Paris fashion week was full of the usual artistry, and thematic collections the city is famous for producing. From tribal to monochromatic, the season's predicted trends were all in attendance.
The clear show stoppers were McQueen's medieval final bow, Elie Saab's monochromatic homage to the perfect black dress, Chanel's interpretation of the global warming crisis, and Louis Vuitton's display of the female form in all of her curvaceous glory. The shows all possessed a quiet simplicity, perhaps in reverence of the untimely passing of McQueen.
Nevertheless, even in their most simplistic showings, the city of amour still manages to remain in front the fashion curve. This year, Paris Fall Fashion Week could be viewed as an easy target for comedic parody, or a refreshing reestablishment of the artistic expression of fashion. Nevertheless, one detail made Marc Jacobs’ collection stand out amongst the borderline couture-artistry of the McQueen collection, and the minimalistic palette of 'Gown God,' Elie Saab. That detail was a 'real' body, an obsolete canvas in today's skin-and-bones model casting.
With Marc Jacobs at the hem of Louis Vuitton, as of late, the collections fail to satisfy my voracious appetite for innovation. To put it simply what Jacobs does, he does well. He has a knack for appealing to the sidewalk fashionistas and 'Upper East- Siders' alike, but rarely does he create something never done before. His silhouettes are nearly always carbon copies of eras past. This season proved to be no different with a parade of 50's cinched waist silhouettes, corsets, and hoop skirts, and "Speedy" bag spawn. Paris was the perfect setting for the romantic homage to la femme..
One thing was Swarovski crystal clear; this year's collection was nothing short of an ode to the female physique. A parade of famously voluptuous models, including Laetitia Casta and Elle Macpherson. These models, previously excluded from runway gigs because of their curves, reclaimed their rightful position on the catwalk in Paris. A buffet of breasts and hips sashayed with exquisite elegance, for the first time in decades. Perhaps if President Kennedy, a well known admirer of the female form, were around to witness the Louis Vuitton show he would revise his iconic slogan to read "Ask Not What Your Clothing Can do for your Body, but What Your Body can do for Your Clothing.
I have long been dismayed by the hanger form of the models of today, whose bodies are nothing more than a shapeless form from which the clothing drapes. The sex appeal and artistic lines and curves that separate the male from the female have a place in fashion. Shapes bring form to clothing, and allow the clothing to delicately embrace the feminine form. At a time when models such as Coco Rocha are being forced to nearly resign because of their in ability to maintain an un-natural size zero. One can only hope that the body will make a comeback. Vive Le Corps!
ELIE SAAB
ELIE SAAB
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
