By Joseph L. Garcia
Reporter

IT’S A season of change as the earth seeks to shrug off the snows of winter — the same can be said about the appointment of two new names at two fashion powerhouses. BusinessWorld saw the shows at Paris Haute Couture Week last week (via a video stream), and chose three shows that shared something in common. While each is a flex of their maison’s muscles, the haute couture shows also dictate where fashions might go. Yes, trickle-up inspirations and Hollywood exist to do the same, but you might expect a few fast-fashion factories to copy these looks, thus bringing them to the middle classes. The collections revert to a sort of innocence and a return to basics — a timely response to the complications of our world.

FLOWERS FOR SPRING
“Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking,” Miranda Priestly loftily pronounced in The Devil Wears Prada. I’d dare you to say that straight to Givenchy’s Artistic Director Claire Waight Keller’s face. Ms. Keller, according to an article from Vogue, envisioned Givenchy’s Haute Couture collection based on the love letters between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, and how that love blossomed in English gardens and contributed to Woolf’s novel, Orlando.

This translated into loose, tailored suits in white, reflecting a sort of polite, patrician glamor. Next came separates with tops made to resemble flowers, petals represented by ruffling and ruching. Dresses followed in the same vein, reflecting blooms like foxglove, tulips, and carnations (a black pantsuit, totally wearable with white appliques on the shoulder might reflect Queen Anne’s Lace). It is as if the model isn’t wearing flowers, but becomes a flower herself.

Lacy white garments reflecting opulent and comfortable English prewar summers were also on the runway, though conventional florals were also there, seen printed on skirts (coupled with large hats also evocative as petals).

Shimmering gowns in metallic colors like silver and rose gold were also seen (I guess we haven’t completely killed rose gold, and that’s fine).

The show ended with a stunning white lace piece, positively bridal: made completely with lace, loose-fitting and off-the-shoulder, and coupled once again with an enormous hat shaped like a rose petal that in its structure serves like a veil.

(To see the show, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlQg2jcpKCQ)

UNEASY SURREALISM
Elsa Schiaparelli served as a foil to Chanel in the early 20th century. When Chanel was stark and grew up in poverty, Schiap (her nickname) took to her work her privileged upbringing: an attachment to fine art, fine clothing, and a disregard for rules.

After the war, it seemed that Schiaparelli lost her battle with Chanel, closing her doors in the 1950s. The house was revived in 2007 by Italian businessman Diego Della Valle (of Tod’s fame), but Marco Zanini jumpstarted the brand’s return with its first couture show in 2014.

People came and went, and Daniel Roseberry sits now as Artistic Director for the maison, entering just last year. His show opens with a relatively plain black pantsuit with a cutout blouse that reveals more than hides (causing unease with its juxtaposition with a relatively conservative garment).

A black double-breasted pantsuit appeared on the runway, with its left lapel suddenly blooming up and above the model’s head, perhaps reflective of Schiaparelli’s fondness for surrealism. Schiap then created unease, sometimes plumbing into the human fear of mortality: think about a dress embroidered in gold (a similar black dress does the same) that sits where a model’s bones would be. According to Vogue, it reflects a design from Elsa Schiaparelli herself (a skeleton evening dress from 1938). If anything, this runway look is the most Schiaparelli (a single adjective cannot be placed for the multifaceted woman) — her playfulness and attachment to Surrealism can be seen in a pair of spectacles designed to look like a person’s eyes, complete with lashes and pearl tears. These glasses were seen throughout the show, and I suppose multiple viewings become a way of educating the audience of what Schiaparelli is all about.

For some classic Schiap moments, there’s also a dress in shocking pink (a color she practically invented), with a sweetheart neckline that called to mind her muse, Mae West.

Mr. Roseberry has his work cut out for him. Elsa then was a woman way ahead of her time, seeing that fashion was art and blurred the lines between the two disciplines. I’m sure if he released any old design of Elsa’s from the 1930s, it would still make tongues wag now as they did before.

(To see the show, visit https://www.schiaparelli.com/en)

A PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
The Grand Palais of Paris was transformed into the cloister garden of the convent at the commune of Aubazine for Chanel’s Spring 2020 Haute Couture presentation. It’s an important detail, because the maison’s founder, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, at 12, was left there by her father after her mother’s premature death.

Coco Chanel died in 1971. Karl Lagerfeld, chief designer of Chanel since 1983, may have dug into the highs of Chanel for inspiration. The house since then has created its own language as interpreted by Lagerfeld. Perhaps it’s telling that his replacement after his death last year, Virginie Viard, has chosen to plumb into the formative years of Coco Chanel the person (perhaps an effort to find her own footing within the brand?).

In a way, the show becomes a psychological analysis of Chanel as the person who would shape an institution. In this convent, Chanel learned how to sew. The black, white, deep reds, and the chain belts seen on the convent’s nuns and indigent children would inspire her in the future. While the stay may have contributed to her career immensely, her impoverished and lonely situation within the convent also lit a flame within her to rise above her station — no matter what.

The show was opened and was immediately summarized by black and white tweed suits with an almost virginal aesthetic teetering on the prissy. The tweeds form collars, and according to an article from Vogue, patterns in the collars reflect patterns on the convent’s floor.

There are also skirts patterned after the windows at the Aubazine convent, which may have inspired Chanel’s logo of interlocking C’s.

The collection is incredibly wearable, totally classic, and totally Chanel. The final look is a simple, white schoolgirl-inspired bridal outfit (if one accounts for the veil trailing behind).

(To see the show, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IbXHJkDxKA)

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