Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Paris Fashion Week Coverage

Dior Haute Couture Fall 2009

The haute couture collections hit the Paris runway this week – and as always, we are most excited to see two shows: Dior for the outrageousness and Chanel for the exquisiteness.

So far, Dior has not disappointed – its show was a marvelous marriage of fashion and fantasy as seen through the eyes of eccentric designer John Galliano, although in an entirely different approach than seasons past. The show took place in the gray salons of its Avenue Montaigne headquarters, in the absence of the huge crowds and over-the-top production and budgets that the house is accustomed to, giving way for Galliano to tone down the outrageousness and instead focus on the “established codes of Dior: the Bar Jacket, the panther, and the Lily of the Valley”.

Amongst a juicy palette of raspberry, orange, purple, and lime, Galliano sent models down the runway in reworked versions of the house’s basics: magnificent tailoring courtesy of cinched waists, draped bubble skirts, and sculptured necklines. The keywords for Fall are transparent and half-dressed, as the mannequin-like models sashayed down the salon in sheer chiffon, often revealing their sexy under-things. But the real stunners of the show were the exquisite full-skirted gowns fit for a queen. Draped in layers and layers of extravagant fabric, the gowns were masterpieces both in terms of skill and effort, exemplifying that going back to basics can sometimes be a wonderful thing.