To deafening cheers and a stunned celebrity front row, Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller closed Valentino’s show during Paris Fashion Week Tuesday by storming the catwalk in a headline-grabbing stunt to announce the decision to make Zoolander 2.
Meanwhile, Karl Lagerfeld spent the earth to recreate a giant fully-functioning French brasserie inside the Grand Palais — replete with silver platter waiter service — to showcase Chanel’s latest looks.
Here are the highlights of the fall-winter 2015 ready to wear collections:
VALENTINO’S BLACK MOOD
Black was the touchstone for designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli who produced a beautiful fashion ode to women for their Valentino collection.
It was a bold start — a series of cinched-waist silhouettes in black and white geometric stripes and checks merged into some beautiful trompe l’oeil bibs that flattened the chest with loose pants.
Later, there were references to two women celebrated in the programme notes: artist Gustave Klimt’s companion Emilie Louise Floge, and David Hockey’s Sixties muse Celia Birtwell. Birtwell provided inspiration for the decorative Swinging Sixties embellished lace A-line mini dresses, and Floge’s influence was seen in fastidiously embellished long-line and column dresses that featured bold Klimt-like patterns in bright blues, reds and oranges.
The inclusion of the Zoolander troop was a nice touch, and shows that this age-old house doesn’t take itself too seriously.
WORKAHOLIC LAGERFELD TAKES A JOB BEHIND A BAR
Karl Lagerfeld was caught moonlighting as a barman at Brasserie Gabrielle in Paris on Tuesday — but never fear, Chanel’s couturier hasn’t given up his day job.
The 81-year-old workaholic designer was merely posing for the press at the giant French brasserie he recreated inside the Grand Palais for Chanel’s latest ready-to-wear display.
And what a fall-winter show it was.
French waiters walked with silver platters past brass champagne bars, bistro tables, newspaper stands and huge revolving doors. The models, led by Cara Delevigne, soon followed in long, coloured textured jackets, on-trend pencil skirts, ‘60s check dresses, embroidered parkas and revamped vintage Chanel block heels.
It was a relaxed affair, with some models even taking the time to chill at tables marked “reserved.” The realism of the set was astounding with its coffee machines and “no mobile phones” signs — and even, said the designer, down to the fact that the models just had coffee.
Lagerfeld’s designs showed off outstanding details. The black-and-white ‘50s block shoe — a black toe on a thick square heel — defined the show, a look that Lagerfeld resurrected from the Coco Chanel archive for the first time ever.
There were several fantastic plays on the “penguin”-like French waiter and French maid uniforms ubiquitous among Paris’ posher restaurants.
A black menswear jacket came with a bowtie and a voluminous white silk ruffled skirt. Elsewhere, white waiters’ bows were abstract and embroidered on a loose, diaphanous skirt. And some must-have clutch bags were in the shape of stacked plates.
IRIS VAN HERPEN’S LIQUID SILVER
Dutch wunderkind Iris Van Herpen produced her strongest ready-to-wear collection to date, in a poetical show that merged organic shapes and geological micro-formations with unnatural-looking metallic textures.
It produced a play of subtle, but powerful, contradictions and confirms that Van Herpen, who won 2014’s prestigious ANDAM fashion award, is now becoming an important player on the Paris ready-to-wear calendar.
The key to her success is where science meets art: the twinning of new technologies with a roaming creative mind.
Here, Van Herpen developed a translucent stainless steel weave that was seen in several incredible looks, including one where the skirt seemed to grow out of the model’s back and curve round the front like a basket.
A trompe l’oeil transparent midriff section used material that contorted and shrunk the models’ midriff, like great instant liposuction.
And then there were the “killer heels.” They jagged shard of crystals, tied with leather bands, with no heel — produced using 3-D printing.
It was one of the most creative displays seen all season.
