Thursday October 29, 2009
Class act
By SARAH SHARD and JENNY BARCHFIELD
Galliano celebrates Bacall and Bogart in tribute to film noir.
WAILING sirens, the sound of a car crash and billows of smoke: ever the showman John Galliano took Dior to the movies during Paris Fashion Week, to the heyday of the classic 1940s film noir.
First out onto the catwalk was a young Lauren Bacall look-alike with a flowing blonde mane in a trenchcoat worthy of Humphrey Bogart, glammed up in gunmetal grey lame, swinging a bulky black python attache case.
Charmed: Karl Lagerfeld presented a romantic romp in the barn, in neutral shades of cream, oatmeal and white, with the classic Chanel jacket reworked and pretty A-line skirts. Trenchcoats and leather jackets with sharp lapels and belts knotted at the waist were the default outerwear in Galliano’s ready-to-wear offerings for spring-summer 2010, and the attache case the new must-have accessory.
He slipped a liquorice black trenchcoat over second-skin metallic jeans, but mostly he softened the butch upper silhouette with ultra-feminine knitted lurex skirts or flirty petticoats. His clear favourite were slinky satin boxer shorts with a deep lace trim, although just how feasible it would be to wear them on a city street is a moot point.
The lingerie look took over for evening, with trompe l’oeil combinations of bras and panties wittily incorporated into cocktail frocks.
Corsets, in nude shades like ivory, with a delicate cobweb tracery of lace, topped a swishy sea green sheath here, or a pair of flesh-coloured satin boxer shorts there.
Evening gowns were fragile constructs in clouds of sheer finely pleated tulle, in orange, violet and ice blue, with “illusion” slips underneath giving tantalising glimpses of stocking tops and underwear.
Galliano appeared at the end of the runway out of a puff of smoke, clad like Bogey with his hallmark Borsalino hat, to thunderous applause from celebrity guests including Bruce Willis and his companion, and the R&B singer Rihanna.
Dai Fujiwara’s collection for Issey Miyake was a riot of colour, with pick-and-mix global references from Celtic to Native American to his own native Japan.
Lacy beauty: At Dior, the lingerie look took over the evening with corsets and cocktail frocks. For his final sequence all the models stayed on the catwalk and milled around like a shoal of exotic tropical fish in their bright printed sarouels, sarongs and jumpsuits, splashed with apple green, electric blue, brick red and magenta.
Celtic-influenced jackets in jacquard were a patchwork of overlapping arches in subtle gradations of white and grey. Horizontal and vertical pleats gave a chequer board look to a cream summer coat. Others were constructed from woven strips of multi-coloured tape, here and there hanging loose from the hem.
Straw-coloured mesh knit floor-length cardigans and vests added a hippie de luxe touch.
In one of the highlights of the French capital’s collections thus far, supermodel Naomi Campbell strutted her stuff at Russian label Chapurin, wearing only a translucent bustier and a strategically placed swath of silk. Not only did the 39-year-old hold her own with the other models – most of them less than half her age – but she slayed them.
Gaultier mixed his trademark lingerie-as-outerwear look with hip-hop inspired streetwear, layering powder pink bras, garters, bustiers and padded and pointy prostheses of all ilk under and over extra-wide jeans, funky overalls and military coats.
Cone-shaped bras were built into a pair of oversized overalls, the straps crisscrossing in the back to form Gaultier’s signature X, while the tails of an oversized sports coat were cut away to reveal a pair of round bottom-covers.
Inside out: Jean-Paul Gaultier reverted to his lingerie-as-outerwear look. One model even wore a bustier in chocolate brown with a massive convex pregnant belly cover.
Though there was nothing earth-shatteringly innovating about the collection – Gaultier has been incorporating street fashion and foundations into his collection since the start of his career more than 30 years ago – the show still radiated energy, excitement and an endless sense of possibility.
In a welcome change from many of Paris’ blond-haired, blue-eyed catwalks, Gaultier’s models were of all different of ethnic origins, their brown, black, blond and red hair pulled into playful side pigtails. Many of them sported fake tattoos reading “Jean Paul” in Gothic lettering across their necks or down their arms, which were piled high with stacks of Rajhastani-inspired bangles. – AFP/AP
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