With the final day of Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week at our doorstep, FashionUnited takes a moment to reflect on some of the stand out designs and must-see shows of the week in celebration of courtiers at their finest.
Atelier Versace
The couture division of Italian fashion house Versace was first up to show its creations for Spring/Summer 2016. Always one to celebrate and honour the female body and its inherit strengthen, creative director Donatella Versace designs brought together the worlds of athletic wear and couture like never before. Models swayed down to catwalk to a soundtrack specially written for the show, with lyrics like ‘I move to the beat of my own drum…I was born to manifest my power,’ highlighting Versace’s vision for ‘athletic couture.’ Models like Gigi Hadid, Lara Stone and Rosie Huntington Whiteley showcased gowns with thigh-high slits and extreme cutouts, laser cut-mini dresses and trouser suits, complete with stirrups pairs with boxing cropped jackets with neon safety straps.
Christian Dior
The French fashion house showcased its first couture collection since the departure of its former creative director Raf Simons last autumn, and the in-house designed team which stepped up to the plate following his exit seemed to have continue his design ethos. Infusing designs with casual and modern nuances, the collection reworked the iconic Bar Jacket in numerous ways, which was flipped upside down to create a skirt, cut open in the back and saw its proportions exaggerated. “Dior woman asserts herself by wearing clothes in a new way,” read the show notes. “It’s her attitude, her way of moving, her way of simply being.” Embroidery was also key to the collection, which mainly focused on floral and animal motifs, an art of detail which Christian Dior himself appreciated in his own haute couture collections. “All too often we forget that embroidery is still done by hand, just as it was in the 18th century,” wrote the late couturier in his memoirs. “We can succeed in completely covering a dress with millions of sequins or beads placed one by one by fingers that, especially in our mechanical age, seem as though they come from fairy hands.”
Ralph & Russo
The only British couture label to be invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to show at Paris Haute Couture week, Ralph & Russo collection brought together traditional couture design aspects with modern architectural influences. The first look shown, a white silk ball gown featured a hand painted floral motif pairs with embellishments from 3D crystal and glass petals. Other designs featured 3D silk organza cutwork flowers, 3D embroidery and 3D floral silk thread work. Creative director Tamara Ralph looked to Chinese calligraphy for inspiration for the hand-painted floral motifs, as well as 1950s hourglass silhouettes and kimono robes. However, in spite of the extreme breading and embroidery on the gowns shown for the couture label’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection, it was the closing bridal gown that set social media a buzzing. It took six petites mains to turn the gowns 3 meter train at the end of the catwalk, with the gown itself consisting of 736 meres of off-white tulle which was embroidered with millions of micro beads, pearls and crystals to create the thousands of organza flowers.
Chanel
One of the most talked about shows of the season, creative director Karl Lagerfeld has an established repertoire when it comes to hosting elaborate catwalk presentations. This season saw the designer transform the Grand Palais into his own green eco-system, complete with blue skies, manicured green lawns and a modernist wooden doll-house. Although the appearance of former top model Cara Delevingne and her new pup Leo caused minor distractions, it was soon forgotten as soon as the wood slats of the house began to open. The collection, which feature many beige tones, was designed to be a celebration of nature as well as the iconic Chanel suit. Reimagined in a series of changing silhouettes and jacquards, the suit was seen in the form of fitted jackets with oversize sleeves, tight pencil skirts, full ankle length skirts and wide culottes. The suits were accompanied by a series of gowns, which featured fringed accents, beaded bodied work and ruffle sleeves – an understated throw back to the era of the Great Gatsby.
Valentino
Celebrated for its famed haute couture looks, Italian fashion house Valentino created a 66 piece collection of gowns which featured Oriental accents, a touch of a Greek goddess as well as a throwback to times of medieval tapestries. Creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, were inspired by the figure of Mariano Fortuny artistic works, which bordered between Eastern Byzantine and Western Classics. The resulting collection of gowns featured hand-pleated velvet gowns, silk kimono-style jackets and patchwork dresses of rich tapestry. However, the piece that reportedly took the longest to make was a powder rose gown featuring panels of embellished organza and tulle plisses, which took the team of seamstresses 2,800 hours to make.
