PARIS — After a mostly commercial Milan, fashion week in the French capital opened with a bang à la Parisienne: Ideas! Concepts! Experimentation!
At Hodakova, the dimly lit show ended with a trio of models wearing chairs. Others were decked out in artfully placed carpets. If it recalls Hussein Chalayan that’s because designer Ellen Hodakova is a Chalayan enthusiast. That was the climax, however. The core of the collection was about backless tailoring: a rumination on the façade one presents to the world — often in violent contrast with the real self that hides behind it. It made for an interesting succession of collapsing shapes and lines in motion.
Hodakova belongs to a generation of avant-garde designers who work by reference and quotation. The backlessness, for instance, was so very Martin Margiela, while her grotesque way with shoes and the taste for the equestrian sit halfway between AF Vandevorst and Miguel Adrover. It’s the way creativity works today: sampling and recombining old ideas. This is not said to diminish Hodakova. There is an originality in her work, and it’s in her piercingly somber, dry tone of voice, which makes for a potent distortion of the classics. Hodakova’s twisted sobriety is actually a demonstration of how intensely subversive the classics can be, if seen from the right angle. Her very Scandinavian sense of pragmatism makes it all the more impactful.
“Hold on tightly, let go lightly” read the press notes at Vaquera, announcing this season’s celebration of the transformative powers of fashion. That’s what Vaquera is about, after all. Things were different this time around, however: If an unruly state of mind still ran through the proceedings, designers Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee let go of unruly shapes in favour of a primness that made one think of 1960s couture, André Courrèges in particular. All of it, of course, à la Vaquera: with a hefty amount of insouciance and a permanent fuck-you grin. Here, the making of the clothes is what it is and some of DiCaprio and Taubensee’s ideas are downright wacky, but it’s the electrifying energy that counts, and there was plenty of it. Plus some heavy references of course: the glorious Rudi Gernreich right at the beginning. This said, it was a bang.
Haider at Tom Ford, Pieter at Alaïa, comings and goings in fashion, and Nico at Courrèges coming up fast, all of it leading to a day of dynamic fashion in Paris, writes Tim Blanks.
One of the busiest days of Paris fashion week featured a hello at Balmain, a goodbye at Alaïa and variations on signature visions at Courrèges, The Row, Dries Van Noten and Tom Ford.
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