Paris Fashion Week: Isabel Marant’s Arabesque

Ethnic styles from North Africa and Anatolia were in vogue for Isabel Marrant, who fused them with contemporary fabrics and sportswear with funky results at her Paris Fashion Week show on.

A long, men’s embroidered Berber coat cut an androgynous silhouette with black tasseled pants and desert sandals.

The same coat silhouette was later rendered in silver sheen and twinned with ultra-feminine black ‘60s pants and a delicate white polo worthy of Brigitte Bardot.

Harem pants appeared first as serious, and then with a neat contemporary twist — in white, as truncated sports pants. And a contemporary dropped-waist jumpsuit in pale yellow had tassels flying, a gold neck band and a loose pendant. It was a fresh take on the ever-lingering ethnic runway trends.