Valentino Spring/Summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection – Paris Fashion Week

06/10/201507/10/2015 | Syuzena Pitz

At Valentino, on the penultimate day of Paris Fashion Week, the fashion Insiders stopped filming and snapping photos with their phones and they and gave Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli not just a well-deserved round of applause, but a cheering standing ovation..

Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli made a research which resulted in the gorgeous fusions between Italian and African traditions. They met in the textiles and tailoring and the way the roman influences Chiuri and Piccioli had used in their couture show segued into tribal treatments—the strips of leather that began as a Gladiator reference became studded; the roman sandals gained carved ebony heels; the pagan necklaces of their former show now appeared in white ceramic, suggesting abstracted teeth or shells; and the house expertise in embroidery produced tiny beaded Masai-derived patterns and bold peacock feather trims.There were also the african prints depicting tribal scenes of leopards, rhinos, giraffes and elephants, kinetic geometric tribal markings, while cuffs and necklines exploded in quills and peacock feathers. Fringing is a mainstay here and it swished in tiered raffia to make up a coat, and from suede miniskirts and capes. A series of tie-dye pieces – a jacquard coat, cargo jacket and pair of flares were also standout. And then came the fragile lace maxi dresses, so delicate they could almost evaporate right there and then. More prêt-a-couture than ready-to-wear, this collection never pandered or dumbed down its chosen theme.

Chanel Spring/Summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection – Paris Fashion Week

06/10/201507/10/2015 | Syuzena Pitz

For the occasion, Lagerfeld transformed the Grand Palais into a mock airport terminal complete with baggage check, numbered gates, a departures and arrivals board which listing past Chanel destination show locales, and baggage carts stamped with double-C logos. In the front row were Chanel muses : Lily-Rose Depp, Vanessa Paradis and Cara Delevigne.

And Edie Campbell opened the show in a multicolored tweed jumpsuit with silver sandals and a silvery headband, toting a black Chanel rolling suitcase and carryall.The airplane motif carried from the set onto the clothing and accessories, with one dress patterned like an arrivals board, and a sweater and pair of knit pants set in a repeating airplane intarsia. The red, white, and blue airplane pins that adorned some looks will make it possible for any ensemble to be ready for travel from the Chanel terminal.Many looks featured backward baseball caps. When they didn’t, the models’ hair was worn with several headbands and pulled back into two low pigtails at the nape of the neck.

Amidst the flowing dresses and loose casualwear came a section of proper ladies, ready to take to the sky in style. With sharply tailored tweed suits and iconic flap bags, these looks harkened back to a time when dressing up for travel was de rigueur.

And for his bow, Lagerfeld picked up two of his frequent collaborators from the front row, Delevingne and Hudson Kroenig dressed as a Pilot, and walked with them around the set.

Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection – Paris Fashion Week

05/10/201506/10/2015 | Syuzena Pitz

Hedi Slimane unveiled his Saint Laurent spring/summer collection.

Hedi Slimane has turned Saint Laurent into a power brand. More than that, the success of his breaking down the house and rendering it into accessible, uncomplicated items has set off a chain reaction at the top of the designer fashion industry.. Not everyone can package up a look and whack it to the public in such a first-degree, widely understandable as Slimane. For Spring, one glance at the lowbrow tiaras, the sparkly see-through mini-mesh dresses, the rock-chick leather jackets, and the skinny legs of the models shoved into Wellington boots told us where he was going. To Glastonbury with Courtney and Kate Moss it was, with an entourage of throwback shaggy-headed waifs and a caravan-load of ready-made vintage-y stuff.

Slimane was smart to suggest he was pitching it in a more down-to-earth way this season. There is a movement toward real, ordinary clothes going on. Slimane seemed to have tuned into that when he came up with a perfectly ordinary beige trenchcoat, sand-color camisole, jeans and black Wellingtons, a faded army-surplus shirt, patchworked denim capes, and leather bomber jackets . For the people who only saw the Saint Laurent collections via their cell phones or computers, it is hard to comprehend the quality of the materials and the detailed craftsmanship that go into every shimmering see-through minidress or patchwork denim coat that appears on the runway. Underneath all of Silmane’s sartorial insubordination are well-made clothes that are deftly executed.The designer titled this collection “Saint Laurent Skin,” and while he might still be getting under the skin of a few people, Silmane also has found a way for the brand to completely shed the skin of its past for one of his own making

Sonia Rykiel Spring/Summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection – Paris Fashion Week

05/10/201506/10/2015 | Syuzena Pitz

Julie De Libran unveiled Sonia Rykiel spring/summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection.

Julie de Libran was greeting guests at the entrance of Sonia Rykiel’s Boulevard Saint Germain boutique yesterday. A poster of a blue cocktail as an invitation, an abundance of colorful libations proffered up upon arrival at the show, a catwalk covered in glitter and a cool two-woman electronic band called C.A.R. singing elliptically in French mean just one thing: it’s party time at Sonia Rykiel and ist’s a Julie de Libran’s debut in the role of creativ director.She comes to Rykiel from Louis Vuitton, where she designed the preseason collections under Marc Jacobs.

De Libran has a light touch, Rykiel’s signature stripes materialized in many different guises: on tweedy tailoring, knitted fur chubbies, a belted organza peasant dress and the bikini underneath it, even on a basic V-neck. As a female designer, she can romance an easy three-quarter-length denim skirt or an army parka just as well as she can a sequined minidress, but by the end of the collection, things were very Glamour- there were a final series of richly colored sequin gowns. They will shimmer and sparkle even in the darkest corner of a european’s famous nightclubs. And for those who prefer a more understated boit de nuit alternative, de Libran has got them covered. Wearing a pair of silk pajamas covered in a delicate bird motif to go out dancing all night just sounds like the chicest thing going.

Hermés Spring/Summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection – Paris Fashion Week

05/10/201507/10/2015 | Syuzena Pitz

It’s not easy to find words to explain the ingeniously crafted, superfine fabrics and leather it uses in Hermés without sounding pretentious. I’ll try to describe what the Hermés about : Hermès is the essence of the cultivated, inbred french point of view that if you have wealth, it must be spent so that it doesn’t show except to those of your class. (Anyway a woman must never blunder by trying to be sexy, appear to wear makeup, or have done hair direct from hair stylist! – but too much women are half-blind to all these nuances. ) A lot of us wanted to know how Vanhee-Cybulski would set out the Hermès principles for Spring. and what can i tell you- she did it – with a simplified sequence of blue-black tailoring and grid-patterned black-on-cream tops and pants, and mustard-color dresses in cotton and leather, accessorized with large quartz and clear resin cuffs. She’s brought a sense of relaxed city-sportiness to the picture, showing Hermès trainers with many looks and dialing back on the horsey heritage for the moment. It’s not showy “fashion” that is being sold here; more a carefully calibrated sense of a lifestyle which consciously rises above trendiness. For those who want to belong to it, the quality of the materials will be explained in the ritual of buying at Hermès.