Suzy Menkes at haute couture autumn/winter ‘19/’20
Share
3rd Jul 2019
Miu Miu: horse race with a hidden agenda
With her country doing a political turn to the far right and her husband and sons mad for competing on the ocean waves, was it so surprising that Miuccia Prada should have turned conservative and sporty? But, inevitably, the ‘conventional’ Miu Miu collection came with a twist.
On the hallowed ground of the Hippodrome d’Auteuil and its jockey club, frisky horses raced across the rich green grass, even if the current European heat wave demanded that the marathon ended – for the fortunate animals – with a cold shower on the lawns.
“It’s about playing with conservatism,” said Prada of both the venue and the collection, which took elements of Audrey Hepburn at the Ascot racecourse in “My Fair Lady” but added a cheeky, sexual angle with race caps worn under fancy hats and a focus on legs. That meant a loooong stretch of bare skin from big, tailored shorts down to platform-soled cork sandals.
It was not quite Meghan Markle’s Eliza Doolittle parade in June 2018 at Ascot with the British Royal in-laws, but rather a deft mix of old school and zany couture – as in a plunge-neck, full-sleeved cotton blouse worn with leather shorts leading down to sports shoes and socks.
‘Perverse’ is a word intrinsically attached to Prada, and so it seemed in this meld of modern sportswear, in which a sleek leather jacket was paired with a prim, long-sleeved dress with an ancient Roman horse and chariot print.
“Between the America’s Cup and my children raised with football, I had to do sporty,” the designer said, referring to her husband Patrizio Bertelli and his long-term involvement in the yachting competition. Her son, Lorenzo Bertelli, 31, has recently become the company’s digital strategist as well as focusing on his own dream as a competitive racecar driver.
Miuccia Prada has now got down to an art form the meld of conventional clothing with the quirky theme of each season. For this ‘racecourse’ collection that meant references to checked jockey sweaters and formal double-breasted blazers, while the white collars – classic or plunging open to the rib cage – gave a modern, sexual look. Tailoring with a tease would be a neat description of this inter-season Miu Miu race for young fillies.
Ralph Rucci haute couture autumn/winter '19/'20. Image credit: Gorunway.com
Ralph Rucci keeps the couture flag flying
If anyone asks, “What remains of real haute couture?” the answer is in one name: Ralph Rucci.
The American-based designer showed his first Paris collection in 17 years, and fans old (make that familiar) or newly curious flocked to the Hotel Ritz to see whether the designer was still rooting for high fashion.
“While I was making it I was very emotional because of the history and the difficulty to get to this point,” the designer admitted. “But then it just came very clearly, like I was taking dictation.”
As his clients clustered around him, he explained, “You can feel a very spiritual moment with the clothes and I wanted to distill them to their essence – with my flavour.”
And what is the heart of the matter? I would describe it as the complex made apparently simple in a way rarely seen on a fashion runway today.
“RR 331” is the name Rucci has given to his collection, following problems with his backers. Its essence was a regrowth of the lush grandeur that has been his trademark for 40 years.
The elegance came from introspection: Rich fabrics, extraordinarily cut and shaped so that a drape was suddenly thrown like a shower of water over the shoulder, trickling down to settle as a swathe of fabric at the hemline.
These shapes and cuts – many of them on silk georgette or cashmere – might typically come in black. But there were also shades, from camel to cinnabar, which gave warmth to the sobriety.
The focus of the collection was in the words Rucci gave to it: “Dedicated to Elsa Peretti”. That applied not just to the delicate handbags made for the show, but as a more general vision of artistic handwork.
“Elsa Peretti and I are soul mates and we have known each other for many years,” the designer said. “She is very inspiring and I love her as a woman. She and Pauline de Rothschild are my two consistent mentors, who remind me what is appropriate and what is not. Elsa has more style than anyone – nothing to do with the financial possibilities and everything to do with your inner core.“
Rucci’s passion for his work opened Paris Couture Week and was a reminder of the high-fashion world before all the inter-season collection from Cruise to Resort muddled the offerings.
By contrast, Rucci moved softly and seamlessly from day to evening. “I came back to Paris after 17 years because this is where I belong,” he said. “There is not a fashion industry in the US for this.”
Schiaparelli haute couture autumn/winter '19/'20. Image credit: Gorunway.com
Schiaparelli: trying a new angle
It was the most charming of presentations. In the middle of the runway was a table where designer Daniel Roseberry – hoodie, jacket, black jeans and trainers – drew manically and then calmly.
As he explained it, the American designer was re-creating the moment when he was asked to present himself as the designer for Schiaparelli, the brand founded in Surrealism way back in the 1930s.
“I rented a studio under Manhattan Bridge and walked every morning from my apartment to the studio, anonymously built a proposal, and then a month and a half later I was at the Place Vendôme,” said the designer, explaining his physical and mental journey from working for 10 years with Thom Browne in New York, to meeting with Diego della Valli – the Italian entrepreneur behind ‘Schiaparelli’ – and his new venture into haute couture.
“I thought about Schiaparelli, but I didn’t want any nostalgia or to go back to Surrealism, so let’s take the mentality of Elsa and find the link between the way she felt about things and what I do,” said the designer. “And then just go straight forward into the future.”
Brave words. Bold words even. But difficult to see the collection that effectively opened the haute couture Paris season as anything more than a pastiche. The first of three units seemed to be played to the rhythm of Thom Browne’s tailoring – which was no bad thing and offered a sleek, cut-away jacket worn with white under-shorts and hose.
Then came colour: a vivid orange layered dress, cut away at the front to reveal skinny, sparkling trousers, followed later by vivid floral patterns. There was even an opportunity to play flower patterns with Velcro additions, moving over the body like children’s toys.
Schiaparelli has recently created some successful relationships with red carpet dressers, mostly of the kind which might fit well with the arty world of the original ‘Schiap’. Some of Roseberry’s offerings were witty, as in a bodice of red insects, with an extra number apparently scurrying across the bust.
Other presentations were dramatic, one-time outfits, some stunning in their theatric offering of a vast snowscape or what might have been a giant glob of ice cream. You could already hear an echo of the guffaws for any celebrity who dares to wear it.
The disappearance of Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel highlights the fact that replacing talent in a hallowed or historic brand is more difficult that onlookers can imagine. Do you take the historic route, re-imagining Elsa Schiaparelli and her witty wickedness by making bras clamped over the breasts like shells?
The famous Schiap ‘Shocking’ fragrance has left behind an awkward legacy. Nothing much in fashion shocks us today – even in couture. And that is why the new designer’s vision was smart – even if he did not always adhere to it.
“I didn’t include any visual reference to the past – no lips, no hands, no nothing,” he explains. “It is a collection with three chapters: first, tailoring; the second, day going into night – an amazing evening capsule and then when you fall asleep it is a dream; the third is pure expression, basically.
“Whereas at the beginning we start more sensual, more internal, more earthbound, even the soles of the shoes are printed lizard with grass. And then at the end, you have printed lizard with water. It’s kind of like this baptism that happens at the end. And we go full colour – the jewels of the collection.”
Fine words, but the designer’s dreams do not look as easy to wear as daytime clarity.
Click Here: Sports Water Bottles
Iris Van Herpen haute couture autumn/winter '19/'20. Image credit: Gorunway.com
Iris van Herpen: lightness is all
The monster creation in the centre of Iris van Herpen’s runway might have dominated her show.
But the wonder of the Amsterdam-based designer’s presentation is that every piece, however complex or apparently impenetrable, has a reason. It fits the show space, the designer’s story and the body when the workmanship is used to create clothes.
The result is so light and magical, with its layers of ultra-fine materials, that even the designer’s complex explanations fall oh-so-lightly.
“I started with a collaboration with Anthony Howe, who is a sculptor based in Orcas Island, Washington,” Iris explained.
“His work is really the inspiration behind the collection. He uses wind as the base for his sculptures and they are kinetic, so often the sculptures are actually made for outside.”
“With this collaboration, we designed the sculpture for the show, but we also worked on a kinetic dress that turns around its own axel,” the designer continued, describing the Infinity dress that took four months to make with the layering of white feathers. They fly cyclically around their own centre, with the hallucinatory motion addictive to watch.
Nothing you hear from Iris or her thoughtful and intelligent theme can compare with seeing her work in motion – the ultralight organza layers bouncing in a simple dress. The eerie colours – the graded abstract patterns on rice paper-thin fabric.
“The lines blend into each other so the circular shape is really the core of the whole show,” she explained.
But the important message is that, as an imaginative fashion label, the Dutch designer gets increasingly convincing.
Compared to the torturous creations of her earlier days, her current work seems magical in its stylish simplicity – even if in her studio hands are hard at work as in any atelier.
“But I also really like the personal connection that I have with all my architects, scientists; we really need six months to develop the collection and the show cycle is really hard going into the material this deeply,” Iris explained.
Every subject that I discussed had a complex but clear reply, especially when I asked about a dress in subtly different shades.
“The colour red and the colour white are blending into each other and there are two patterns,” she explained.
“So within the thin lines, you see the white going into the red. And within the organza, it’s the other way around. So when you move, the colour gradient starts to become alive.”
Bringing complex technique to life is the Iris van Herpen story. And the message is getting clearer with every season that passes.
Christian Dior haute couture autumn/winter '19/'20 Image credit: Gorunway.com
Dior’s ultra desirable parade of black
Maria Grazia Chiuri is awarded a Légion d’honneur to emphasise her service to women
On the single white goddess gown in the Dior show, where black dominated over a few streaks of colour – wine red or dull gold – there was a message: ‘Are clothes modern?’ the stark words made even bolder by a background on the walls of wild nature, that included gnarled ‘trees’ climbing the stairway of the historic building.
Six hours later, when designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was back in the same Dior home on Avenue Montaigne, surrounded by her Italian family, she was receiving the Légion d’honneur from Marlène Schiappa, the French Secretary of Equality – a woman who felt equally strongly about females revealing strength.
“I was surprised because I honestly never meant to arrive in my career in this important recognition,” the designer said about receiving the highest French order of merit. “And at the end I only do what I really like to do. I speak about what I think is important for me.”
The work of the determined designer was exceptional on two levels: it was a rigorous statement about the reality of women’s lives and needs, and there were clothes that underscored the intricacy and delicate qualities of haute couture.
The essence of the collection was reduced to the feathery lace shoes that wafted up the legs in the form of hosiery. It summed up Maria Grazia’s spirit as aware, not only of the situation of women in the 21st century, but also of the need for something to wear.
With its depth of thought and art references, from Bernard Rudofsky’s 1944 New York exhibition about clothing and modernity, to the decor elements created currently for the show by artist Penny Slinger, did the event add up to the familiar fashion story of architecture versus decoration?
“There are no contradictions between the two things and we think too much that there is only one way to be decorative or to have architectural vision,” said Maria Grazia.
“But for the first time, the woman and the building were important, with decoration an important element of the structure. I think that we can try a way of working that has different elements, but not of contradiction. We can propose to women and let them decide. The idea is that clothes are a project – for the house and for your body.”
Deep thoughts need to be accompanied by reality in fashion. And after the initial surprise at the enclosed interior and the dense, dark clothes, the eyes adjusted to a very fine collection. Because it was almost entirely black, the focus was on the detail. And if the initial all-covering coats and suits might seem heavy, they patently were not, as the fabrics in movement revealed an easy lightness.
Almost immediately came the lace, from bodice to knees, down to those shadowed legs. Separating day and evening clothes is no longer a fashion ritual, but Maria Grazia was exceptionally skilled in the way that slithers of transparency contrasted with, say, a long, dark coat draped around the waist. From milliner Stephen Jones came mesh veils that seemed sophisticated, rather than traditional visions of women’s hidden faces.
With 60-plus outfits almost all in the single shade, the designer set out to treat black as a colour, using mesh, embroidery, herringbone wool, basket weave, lacquer – and so much more. When the colour came through the dark clouds of black there was an element of surprise: a wine red that the designer described as “burgundy to black”. In the finale of evening gowns, all draped across the body, a lacquered matte finish on a pale, fleshy material had a timeless beauty.
But Maria Grazia’s skill is to make clothes for women in our time – not to produce a pastiche of the Christian Dior years, splendid though they might have been back then.
Standing beside the Minister to receive her Légion d’honneur, both women wore black, Maria Grazia in a straight-forward trouser suit. In the same building that afternoon, the Italian designer proved what every Parisian woman believes: there is no substitute for black. But it can have many different facets – not least a contribution to female strength.
Chanel haute couture autumn/winter '19/'20 Image credit: Gorunway.com
Chanel – small surprises among the classics
The Paris Grand Palais was transformed into a giant library for the first Chanel couture show without Karl Lagerfeld at the helm
Nobody knows what will happen to Karl Lagerfeld’s symphony of books – old, new and played out in various languages and different locations.
But in the first Chanel couture show without the late designer at the helm, a library marked the handover to his long term assistant Virginie Viard.
A vast circle of books like an ancient library cocooned the Grand Palais, Chanel’s favoured show space. And even if the books way up by the glass dome were fakes, like a stage set, there were enough copies from Karl’s gallery to suggest a background similar to his own studio on the Paris Left Bank.
“It is a mix of books in Coco Chanel’s apartment and Galignani,” said Virginie, referring to a favoured Paris bookshop – not least for Karl.
The designer was surrounded by ‘team Karl’ as it was known until his death in February. They cheered their new leader on enthusiastically.
The main thing about the show was that it was reduced to its essence: beautifully made and perfectly cut tailoring with more bright colour than usual.
To underscore the concept of bookish young women – even though that idea has been used persistently by Gucci – the models seem to have stepped down from their tidy, lady-like shoes into footwear with a more slouchy effect.
Wisely, for a winter couture season, the designer had plenty of coats – starting with a floor-sweeping length with a line of buttons, mostly single, straight as a die from neck to knees.
Here, as elsewhere, Virginie put in drops of bold colour – red, pink, orange. A green tweed all-in-one suggested a sporty influence that never quite materialised – although the look came again with a slim line of check.
For all Chanel’s global reach and the twists and turns in Karl’s tenure, this brand could only be described as a French classic. Virginie held to those tenets adding tiny surprises with a frilly ruffle and wrists, or a cut away at the shoulders.
There was nothing timid about this collection. It had the familiar Chanel trope but a small change to the overall look by offering a flowing curve to a jacket and few accessories – apart from the eyeglasses. Perhaps they will join skiing and beach clothes recently introduced in ready-to-wear.
There was, of course, no madness – which would have felt inappropriate at not even six months since Karl passed away. So the show was quiet and polite – just like in a library.
The evening clothes had a covered up elegance – say a velvet coat or the final tiered pastel coat, its layers decorated with feathers.
At the ending, to warm applause, Virginie appeared in a black T-shirt and patterned Chanel marked trousers with matching boots. She stood on the first floor up the mighty swoop of this ‘library’. That seemed like a symbol of a designer on the right path – but with a long way to climb up to a fresh, new world.