and K-pop star Jisoo.
If the decor appeared futuristic, the clothing took inspiration from the past, resulting in less vitality but plenty of flairs.
Three women — the house founder’s sister Catherine Dior, a French resistance hero, and French singers Edith Piaf and Juliette Greco, each described as “rebellious, at once strong and fragile” — were muses in this collection. Christian Dior’s heyday inspired it in the 1950s.
A faded black leather menswear coat, crumpled houndstooth skirt, and wrinkled woolen socks gave off a vintage vibe. Sweaters and skirts featured extra volume in the shoulders or hips, a nod to the thicker fabrics of the post-war era. A black textured skirt hung heavily with thousands of embellished flowers cut a fine androgynous figure beneath a white shirt and tie. While the mottled fabric had a gleaming metallic thread sewn into it, revealing Dior’s atelier’s skills.
PAST AND FUTURE OF MAME KUROGOUCHI
Mame Kurogouchi’s Japanese ready-to-wear label delves edgily between past and present, fusing traditional dressmaking with cutting-edge technology.
At the fall’s minimalist take on the 1980s, this was on full display as minimalist as a decade that exuberant can be.
A grey pantsuit with crisp, clean lines and a diagonal dynamic had a futuristic feel. A black scarf that gripped the neck like a hand tugged down the shoulder was paired with a black space-age fanny pack that resembled a cummerbund.
A sanitized color palette worked well with the 80s references — broad, flat apron silhouettes, hoods, and thickly textured top-heavy ensembles.
VAQUERA GETS IN THE KINK
“Obscene dress,” reads one T-shirt in Vaquera’s rather risque collection, despite being one of the least kinky looks in a show that featured inches of flesh, studded chokers, bare torsos, a shredded take on bondage gear, and multiple takes on 90s grunge and denim jeans.
Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee, who rose to prominence six years ago in New York with their iconic U.S. flag gown, debuted their sophomore collection in Paris. Following a more commercial season last year, the talented duo returned to their daring antics.
The black-heavy 12-look presentation began with a masked headpiece and a patch over one breast on a naked female torso. The model’s gloved hand covered the other breast. It’d be a difficult look to pull off on the street, but it got guests’ cameras clicking. Then, a black cotton top with numerous volume and edge shreds. A skirt with flaps was deconstructed to resemble a bondage outfit, and it was worn with a thermal hat in a woolen take on a bondage mask.
SOURCE – (AP)
