Paris Haute Couture Week offers many notable options, from Elie Saab Casbah couture with a mini fashion riot from J Lo, to wild off-the-calendar experiments at Clara Daguin and Guillaume Henry's ultimate statement for Patou .
Elie Saab: Medina Mode before J Lo
A trip to a melodic medina in Elie Saab, images of Saharan princesses and modern Nefertitis, presented before a contemporary goddess, Jennifer López.
Entering the packed show, Jenny from the Block ignited an immense paparazzi scandal, making a Six Nations rugby maul look like a quiet tea party. Impressively, in the midst of this glittering maelstrom, J Lo looked the picture of perfection as he took a seat in the front row. His choice of one of Elie's fantastic green pleated dresses with screen idol feathers was, well, perfect.
López didn't have a hair out of place, just like the models in this show, who appeared with the stiffest buns. She walking through the interior of the Tokyo Palace, before an impeccably coiffed audience of 800 people. All driven by a brilliant soundtrack, culminating in some galactic funk. Sonnenschiff By Alain Grasselli.
A collection that suggests an enchanted medina, with a set built with red arches and tapestries of luxurious textures. A desert-breezy maze through which the cast walked in Saab's delicately shifting color palette: clouds of blush pink chiffon; Lilac blue crepe skies or crystal rays on flesh-colored columns.
Her cast paraded in cut-out dresses of sandstone tulle; golden coats made of intricate metallic fabrics; or ball gowns with bare shoulders and silk thread mesh, ideal for a contemporary Cleopatra. Finished with a canopy of feather flowers and accompanied by gradient layers in shiny organza. As if she were taking a stroll through an elegant casbah.
Everything done for the night. It's not a pantsuit, tailleur or cocktail in sight. This was a classic Elie Saab couture collection, maybe too much so.
Not that it mattered to J Lo, whose nostrils quivered with joy throughout the show. A Californian potentate in a fashion medina.
Handsome and dignified in Patou
Technically speaking, Patou presented a ready-to-wear collection during Paris Haute Couture Week, although the show still felt like a highlight of the season.
Probably the best collection and most complete wardrobe created by Guillaume Henry for the house, this was a standout fashion statement: Parisian, polished, striking and powerful.
“I wanted something worthy of women, that gave a certain dignity,” explained Henry, who bowed as he ran across the set inside the Tokyo Palace to cheers and multiple cries of “bravo!”
A tight and mighty guest list, from J. Smith-Cameron, Kelly Rutherford and Zooey Deschanel to a gang of French It Gals, sat on blocks of compressed cardboard in a corrugated front row.
The mood was set before the show with a gently melancholic waltz, before intensifying the show with the classic Divine Comedy. Our mutual friendin an extended loop.
What worked best were the short skirts with flared hems, worn with quilted combat jackets, the large pantsuits with extended six-button jackets and flared trousers, and the crisp, perfectly judged skirts and blouses.
Henry cut with broad shoulders: belted jackets, coats with large lapels and cheerful blazers. The cast, their hair gently pulled back and wearing gold-embellished earrings, paraded quickly, with busy Parisians on the move. Finishing with a series of fantastic flamenco dresses: gathered and ruffled in large polka dots or jet black.
Since relaunching in 2018, Patou has been on a slow boil, initially putting on small, intimate shows and performances at its headquarters near Notre Dame. And, although it is 100% financed by LVMH, the house has always operated as a new company.
In those five years, Henry smartly established a clear identity, while leveraging the DNA of Patou, a historic French house founded before the First World War. If at first Guillaume's emphasis on diaphanous taffeta and cotton shirts was a strong statement but a complicated garment, this collection was both gorgeous and wearable.
With new boss Michael taking control on February 1 of the LVMH Fashion Group, which Patou is part of, Henry picked the right time to hit a fashion home run.
Clara Daguin: space junk style
It is always said that haute couture is the laboratory of fashion, although most couturiers do not experiment much. Clara Daguin, on the other hand, is the main scientist of the new generation of haute couture.
Her materials are technical tulle and gabardine, technical silk, LED and copper wire, and her collections are ghostly with galactic coats and light jumpsuits, or acid-dyed velvet dresses sprinkled with stars.
This season, Daguin, born in France and raised in California, came up with a Space Trash dress, inspired by the idea of space debris impacting outer space. “Really small particles collide with each other at very high speeds, generating more and more garbage. And I was really fascinated by that idea,” she explained.
The result was an entire dress of technical tulle sewn with chains of LEDs and then finished with fragments of broken resin that imitated shattered transistors and terminals.
Another fencing-style jacket came in sheer tulle filigreed with polyester threads, copper wire and LEDs, ideal for a cocktail party on a colony on Mars. Surprisingly, despite all the light, nothing gets hot, not even Clara's first light-adorned bag.
This Saturday, Daguin will present a fashion performance in a module-type installation and a cocktail party at the Atelier Basfroi, on rue Basfroi in Paris.
Their latest experiment follows the installation of a nursery within the famous medieval church of Saint Eustache in Les Halles, where Louis XIV made his First Communion. And where Clara showed Joseph and Mary, in LED-illuminated cassocks, holding the Baby Jesus. The latter – rest assured – was a baby pacifier.
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