Fashion is the playground for the rich and famous.
But Tuesday saw Giorgio Armani outdo even this old maxim in his celebrity-circus of a couture show. On the front row, a shimmying Kate Hudson mingled with Jared Leto, Sophia Loren pouted sultrily, Pink tapped her foot and Juliette Binoche caught up with fellow actress Chloe Grace Moretz.
Ushers even had to link arms in a human wall when the show ended to protect the myriad stars from the masses and deliver them to the safety of backstage.
It’s not often that Karl Lagerfeld is outdone in the Hollywood stakes — but his front row shows that he’s focusing his attention on couture-hungry Asia.
Armani Prive plays with dots
Overlays through a palette of red, white and black defined Armani’s autumn-winter aesthetic.
And the result was a rare intellectual show from the Italian master of safe classicism.
Quilted-effect ruffled capes mixed with (rather unseasonal) shorts alongside curved-shouldered pant suits with exaggerated tubular sleeves.
This began a play in proportion. Armani segmented the clothes, producing jacket sleeves that went high and appeared separate from the torso. This silhouette then fluffed out into some voluminous net clouds dresses fit for Lady Gaga.
But the crescendo came at the end, in overlays of polka dots, chenille embroidery and billowing tulle veils that played cleverly with differing depths.
Models with black tulle dresses sported meters of netted veil, pockmarked with red dots — creating the illusion of a galactic constellation of varying density.
The body became blurred as the dress took over.
Giorgio Armani is proving quite the Paris couture hot-ticket.
One Japanese fashionista who had badly sprained her ankle made the show thanks only to her resourcefulness: She was seen with her foot bandaged with an astronomically-priced Hermes silk scarf.
