With the decadent and lavish use of fur and leather on the runways at Paris this year it came as no surprise to find animal rights activists protesting outside the Jean Paul Gaultier autumn-winter 2010-11 show.
Despite temperatures in Paris starting to warm up, the crowd turned up in astonishing amounts of fur. Although wearing fur is a personal choice, the fashion industry carries a big responsibility on its shoulders when it comes to such sensitive topics.
Even if designers like Lanvin and Loewe can guarantee the legal and ethical production of all their fur, the fact is that such a big trend will instigate animal skin pieces on the high street.
The worrying reality is simply that not all retailers have or can afford such high work ethics.
Jean Paul Gaultier
Ethnic eccentricities were the big themes at Jean Paul Gaultier show. It opened to something like a scene out of Les Miserables. A live band (featuring a violin, a bass-balalaika, an accordion and Chinese flutes) played the first few bars of the French national anthem before mystic chants flooded the space.
The first silhouettes featured tailored jackets and coats matched with gold Aladdin shoes, embroidered cowboy boots, Russian fur hats, African head wraps, Eastern European head scarves and geisha-style wooden wedges.
Silk, silk crepe and wool mix cropped loose-fitted trousers and big voluminous pleated skirts were styled with fluorescent pink, yellow and green tights.
Contrasting different layers, textures and colours was a sheer feast for the eyes. A colourful dress was worn under a classic brown trouser suit, while a short grey zip-up hoodie worked well with black embroidered harem trousers. Other pieces included velvet jumpsuits and short trench jackets as well as full-length panel coats accessorised with chunky silver neck braces.
A mish-mash of cultural and ethnic status symbols were scoured from the four corners of the globe.
Viktor & Rolf
Performance art saw Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf strip a pup tent-shaped former supermodel down to the size of a Playboy bunny in front of an audience of thousands.
The designers undressed and then dressed supermodel Kristen McNameny like a Russian stacking doll, zipping the garments piled onto her down to size zero with a complex system of zippers and drawstrings as they dressed a rotating cast of other models.
In the end, the bespectacled pair's experiment with performance art was worth it. Their 15 minutes onstage won them among the day's heartiest applause.
But the spectacle itself distracted attention away from the clothes, which were basically big, bulky and black.
