Paris Fashion Week:Paris brought out the first of its big guns yesterday with Dior showing earlier than usual, at the start of a week which will see more than 80 collections on the ramp previewing spring/summer '08.
In a season in which bags and shoes are becoming greater talking points than clothes, fans would have been the most desirable accessories in the Dior tent yesterday afternoon. It was like a hothouse, exacerbated by bright lights and camera crews choking celebrities like Ivana Trump, Sting and Trudy Styler.
The gangster-style chalk stripe suit that opened the show and the zany zebra print trench that followed it instantly set the mood of 1940s Hollywood predatory glamour complete with attendant armoury like clutch bags, studded black berets and sparkle heel stilettos. Women in male evening attire is a well-mined area of fashion and white tuxedos with white toppers, straight out of Cabaret, were flamboyant, but hardly innovative.
Galliano's magic showed in the slinky gowns with oversize corsage, in filmy chiffon suits flecked with sequins or in lovely, shapely blonde suits. Animal prints were dramatic accents and echoes of Poiret appeared in languid silk peignoirs or in silver brocade opera coats trimmed with white fox fur. It was a collection with moonlight and stardust in mind, with its silvered skirtsand fringing and starry hair decor. Galliano made a brief appearance at the end in full evening dress complete with top hat and tails, but sans trousers, looking as if caught off guard.
Vivienne Westwood, iconoclastic grande dame of fashion, delivered a predictably whacky collection in which tousled haired maidens looked as if they'd stepped untidily out of a Watteau painting. The swagged skirts, the baggy shorts, the bucket pocket dresses, "the sweet disorder of dress" are par for the course at Westwood and even a sober grey flannel suit was teamed with an outlandish oversize collar and tie. In between there were some lovely items like jewelled macramé belts and waistcoats, but there's always devilment in the dishevelment.
It was left to Isabel Marant to show a collection inspired by and aimed at the street with its camouflage prints and Yasser Arafat keffiyah scarves. There were baby doll dresses and pretty printed maxis but slouchy trousers and stiff oversize jackets were maybe more the sort of urban protection needed to face the forthcoming transport strikes in the city.
