Runway Report: Paris

It’s no accident that the Paris shows finish up the month-long fashion week marathon. Paris has always had the last word in fashion. But things have changed a lot since the French maisons single-handedly dictated what hemline lengths and color palettes were de rigueur for the season. Today’s trends come from all over the place – as do the designers that show in Paris. The couture capital has become a melting pot of multinational creators who each have carved out their own aesthetic niche (and customer base) that they continue to develop, rather than following a style concept that defines the times.Everyone knows what 1950s fashion looked like – and the ’60s,’70s, ’80s, and even ’90s. But in the past five years, fashion has become more of a medley of a few strong voices rather than a united choir. This is often a good thing, as it forces consumers to look at clothing as an individual style choice rather than a bunch of “must haves.” But it can also make for a sense of confusion, as both designers and retailers try to figure out exactly who their customer is.In Paris this week, the young Belgian Olivier Theyskens continued the gently feminine and Edwardian-inspired image that has made Rochas one of fashion’s hottest labels. Although other designers picked up on the “My Fair Lady” silhouette of high-collar blouses and long slim skirts with swishy, flared bottoms this season, Mr. Theyskens’s brand of nostalgia could never be mistaken for anyone else’s. His dresses are romantic without being sappy, like the simple, backless, blue floor-length gown with embroidered water lilies trailing up the hem that he proposed for evening. The Rochas woman is rigorously elegant for all occasions: Her day outfit is an impeccable long skirt suit, pared down enough to look modern. She is also wearing trousers this season (a first for Mr. Theyskens) and they are as fluid and light as the shimmering shawl-necked blouses that they were pared with.Each season usually includes some schizophrenic element (such as hemlines that are either scraping the floor or barely covering the behind), and spring 2006 turned into a battle of the volumes. Some designers sent out exaggerated, bulky silhouettes while others showed clothes that were tight like Band-Aids. Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, who was the first to explore inflated shapes a couple of years ago, has now decided to bring his cuts back closer to the body. His impeccably chic collection was a study in classic items like little black shell dresses, tapered pants and trench coats, but his subtly engineered seams and textures twisted the proportions and gave the garments a new excitement.One designer who definitely believed that bigger is better was Phoebe Philo at Chloe. The sexy, flirty Chloe girl who wore tight pants and sheer tops is definitely a thing of the past at this label, which now seems to shun the idea of helping anyone to get a date. Ms. Philo’s collection was based around oversized white smocks with lace detail that looked like cropped men’s nightshirts. There was a freshness to the crisp and beautifully crafted looks, but they made the fragile-looking models in teetering platforms look almost perversely childlike. And isn’t the purpose of a lighthearted and fashion-savvy label like Chloe to make young women look and feel good?The style from the 1980s has been back on the scene for so long now that it’s starting to look tired. Perhaps that’s why Marc Jacobs’s riff on that decade’s Italian couture giants (Versace, Ferre, Krizia) for Louis Vuitton failed to sizzle. Or perhaps it was just that the over embellished clothes, like dresses laden with diamond-shaped appliques or flashy geometric patterns simply weren’t that attractive?After three seasons, it’s become clear that YSL’s Stefano Pilati operates in a time zone of his own, which is somewhere between the mid- to late 1970s – Saint Laurent’s heyday. And that’s not a bad place to be. While other designers seem less than clear these days about what kind of femininity an they want to project (is it girlish, androgynous, or vampy?), YSL is always about being a lady. Wasp waists, neat tulip skirt suits, cropped and high-waisted matador pants, and of course the signature ruffled blouses exuded a grownup chic that felt like a refreshing note of clarity in this season of mixed messages.AND IN OTHER PARIS NEWS . .People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals struck the editor in chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour, with a pie in the face, the Associated Press reported. The animal protection group was protesting Vogue’s refusal to run anti-fur ads, according to a vice president of PETA, Dan Matthews. Ms. Wintour was waiting to see the Chloe show when the tofu pie hit; it was the second pie she has received from the activists.

Runway Report: Paris

Runway Report: Paris

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