Fun and glitz

PARIS — Issey Miyake’s new designer Satoshi Kondo had models in free-flowing dresses dancing, twirling and skateboarding around a former 19^th century mortuary for his Paris Fashion Week show.

From the cast-iron rafters of the Cent Quatre art space, which for more than a century was home to the capital’s municipal undertakers, dresses were slowly lowered onto models to the ethereal electronic sounds of French artist DeLaurentis.

“I wanted to express the joy of wearing clothes and the joy of movement. So you see the models dancing, almost like in the wind, moving together,” Kyoto-born designer Kondo said of his ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2020 collection.

Rather than parading single-file past viewers on a catwalk, Kondo’s models twirled around the massive hall in striped “parasol” frocks featuring Issey Miyake’s trademark pleats, while others in lightweight nylon raincoats zigzagged on electric skateboards.

Wearing ensembles with splashes of raspberry pink, lime green and lilac, models jumped up and down to enhance the bouncy effect of near-translucent fabrics and loosely-woven dresses, and waved fan-shaped bags in a riot of color and movement.

LANVIN’S CAPES
Models at Lanvin’s fashion show in Paris shrugged off the drizzle for a stroll through a dreamy museum garden last Wednesday, showing off long dresses, comic strip prints and adventurous capes.

Guests, including French actress Isabelle Huppert, took shelter under see-through umbrellas on the outdoor catwalk, set among the bamboo and lush vegetation of the jungle-like garden at the Quai Branly, a museum focused on non-European cultures.

The mix of male and female models, featuring sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid, swept past in flowing dresses and pastel tones.

Some looks, including a loose sky blue pleated ensemble and a short shiny dress, had echoes of ancient Greece, while accessories included oversize handbags and wide-brimmed hats.

Men’s T-shirts featured faded prints from “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” a children comic strip that was published every week in the New York Herald in the 1910s and followed its hero’s fantastical dreams.

“The reminiscence of childhood is very important for me,” said Lanvin’s designer Bruno Sialelli after the show.

“I feel I’m in a generation that is pivotal, we had a childhood without digital so we had to read, we had to get bored, this provided a lot of creativity as a kid. And at the same time now we are really in the digital world.”

The link with childhood was in Lanvin’s DNA, Sialelli said, adding that Jeanne Lanvin, who founded it in 1889, first began making dresses for her daughter which other parents soon wanted copies of, before ordering versions for themselves.

The 32-year-old Frenchman was appointed creative director of the brand by new CEO Jean-Philippe Hecquet last January, as Lanvin attempts a turnaround under its Chinese owner Fosun.

Lanvin became the darling of the fashion world in recent years thanks to designer Alber Elbaz, who, along with former owner Shaw-Lan Wang, revived the brand and led it to 14 successful years before his departure in 2015, after which sales stuttered.

Spectators at Wednesday’s show were also given headphones playing sweet electronic music mixing violin and bird song, meant to immerse them in the garden’s atmosphere.

“I fell in love with the Quai Branly garden, it’s like a bubble, I provided the viewers with headphones so that they could really contemplate the place and the collection”, Sialelli said.

RESURRECTED PATOU
French couture house Patou came back to life on Wednesday under the helm of LVMH, its new parent company, and designer Guillaume Henry, who gave a modern, chic twist to its historical designs at a Paris Fashion Week presentation.

Patou’s office, a typical Haussmannian apartment a stone’s throw from Notre-Dame Cathedral, was turned into a showroom where clients and journalists got a glimpse of the brand’s first fashion collection since it closed its doors in 1987.

Instead of a catwalk, models stood around, artificially idle as they chatted or read books, showcasing dresses with lace trimmings, Navy-style officer jackets and wide denim jeans.

Accessories included oversized handmade golden jewels, as well as tight-fitting bathing caps and black boxing boots which evoked the sportswear style of the Patou of old, which once dressed tennis player Suzanne Lenglen.

Other looks included a pale pink fencer’s jacket, a fuchsia strapless puffball dress, and plenty of sailor-style necklines and bows and navy blue structured jackets.

Henry described the laid-back but chic vibe of the collection as “sunny.”

“The Patou woman is an approachable woman,” he told Reuters.

Luxury goods group LVMH, which also owns Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton, bought its majority stake in Jean Patou last year from privately held British group Designer Parfums for an undisclosed amount.

It tasked Henry, who previously worked at Carven and Nina Ricci, with breathing new life into its forgotten prêt-à-porter lines, which the late Karl Lagerfeld as well as designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix once worked on.

Patou, created in 1914 by its eponymous founder, was still best known for its rich floral perfume Joy, launched in the 1930s and the most expensive fragrance of its time.

LVMH’s Dior recently launched its own Joy fragrance.

“A year ago, Patou was a project without an address, without archives, without material, without anything,” Henry said. “It was necessary to set up a company, a century-old company.”

“A lot of people don’t know Patou so we don’t want to bring back a brand with its patrimonial or historical background but to see it with a new perspective.”

Patou is targeting a wide audience, with prices in the bottom bracket of the luxury world with dresses varying between €450 ($492) and €5,000 for the most expensive. On average, a dress costs €650.

SAINT LAURENT DAZZLES
Saint Laurent’s models last Tuesday paraded down a runway filled with dozens of projector lights against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower to showcase the French label’s collection for Paris Fashion Week.

Long, fluid dresses and burnished gold embroideries from the 1970s, chosen by creative director Anthony Vaccarello for the 2020 summer collection, sparkled along with the Paris landmark.

Ushering in Vaccarello’s fourth year in the job, the women’s collection unveiled at the show heavily featured short and knee-length shorts, high boots, dazzling cigarette pants and jumpsuits.

See-through tops with deep necklines also set the tone for the looks.

“A sharp take on Saint Laurent classics devised to strengthen individuality,” Saint Laurent said in a statement, describing the show. — Reuters