Paris Haute Couture Week kicked off this Monday under the shock of the death of French couturier Thierry Mugler, one of the great figures in the sector.
Dior opted this Monday to reinvent the work of embroidery, with a Haute Couture collection conceived almost entirely from this technique adored by its designer, the Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri, who played with the harmony of neutral tones.
In a setting of colorful tapestries, hand-embroidered by the Chanakya apprentice women’s school in Bombay, India – a country where craft professions are usually passed down only between family generations -, Dior turned embroidery into flowing garments, dresses with steamy lines and translucent blouses.
Some sixty creations were shown on the catwalk, on the first day of the Spring-Summer 2022 Haute Couture presentations, where pleated skirts transformed into closed-neck dresses, structured coats and layers over jacket and trouser sets also stood out.
Chiuri wanted to “eliminate the borders between art and crafts” by emphasizing the relationships between the different creations, as the designer explained in a note received by the guests, concentrated in a tent installed at the Rodin Museum in Paris and which may be visited from next week to appreciate the tapestries.
EMBROIDERY PROTAGONISTS
The embroideries, instead of decorating the garments, erect them: they give the structure and architecture of the fabric in day dresses, or the lightness of the dress, when they are camouflaged in the tulle.
On the runway, a full guipure dress with a high neck and balloon sleeves, a beaded jumpsuit with an elastic appearance or a skirt with moving crystals stood out on the catwalk.
The embroideries even slipped into the stockings and shoes, some brilliant mary janes that accompanied the entire collection presented on the catwalk, which was attended by actresses such as Cara Delevingne and Rosamund Pike, as well as Pierre Casiraghi and his wife Beatrice Borromeo and Stella del Carmen Banderas , daughter of Antonio Banderas and Mélanie Griffith, who debuted as a guest in a Haute Couture parade.
As for the colors, Chiuri barely left light gray and white, with some introduction of black in evening dresses, sober and pure cuts.
A choice that coincided with what was seen hours before at Schiaparelli, which opened the catwalk on Monday with a sober collection in the background – there was only white, black and gold – but very daring in terms of accessories.
Its designer, the American Daniel Roseberry, conquered the public with his quest to create an emotional work, closer to art than to the profane sense of clothing.
In fact, Roseberry explained that her inspiration stems from a search for the heavenly, in which she hoped to find some calm in the context of the unease and loss that the coronavirus pandemic has caused in the last two years.
The firm, founded by the designer and surrealist Elsa Schiaparelli, an icon of the 1920s and 1930s, has found in 2022 a good way to reconnect with an audience that is looking for a certain theatricality and that explores a fashion closer to art.
Column gowns and open-bust corsets were complemented by oversized hats, head-shaped bags, metal sheets protruding from the neckline, and halo-shaped crowns.
Schiaparelli presented a series of 24-carat gold creations, which on this occasion went beyond accessories to become corsets, gloves and even dresses sculpted with crystals from the 1930s.
MALE RUNWAYS
French luxury brand Louis Vuitton paraded last Thursday to pay tribute to Virgil Abloh, artistic director of his menswear line, who died in November at the age of 41, just as he was finishing his collection.
Men’s Fashion Week advanced in Paris with presentations of new promises, such as the British Bianca Saunders, who debuted with a collection that throws nods to optical art from the mid-20th century, or the French firm Y/Project, which ignored the conventions and paraded men and women.
For Y/Project, men will wear huge oversized suits in spring/summer, shielding their faces in extra-long neck jumpers, while women will wear ultra-tight t-shirts, printed to mimic their bodies.
urban luxury
the spanish firm Oteyza took another step forward in its growth by proposing designs with a greater urban and trendy weight at the Paris Men’s Fashion Week, while defending its roots of craftsmanship, luxury and sustainability.
In the “Marinas” collection, Oteyza, a brand founded in 2012 by Paul García de Oteyza and Caterina Pañeda, proposed a tribute to the Atlantic landscapes and seascapes of the abstract painter Nicolas de Staël, much admired by the creators.
Blues, whites, mustards, bluish greens and oranges color the accessories, such as ‘bob’ hats and wellies, and slip into double-breasted coats, raised collars and scarves that emulate lapels.
The unmistakable styles in the blacks, grays and browns most used by the house return in lighter tailored coats and suits within this fall-winter 2022 line.
“We have very strong pillars of craftsmanship and tailoring and we wanted to make a turn to land in this universe of urban style, introducing Spanish craftsmanship at the forefront to compete at the highest level,” Oteyza explained in statements to EFE.
For the creator, this collection is the “gateway for Spanish craftsmanship in ‘street wear’ and in more urban, fashion and trend behaviors”.
Versatile garments, lighter, more flexible and unstructured than those previously seen, for a man who moves “in different scenarios and in different environments”.
“It is designed for a man with a certain sensitivity and a lot of energy to face the new masculine beauty codes, which Oteyza always seeks to make progress”, defends the creator.
The brand also returns to its Salamancan cloths of Spanish merino wool with natural dyes and double fulling, and also introduces mohair, fine merino and Egyptian cottons, blends of wool and silk and neoprene, playing with volumes.
Farewell to French fashion designer Thierry Mugler
Paris Haute Couture Week kicked off this Monday under the shock of the death of French couturier Thierry Mugler, one of the great figures in the sector in the 1980s, who died at the age of 73.
Mugler, who died on Sunday, was known for his bold collections that defined the style of the 1980s and 1990s alike, with clothes noted for their structure and sleek silhouettes, shown in extravagant shows.
“I always thought that fashion by itself was insufficient and that it had to be shown in its musical and theatrical environment,” he once said.
“We have the immense sadness to announce the death of Manfred Thierry Mugler on Sunday, January 23, 2022,” said a statement on the designer’s Facebook account.
His representative Jean-Baptiste Rougeot said the designer died of natural causes and that he planned to announce new collaborations this week. (I)
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