Fendi wraps up fashion week, going East in a culture-hopping show

PARIS – Fendi’s sanitized ultra-white runway for once put haute couture, not décor, in the spotlight to cap Paris Fashion Week on Thursday.

That allowed guests, including Bond star Lashana Lynch and Korean actress Song Hye-kyo, to appreciate every beadwork, paillette and spliced ​​paneling behind this stunning fall display.

The designer of the Italian house Kim Jones wanted to “get away from Rome” with creations that wandered between different eras, cities, memories and cultures, starting in Japan.

Haute couture is the old Parisian tradition of producing custom-made garments at exorbitant prices for the world’s richest people.

Here are some highlights from Thursday’s fall-winter 2022 collections, which featured several up-and-coming brands:

KYOTO BY FENDI

“We’re looking at bits and pieces of different cities, namely Kyoto, Paris and Rome,” Jones said. “The fragmentary nature of things repeats itself everywhere… like fragments of memory.”

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Jones went back in time and back into the workshop, in a show that revamped old-school craft techniques, with aplomb.

Beautifully patterned 18th century Kyoto kimono fabric was cut into strips and fragments to construct an abstract dress in gray and beige with a clean white sporty collar. Like many looks in this collection, it also had a futuristic feel to it.

A sprinkling of sheer tulle gowns with Japanese maple leaves was the exception that proved the rule in this overall tasteful collection, which used humor and design quirks to keep energy levels high.

Sparkly floor length dresses were the best in terms of creativity, aesthetics and fun. A dazzling silver tectonic panel dress that swept the floor sported another dress that hung from her back, unbelievably, sweeping the floor a second time.

THE ART OF THE INVITATION

The age of email and growing environmental awareness have not left much mark on the fashion industry’s invitation code.

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Season after season, gas-guzzling couriers criss-cross Paris personally delivering elaborate, often handmade, invitations as leading houses compete for the most extravagant or imaginative idea.

Olivier Rousteing’s invitation to his exclusive Jean Paul Gaultier couture featured a black diagonal ribbon with a meter (yard) mark wrapped around a card. It was held in place with a white couture pin. Sure enough, in Wednesday’s spirited display, the swathed diagonal ribbons featured on a catwalk are seen life-size.

For Fendi, a hollow white architectural archway revealed the house logo through its window. While Schiaparelli presented an atelier sketch of a flower-adorned woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat and gold bracelet, styles that defined the aesthetic of Daniel Roseberry’s fall collection.

JULIE DE LIBRAN DROP FROM HEIGHT

Months after opening her first boutique in Paris, another up-and-comer, Julie de Libran, was in an eclectic mood. Fall was an elegant display with lots of glitter and a bit of everything.

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Set in a lush garden with blooming jasmine to one side, the collection had an intimate feel.

Indeed, intimacy and the personal touch are the hallmark of the designer, who since opening her home in 2019 has welcomed clients and reporters to her Left Bank home for shows and accessories. This hands-on approach is increasingly rare, but it encapsulates the beating heart of haute couture, the lavish art of custom-made gowns.

On Thursday, the show provided plenty of smooth contradictions.

A boxy gold-embroidered jacket had a feel of 1930s Hollywood glamour, worn over a silver mesh ribbon collar in style that might have been worn by the New Romantics of the 1980s.

A cap-sleeved column gown was sublimely simple with multicolored textured paillettes and embroidery. Another vintage look, with a chain mail brooch at the neck, it dripped fabulously under the weight of its beads cascading in wisps of feathers.

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YUIMA NAKAZATO TURNS BLUE

A contemplative setting, worthy of a play, awaited guests at the fall show of up-and-coming Japanese couture designer Yuima Nakazato.

It was titled “BLUE”. That was the color of the gigantic fabric rocks on stage, scattered across the stage and catwalk that set the tone of contemplation, peace and harmony, which trickled down to haute couture.

There was also more than a whiff of a distant Star Trek planet in the abstract blue smudges the models walked through. In fact, Nakazato’s work revolves around technology, with the house saying she uses genderless creations to “explore the future of clothing.”

Long, flowing silk forms, tied at the waist or crossed over, were gently inspired by Asian dress styles. But there was something otherworldly about her sheer whiteness and softness of silhouette. So diaphanous was the silk in a pair of billowing white sleeves that only the model’s footsteps caused her to float weightlessly in the air.

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Colorful abstract shapes, like giant glittery brooches, were pinned to the waist or neck of various looks, in blue, purple and gold, like a sea creature or some beautiful alien life form that had come for a stroll.

GEORGES CHAKRA GETS SOME SUNSHINE

Veteran Lebanese couturier Georges Chakra treated guests to a brilliant open-air rooftop display to cap off fall, with a view of the iconic Arc de Triomphe, dressed in rainbow-colored gowns.

The sun was shining, the satin shimmered, and the light tulle skirts fluttered.

Diaphanous black feathers floated above a soft black “cage” spherical top that cut a pensive silhouette. Other looks were sheer cinched-waist, va-va-voom, including a billowy red satin floor-length gown with a split skirt with straps and voluminous layers that was classic in its beauty.

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