Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli shows standout at Paris Fashion Week on Monday
Celebrities such as Lupita Nyong’o and Emily Blunt sparkled in the heat at Christian Dior’s vivid couture show set in a timeless conservatory in Paris. It was the highlight of Monday’s autumn/winter 2015-16 Paris Fashion Week shows, which also included Schiaparelli.
Fashionistas hold court
Lupita Nyong’o looked ravishing in a short, cherry-red Dior couture dress on Monday, and was at a loss for words on entering Christian Dior’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” show set inside the Rodin Museum. Guests ventured with trepidation on entering the huge, abstract-painted conservatory garden that featured myriad multicoloured panels – and some even tripped on the giant coloured fruit scattered around the floor.
“It’s really cool,” the actress said, looking around in amazement from her spot next to American Vogue Editor Anna Wintour. “It’s so incredible. I think I need to take a moment.”
Emily Blunt – in a simple, white knee-length Dior dress – was equally amazed.
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“This is just extraordinary. This is kind of why I would walk from London to Paris to see this show. I’m so excited,” she said.
The only thing she regretted about her trip was a lack of sufficient planning for France’s soaring temperatures, which have recently hit 40°Celsius.
“I mean, I fry like an egg,” she said. “So I’m feeling like I should have put on more sunscreen. Or a higher factor.”
Dior’s sweltering conservatory decor may well have contributed to the overheating.
A veritable time machine
In a surreal garden setting, Dior designer Raf Simons wove his creative needle in and out through different centuries. That produced an imaginative time-travel of a couture show, which riffed on the styles of the Flemish Masters, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The large fruit props on the runway conjured up scenes from historic still-life oil paintings.
Long diaphanous column silhouettes in chiffon, like medieval undergarments, floated by elegantly alongside gowns with high-cinched waists and wide, billowing sleeves that mirrored the old Flemish styles. Some bejewelled net gilets were worn on the torso, evoking chainmail in a beautiful touch.
The sense of chic time-travel was further heightened with delicate dots and patterns on the fabrics – designs that evoked the French Impressionists and the technique of Pointillism associated with artists like Georges Seurat.
The coats were the highest point of this strong collection, with one standout: a flame-red coat with beautifully large tubular cuffs.
Theatrical delights at Schiaparelli
Celebrity guests including Meg Ryan were swept away to the glamour of 1930s theatre life at Bertrand Guyon’s debut collection for Elsa Schiaparelli.
And what better a setting than to start exploring the theatricality of the great couturier? Famed for inventing shocking pink and having collaborations with Surrealists like Salvador Dali, Coco Chanel’s hated rival Schiaparelli was one of the greatest and most colourful Parisian designers of the ‘20s and ‘30s. The house was recently revived.
In an impressive recreated theatre, Guyon’s models harked from another era.
Fastidiously embellished 1930s Orientalist satin jackets had softly square shoulders. Silk “jabot” collars and voluminous “Duster” coats wafted by with exaggerated pockets, alongside bejewelled eye, star and keylock decorations.
Guyon even referenced the mania for Grecian looks in Schiaparelli’s heyday in a couple of diaphanous column dresses with flashes of gold.
Not all the theatrical exuberance worked, especially one overly clashing multicoloured mink coat. But Guyon is certainly moving the house in a welcomed, more coherent direction since the departure last year of designer Marco Zanini.
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