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HERMES artistic director Nadege Vanhee-Cybulski evoked a country garden for her spring show at Paris Fashion Week on Saturday, seating the audience among wildflowers and grassy borders as she showed sleek coats, silk skirts, and slim, skin-baring dresses.

Models marched down a runway strewn with vegetation, wearing monochrome looks mostly in taupe or crimson, including fitted leather dresses that molded to the body. Coats were also tailored in leather, or cashmere.

The show was briefly interrupted when, about halfway through, a protestor jumped from the audience onto the runway, holding up a sign that called for the label to stop using exotic skins such as crocodile or ostrich hides.

Audience member Bryanboy, a digital creator whose real name is Bryan Yambao and who regularly attends runway shows, leapt out of his seat and snatched the banner away from the protester.

“It’s rude to disrupt a show that people have been working on for months,” he told Reuters after the show. “I love an Hermes exotic,” he said, gesturing towards his leather bag.

There have been several incidents involving protesters disrupting catwalk shows this season, including at a Coach show in New York.

COPERNI
Coperni designers Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant held their fashion week outing in a vast underground sound research center in the heart of Paris, showcasing sporty ultra-modern styles with tech devices, the Humane Ai (artificial intelligence) Pin, fastened to lapels.

A shifting wall of loudspeakers signaled the start of the show. Models, including Naomi Campbell, emerged on the runway, moving swiftly in loose suits, sheer fitted dresses, bra tops and jeans.

“The clothes are designed to be worn lightly,” according to show notes and the designers pared back styles with open-backed dresses and shortened trouser hems for leggy looks, while leaving shirt sleeves extra-long, dangling like scarves.

The soundtrack bounced around the room, a composition featuring sounds of moving fabric, and, at one point, the tinkle of a triangle instrument — just as clothing with triangle cutouts was shown.

Adding to the show’s futuristic bent were sportswear pieces and flat, square-toed sneakers from a collaboration with Puma, while some models carried the label’s Swipe bag CD player, complete with headphones.

The label, founded in 2013, is known for generating buzz during Paris Fashion Week, last year spray painting a dress on Bella Hadid, and more recently, sending robot dogs onto the runway.

DRIES VAN NOTEN
Dries Van Noten unveiled a layered collection for spring, mixing patterns and sparkles into a line-up of tailored coats and loosely worn dress shirts at Paris Fashion Week last Wednesday.

Models strode down the concrete runway of a hollowed-out building in central Paris, parading long trench coats and suit jackets thrown over transparent skirts, Bermuda shorts, and trousers with short hems.

The color palette was muted, mostly tones of beige, green and prune, with fresh accents from shimmery tops, sheer fabrics embellished with embroidery, and the occasional long, pheasant feather, fixed atop the heads of some models.

The collection served to explore contrasting ideas, adding feminine touches to masculine tailoring by changing proportions, while mixing formal and casual looks, to create something “spontaneous and free-thinking,” according to the show notes.

After the show, Mr. Van Noten trotted out for his bow, waving at the crowd, who erupted into applause.

One of an influential group of designers known as the Antwerp Six, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1980s, Mr. Van Noten has a loyal fan base, and is known for his unique approach to mixing lavish prints and patterns.

The label is part of the Spanish perfumes and fashion company Puig, which also owns labels including Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, Carolina Herrera and Charlotte Tilbury.

SAINT LAURENT
For his spring collection, Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello sent out an elevated offer of khaki bustier jumpsuits and cargo pants, blending them into a glamorous lineup of sheer tops, T-backed mini-dresses and ruffled chiffon that floated down the runway.

For the evening runway show, the Kering-owned label shifted its venue to the left bank of the Seine River, offering a fresh view of the Eiffel tower — the opposite side of its customary spot — seating its audience in a stark set lined with marble walls, under the rotating light beams of the famous monument.

Models marched up a broad staircase to reach the sprawling space in towering sling-back heels, modeling pencil skirts and roomy-legged trousers, neatly cinched at the waist, worn with open-backed bodysuits and silk blouses.

Sunglasses, aviation hats and natural leather belts completed the looks, which came mostly in autumn tones of beige, olive, purple and a rusty brown.

The show closed the second day of Paris Fashion Week, which has drawn fashion crowds and celebrity fans to the French capital.

DIOR
Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri unveiled a spring collection last week that mixed masculine and feminine styles, with full, airy skirts in black mesh and solemn tailored jackets, throwing in faded fabrics, unfinished edges and tops baring one shoulder.

Ms. Chiuri said she sought to revisit stereotypes of women while updating the codes of the fashion house in a contemporary manner, allowing women to choose what suits them.

“It’s a reflection about image, about the narrative and how we build — in some way — a stereotype in our mind,” Ms. Chiuri told Reuters.

Models wove around a darkened set lit up with bright yellow and pink screens showing artwork by Elena Bellantoni of advertisements since the 1960s, featuring caricatures of women’s roles. “I used yellow and pink — colors that are used for highlighter pens — because I wanted to highlight the discourse that has put women in a cage for 70 years,” Bellantoni told reporters.

Ms. Chiuri used knitwear techniques to lighten the weight of a pleated skirt, and took on pointy-toed kitten heels, turning them into gladiator shoes, with rows of straps running up the leg, fastened with pearls.

Intricate ivory knit dresses, an ample jean jacket and a ruffled dress came in faded colors, as if aged, while a dress was embellished with embroidered flowers.

“I really like this idea, to think how the material can change with time,” said Ms. Chiuri, who designed a couture gown worn by Queen Camilla at a banquet at the Palace of Versailles for King Charles’ recent state visit in France.

The LVMH-owned fashion label’s show saw onlookers angle for photos of celebrities, including Blackpink member Jisoo, Charlize Theron, Elle Macpherson and Rosalia.

PIERRE CARDIN
Paris Fashion Week kicked off last week with a Pierre Cardin show in the headquarters of France’s Communist Party, which was bathed in blue light to conjure up the color of the ocean.

It was the French label’s second show at Paris Fashion Week since founder Pierre Cardin died in 2020, building on its space-age catwalk in March after a gap of more than two decades.

Rodrigo Basilicati Cardin, the late designer’s great-nephew, told reporters the new collection was based on the color blue, inspired by the ocean and dedicated to the protection of the planet.

Models showcased dresses in indigo blue, on a deep blue catwalk under the cavernous reinforced concrete dome of the futuristic building designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Early last year, French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel presented his election program at the Espace Niemeyer, but the building is occasionally rented out for fashion shows, music videos or other events. — Reuters