One endless day. It’s a bit like the return of fashion shows in the news. Traditionally taking place at the beginning of March, the weeks of the fall-winter 2021-2022 collections are prolonged, some brands having chosen to free themselves from official dates and seasons. Entirely digital and without an audience, these fashion weeks of a new kind allow greater flexibility in the schedule. This is how Celine, Gucci and Balenciaga were remembered to our good memories, with a series of licked videos, broadcast between April 14 and April 18. With the same desire: to celebrate young people and their desires for parties, travel and escape, which are today prevented.
The Frenchman Hedi Slimane, artistic director of Celine since 2018, takes us to the majestic gardens by André Le Nôtre, to the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte, 50 km south of Paris. After showing its autumn-winter 2021 male score at the Château de Chambord in February, the house continues its historic wanderings. The intent note sets out the contours of the collection, entitled “Parade”: it will be a question of youth and emancipation. In incipit are inscribed verses signed Verlaine, Rimbaud and Baudelaire: ” My youth was only a dark storm, crossed here and there by brilliant suns », declaims the latter.
If the allure seems to conform to the chic and bourgeois codes dear to the brand, alternating jackets and coats in tweed with broad shoulders, classic leather bags, pants worn high, vaporous dresses in silk Georgette, in sparkling cashmere knits or high hunting boots or others of western inspiration, some pieces resonate with the desires of Generation Z. Bodysuits with asymmetrical cuts are thus slipped under jeans worn wide and with holes, the caps are branded and the small, light dresses, entirely hand-embroidered, accompany parkas. A crinoline dress worn with a short leather jacket, reminiscent of the heyday of the proms of American high school students, ends the video under fireworks.
Nods to old Hollywood
A desire for celebration that can be found in Gucci’s filmed proposal, imagined in collaboration with music video director Floria Sigismondi. “We are celebrating 100 years of the brand this year. I wanted to make this parade a big party, where everyone would be invited ”, specifies Alessandro Michele, about this collection called “Aria”. And the party took place within an imaginary “Savoy Club”, a nod to The Savoy hotel in London, where Guccio Gucci, the founder of the house, was a bellboy at the beginning of the 20th century.e century.
On a saturated soundtrack, on which rappers recite the name of the brand, the 94 models, girls and boys, push the door of the nightclub to pace a long podium crackling with flashes, evoking the hordes of photographers parked in the end of the catwalk catwalks. “I wanted to show the myth that surrounds Gucci today. It is a house that has never stopped reinventing itself and being reborn ”, details Alessandro Michele. Thus, the classic equestrian codes of the house are here diverted on bomb hats, harnesses passed over fishnet corset dresses or fuzzy pants tucked into large leather boots.
Revisiting the heyday of Gucci, Alessandro Michele multiplies the nods to Tom Ford – who was at the head of style in the 1990s – by reinterpreting old Hollywood. This gives a great evening cloakroom in which we retain the red velvet suit covering a fuzzy blouse, or the draped and gold dresses, worn with a feather boa. Accessories, the lifeblood of luxury houses, are not to be outdone. Sparkling heart-shaped clutch bags (the organ, not the symbol) punctuate the collection. At the bend of a silhouette, surprise: the Gucci logo coexists with that of the House of Balenciaga, especially on a sequined jacket with impeccable fit and generous shapes.
Alessandro Michele confesses to having operated on “Hacking” consented to the know-how of Demna Gvasalia, at the helm of Balenciaga. The creators, friends, dedicate a mutual admiration. The two entities, owned by the Kering group, are thus pushing back the contours of the exercise of collaboration.
Functional and flamboyant clothing
Sunday, it was Balenciaga’s turn to offer its mixed line “Winter 21 pre collection”. A video called “Feel Good” kicked off: a succession of images gleaned here and there featuring friends, families, children in joyful moments. “It’s a video without products that is supposed to give the viewer a sense of well-being. We all want to feel good, especially now ”, explains Demna Gvasalia. The collection is, for its part, presented on a series of photographs placing the models sometimes under the Eiffel Tower, at the foot of the pyramids of Egypt or in the heart of Time Square. An ode to travel.
The clothes are functional, efficient and sometimes flamboyant. Enveloping sweatshirts, short zipped jackets, draped and floral dresses with worked sleeves, extra-large black suits, tall boots with sharp heels … “This collection is mainly about everyday fashion, simple and relaxed. You can dress like this to go buy a baguette, go for a walk with friends or (in the world of tomorrow) go to party ”, concludes Demna Gvasalia. A world according to which the creators hope decidedly festive and joyful.