PARIS — Austrian-British fashion duo Andreas Kronthaler and Vivienne Westwood brought a gypsy-like caravan of models wrapped in tartan and silk to the gilded corridors of Paris’ town hall to present their 2020-21 winter collection.

Contrasting the opulence of the French capital’s Hôtel de Ville, models in long skirts and oversized coats looked like peasants with necklaces of garlic or pepper tresses and the occasional multi-colored feather hat to top it all off.

Perhaps in homage to the French flag, Kronthaler and Westwood gave one model a tricolor red, white and blue pompadour hairstyle to go with a puffy blue jupon and a white corset.

American model Bella Hadid closed the show on Saturday bearing a dagger with a wedding gown whose translucent lace heavily hinted at the gypsy bride’s breasts beneath.

As for Westwood, the erstwhile queen of punk wore a long violet dress.

SAINT LAURENT
Luxury fashion house Saint Laurent juxtaposed staid tweed jackets with fetish-style catsuits when it showed its winter collection at Paris Fashion Week.

At times though, the dramatic setting for the catwalk show threatened to upstage the clothes: the models paraded through a cavernous, pitch-black space, each one bathed in a circle of light from floodlights.

Celebrities including actress Zoë Kravitz and Hailey Baldwin, the model married to performer Justin Bieber, watched the show in Paris’s Trocadero district in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

The women’s ready-to-wear collection, overseen by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello, stuck to its theme of boldly mixing contrasting styles.

From the waist up, models were dressed demurely in pussy bow blouses and conventionally-tailored tweed jackets. Peeking out from beneath were glistening skin-tight trousers made of what appeared to be vinyl or PVC.

Some of the outfits leaned towards the daring; in one case, a PVC corset was barely concealed by a full-length coat that was worn unbuttoned.

Other outfits took a safer route, but still with a nod to fetishism. One model walked down the catwalk in a loose-fitting jacket worn with culottes that were short enough to reveal her thigh-length PVC boots.

The fashion house was founded by Yves Saint Laurent

LANVIN
Lanvin designer Bruno Sialelli quoted from decades of fashion history in a ready-to-wear show fully befitting France’s oldest fashion house.

With French actress Isabelle Huppert and the rapper Tyga in the front row, Lanvin’s Winter 2020 runway celebrated old-school glamor as it mixed modernity with icons from long-gone eras.

A year after his appointment as new artistic creator, Sialelli drew inspiration from the Lanvin heritage with trademark embroidered gowns and tailored suits.

Supermodel Bella Hadid paraded down the catwalk wrapped in a fluffy fur-collared double-breasted coat, sporting crimson-red lipstick and a retro hairstyle straight out of a 1950s American movie.

Her older sister Gigi closed the Paris Fashion Week show in a beaded see-through dress under a long navy coat, and silver-glittered heels.

Sialelli added to the collection with ultra-long gloves, a ’60s-style short dress with a delicate white checkered print and headbands matching a tiny lunchbox-like handbag.

Lanvin, bought by Chinese Fosun, is attempting a turnaround after it plunged into losses following the departure of its longtime star designer Alber Elbaz in 2015.

Paris Fashion Week is the fourth and last leg of the month-long catwalk season that began in New York and also visits London and Milan. — Reuters

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