What sets Paris apart from other fashion capitals? Haute couture, this science of tailor-made where each garment is unique and designed by hand, as opposed to ready-to-wear where the pieces are produced industrially. Only around thirty houses are part of the official calendar of haute couture fashion week, whose spring-summer 2024 season was presented from January 22 to 25. As if to underline the prestige of this discipline of which Paris has a monopoly, the fashion shows were presented in superlative fashion: ever more impressive outfits staged in emblematic places of the capital.
Dior has taken up residence at the Rodin Museum, where a host of celebrities, from Natalie Portman to Rihanna to Glenn Close, are photographed between the bronze statues, before heading to the gardens. There stands the immense tent which brings together more than 900 guests, decorated with a monumental work signed by the artist Isabella Ducrot (whose even age, 93 years, is a superlative) representing twenty-three dresses measuring 5 meters top inspired by the outfits of Ottoman sultans. “Clothes that represented power”explains Maria Grazia Chiuri, who is always interested in the aura conferred by an outfit and this season thought about how to endow the textile with a particular quality to make it impressive.
She focused on moiré, this very technical fabric with changing and wavy reflections, obtained by crushing the grain of the fabrics with a special calender. The opulence of moiré is used to shape a refined wardrobe in shapes, coats with large collars, pleated skirts, high-waisted pants, suits that emphasize the shape of the chest. Pragmatic, Maria Grazia Chiuri completes with a more evening offering, from the sensual black velvet sheath to the sunny yellow floral ball gown – the one in ivory organza veil, transparent, made more modest by the presence of sequin and raffia embroidery black is impressive. The designer does not seek to renew herself, but to deliver a new version of a score that she has mastered to perfection.
For her part, Chanel created a short film (The Button, “the button”) but careful: the musician Kendrick Lamar wrote the soundtrack, his partner Dave Free wrote and directed the video in which the actresses Margaret Qualley and Anna Mouglalis as well as the model Naomi Campbell appear. All these little people meet up at the parade presented at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, at the ephemeral Grand Palais. The short film, broadcast as an introduction to the show, tells the story of a lost button on a Chanel jacket, and the steps taken by its owner to find it – she comes to the conclusion that beauty is found in imperfections and does not replace its button.
Apart from the giant button decorated with the double C logo which serves as decoration for the parade, the link with the collection, very centered on classical dance, is quite tenuous. “Dance, I often think about it, is an important theme at Chanel, explains Virginie Viard. The house is close to its institutions, choreographers, dancers, we create costumes for the ballet [de l’Opéra de Paris]. I tried to bring together the power and finesse of bodies and clothes in a very light collection, made of tulle, ruffles, pleats and lace. » She imagines a wardrobe based on plays of transparency in pastel tones, with, underneath, iridescent white tights and leotards to hide the skin. Jumpsuits, small capes, bows, lace belts, sequins and small flowers interpreted by a virtuoso workshop create a very candid universe. This is the Virginie Viard touch, one of the rare designers who does not offer a fantasized and sensualized vision of the female body.
Theatrical and offbeat wardrobe
What could be more Parisian than Place Vendôme? Valentino is one of the rare fashion houses to have its couture salons on the Place Royale and makes good use of them. The parade, located in the Delpech hotel in Chaumot, is called “Le Salon”. The latter represents, according to the brand, “the ideal setting for the haute couture meeting, a fundamental place of recontextualization”. The classic decor full of gilding and moldings does not permeate the collection, which escapes the clichés of the genre. Pierpaolo Piccioli plays colors with astonishing mastery. On paper, an outfit combining lemon yellow, bottle green, purple and anise can seem cacophonous. Just like the combination of sky blue with plum, gold and vermillion…
And yet, it works: the shades are subtle, applied to sumptuous materials, without any pattern disturbing the harmony. The choice of modern cuts (very lowered waist, slightly baggy pants), an offbeat style (hooded jacket over a princess ball dress), a play on textures (transparent blouse under wool overalls) give each silhouette strength and singularity . And Valentino is not left out when it comes to promoting its collection: Jennifer Lopez as well as three generations of Jenners (Kris, Kylie and Stormi) have documented on social networks the unalterable beauty of Place Vendôme and the parade.
It’s always madness at the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion shows in the brand’s offices on rue Saint-Martin, where hundreds of curious people flock to see the incredible looks of the guests, sometimes bordering on disguise. But, on the catwalk, the message is nothing short of serious: the designer invited this season to reinterpret the Gaultier universe is Simone Rocha, a seasoned Irish designer, star of London fashion week.
Her fashion tinged with romanticism finds perfect expression in Gaultier codes: the corset, the prominent chest, the tattoos or the stripes of the sailor top are grafted into the voluminous pale pink or black dresses made of tulle or crinoline. “It all started with this love of the chest, hips and feminine forms that I have in common with Mr. Gaultier and which I used to carry out textile experiments”, explains Simone Rocha. Here she delivers a theatrical and offbeat wardrobe, in total harmony with her aesthetic and that of Gaultier who admitted, delighted, after the show: “I knew it would be good, but the result exceeded my expectations! »
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John Galliano at Maison Margiela closed this fashion week with a show in the form of a play. Under a large vaulted room on the Alexandre-III bridge, decorated in the style of an abandoned brasserie – broken crockery on the tables, dusty mirrors, cracked and mismatched armchairs – a Paris from another era comes to life . Could they be girls of joy? Poor bourgeois women? The models, portraying their character, waddle and simper with the guests seated at the table.
They wear transparent dresses inlaid with Chantilly lace, corsets strapped under dresses painted like watercolors, tweed skirts with hips accentuated thanks to prostheses, jackets as if patched together or even an organza coat that looks like corrugated cardboard . Long gloves and chiffon hats complete the picture. Galliano, who delivers a striking spectacle worthy of his finest hours at Christian Dior, was particularly inspired by Brassaï’s photographs of Paris at night. The capital is not only a postcard, but also a real source of inspiration.