More parades? Affirmative! If before the pandemic, the general public already had the impression that fashion week lasted all year round, the situation may not get better in 2021. The inability to organize physical shows is pushing designers to s’ freeing them from official calendars and showing their collections on video when they are ready, outside of any group logic.
But even without trying to coordinate, brands sometimes have similarities. Three of them, usually present at Paris Fashion Week (which ended on March 10), unveiled their new collections between March 23 and March 31: whether it’s Stella McCartney, Kenzo or Mugler, we find in everyone the same desire to reconnect with extravagant fashion, staged in a vitamin-packed performance. As if to turn the page on sober and comfortable clothes inspired by the confinement of spring 2020.
“This collection that I designed during the strict confinement of London, in the dead of winter, shows that fashion can be an escape”, declares the Englishwoman Stella McCartney at the outset, during a virtual press conference bringing together some 300 guests on March 23. The designer showed enthusiasm there – “Oh my god, it’s so emotional! “, when she saw some familiar faces among journalists – and, for once, did not focus her speech so much on the environmental cause, but rather on the virtues of a fashion “Extravagant, eccentric, which gives pleasure and makes you dream”.
The collection is striking with its bright colors and psychedelic prints applied to unexpected volumes and shapes: ultra flared pants at the ankle, asymmetrical sequined jumpsuits, openwork dresses that reveal the navel or the intermammary fold, puffy jackets or XXL … “We will be happy to wear clothes that attract attention when we go out again”, predicts the designer who can’t wait to return “In a basement listen to super loud music, dance, sweat”. Hence the club atmosphere in the video, where the models circulate on Overmono techno between the raw concrete columns of the Tate Modern Gallery.
“I watched every video of Kenzo’s fashion shows [Takada, le fondateur de la marque] from 1978 to 1985, explains Felipe Oliveira Baptista when we meet him in the Parisian premises of the brand, rue Vivienne. I already knew her clothes from archives but seeing them in motion changed everything. “
Enveloped in a constellation of stars
The Portuguese artistic director of Kenzo, who wanted to pay tribute to the founder who died on October 4, 2020, was dazzled by the smile and the naturalness of the models, very far from the robotic approach that has established the catwalk in recent years. The clip that accompanies the new collection looks like a mega bamboche: in a circular space (the Winter Circus in Paris), the models wriggle and wiggle in crazy clothes with exaggerated volumes, whipped by prints drawn from the archives and brought up to date.
These frenzied silhouettes wear an acid green jumpsuit decorated with a purple pansy, a fleece dress with ruffles saturated with birds, a modular windbreaker representing a rural landscape, or a long silk puffer jacket lined with hydrangeas … “The shoot was very happy, says Felipe Oliveira Baptista. At the end, we turned on the music, the workshop modelers put on the prototypes of the collection, we all danced under our masks. It was a bit like the world before. “
Boom! Bella Hadid, emerging from the shadows, lands in the arms of Casey Cadwallader, Mugler’s artistic director. Irina Shayk walks backwards, falls, taking the camera with her in her tumble. Hunter Schafer receives a bucket of water on his head. The Mugler video, which brings together a cast of supermodels, is halfway between the fashion show and the action film – the low-coverage clothes and the miraculous stunts are also reminiscent of the character of Leeloo in The fifth Element (1997). “I wanted a somewhat surreal parade that goes crazy. That we say to ourselves: “What? She jumps out of a box? She’s walking backwards! Oh and the look is cool! ”, rather than “Ah yes, Mugler it was pretty” “, sums up the American Casey Cadwallader in his Paris office on the avenue de l’Opéra.
Contrary to what one might suppose, the clothes are not at all erased by the staging: if Bella Hadid has such an effect, it is also thanks to her faded jeans where the black inserts draw a thong; Hunter Schafer appears naked, only shrouded in a constellation of stars; Irina Shayk wears a generous black jacket with mesh panels that reveal the skin.
“People expect drama from Mugler, exciting clothes that don’t follow the rules”, says Casey Cadwallader, who has been trying, since 2017, to “Resurrect a small brand with a huge name”. For several months now, extravagant pieces have not only served to shine the emblem of the brand, they are also sold on their online site. Will the public be sensitive to the message of the sartorial revolution sent by designers? After months of restrictions, it might be time for release.