We’re in the french fashion capital this week, yes that’s Paris reporting back on the couture shows. Perhaps the most exciting time of year for style, these one off pieces are even more stunning in real life. Sensational detail at the SS15 runways, in stunning locations take a look at some of the shows we’ve witnessed!
Atelier Versace SS15
First Haute Couture fashion show in Paris with Atelier Versace with the appearence of Kate Hudson & Goldie Hawn. The Versace house opened the festivities of the haute couture week by presenting their show on Sunday evening in Paris, in the chamber of commerce and industry; a stone’s throw away from the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées. Whilst the cameras snapped away in front of Michelle Rodriguez, Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn, the first few models appeared in tailoring and jumpsuits with cut outs, showing off a shoulder or the top of a bust. The silhouette is long line and the body is celebrated across dresses that outline the women’s figures perfectly, in swaying couture that almost forms waves directly onto the skin. The palette revolved around red, white, black and vibrant blue, even if several models in powdered pink were worth taking a look at. Donatella Versace loves to add some sparkle with several rhinestones, embroidery and beads making these pieces even more exceptional, which are so sexy and so Versace.
SCHIAPARELLI
A mise en scene by Jean-Paul Goude for this new Schiaparelli collection designed by the studio teamStop! Look & listen: was the name of the collection presented by Elsa Schiaparelli in January 1935 for the opening of her couture house on 21 place Vendôme. Equally an excellent definition for this collection without a name this season. A look back to the vocabulary of the great designer with a mise en scene by Jean-Paul Goude. A white smoking jacket embroidered with fastenings, was followed by a sari blouse embroidered in needle heads which were found printed and on pieces like the fur on the penultimate look. A very Schiap collection! The studio team and involvement of Farida Khelfa succeeded in offering a coherent and successful collection.
CHRISTIAN DIOR
Raf Simons addresses three decades between them, the 50s, 60s and 70s to create the new silhouettes for 2015 by Christian Dior Couture. With metal scaffolding, and a play of mirrors on the walls and on the ceiling, the Christian Dior couture collection has futuristic accents. He addresses three decades between them, the 50s, 60s and 70s to create the new silhouettes for 2015. A fusion of three eras and styles to give life to the new materials and new techniques. The guipure is embroidered with sequins, and the plastic is printed with photographs. The corolla dresses take on a new allure with graphic pleats, and the knee-high boots in coloured vinyl and in heels in transparent Plexiglas. The jumpsuits become like a second skin with floral embroidery. The geometric cut outs on the dresses seem to almost be suspended on the bodies. A contemporary vision of the past, it’s all the creative talent of the designer and the knowhow of the Dior ateliers.
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI
Giambattista Valli invites us for a bucolic stroll and a meeting between two worlds and two women: Mademoiselle Chanel and Janis Joplin. Giambattista Valli invites us for a bucolic stroll and a meeting between two worlds and two women: Mademoiselle Chanel and Janis Joplin. Ensuing from the catwalk, the longline silhouettes with superpositions of dresses and trousers, light and floaty gowns with frills, ruffs and short flared dresses. The floral embroideries are refreshing and the fluro colours bring a modernity to the dresses in guipure and to the thousands of tulle leaves. To note: the veil that covers with delicacy the gaze of these girls in flowers.
CHANEL
An animated Garden of Eden under the huge glass roof of the Grand Palais for the couture collection by Chanel. An animated Garden of Eden under the huge glass roof of the Grand Palais for the couture collection by Chanel. Karl Lagerfeld is inspired by nature to design silhouettes with 3D floral embroidery. The little Chanel suit this season is cropped and is made in inventive materials. The tweed is frayed, the couture bonnet with its veil and mittens accessorize the silhouette. The colours are explosive, refreshing and vibrant. The wedding dress with its train adorned in flowers illustrates the couture know how of the ateliers and closes the show with grace.
YIGING YIN
Sublime draped silhouettes at Yiging Yin.Yiging Yin redefines his haute couture collection. Every woman can find themselves in these models. The draped and tied silhouettes in grey Alpaca open the show and reflects the complex simplicity that you find in haute couture. The chosen materials looked like liquid, poured over the body. A controlled elegance with the jumpsuits: which are embroidered with crystals, in washed out silk on skin tight leotards, already seen at Dior. Also rare to see such pretty fuss. Will Yiging Yin be the new Madeleine Vionnet of today?
STÉPHANE ROLLAND
New silhouettes and new volumes for the new couture collection by Stéphane Rolland.A new silhouette and new volume for Stéphane Rolland for this couture collection. More roundness in the volumes with a play on transparency, and a desire of lightness. We find all the dear basics to the couturier with the jumpsuits, capes and sculptural evening gowns. All seemed to float with a weightlessness. The materials are the key components of the collection and define all the volumes. The embroideries are like jewels which outline a hip, the bottom of a dress, or the waist…A couture collection which equally makes way for the new technical processes to create the 3D embroideries and skin tight materials.
GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVÉ
It’s in the Palais de Toyko with numerous celebrity appearances including Robin Wright, Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas that Giorgio Armani presented his Haute Couture collection, Armani Privé. It’s in the Palais de Toyko with numerous celebrity appearances including Robin Wright, Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas that Giorgio Armani presented his Haute Couture collection, Armani Privé. The transparent bamboos planted on the catwalk were found in leitmotiv on the clothes. The trousers were loose fitting and like samurai outfits with belts tied at the waist expressing a state of richness and serenity. More dynamic, the tops worn short, throughout the collection, and embroidered with sequins and beads. All a reminder of the slender lines of the bamboo. Take a look to a dress with tubular pleating, a coat made from ribbons or a draped bustier retaining delicately on the back, a true architectural work.
DICE KAYEK
The second participation in the haute couture week for Ece Ege, the Turkish designer from the label Dice Kayek, who proves her architectural talent for clothes through baby doll dresses. The second participation in the haute couture week for Ece Ege, the Turkish designer from the label Dice Kayek, who proves her architectural talent for clothes through baby doll dresses. A true work of construction, and deconstruction, of pleating, and twisting, revolving around the body for pure silhouettes, and an extreme elegance. Ece is inspired by artists such as Annette Messager and Louise Bourgeois to create a truly desirable and wearable wardrobe. The embroidery on the evening pieces close with delicacy and brilliance this show of great workmanship and precision.
ELIE SAAB
Elie Saab always puts the focus on his origins, his roots, and his country Lebanon. Elie Saab always puts the focus on his origins, his roots, and his country Lebanon. He designs each collection by thinking about his town, Beirut and his family. This time the starting point was a memory of a dress worn by his mother adorned in tulips. These flowers are found in 3D effects on several powder pink and gold dresses. Of course each gown is entirely embroidered in silk thread, beads, and sequins, and in this particular season, feathers. A nod to the 70s. The talent of Elie Saab is making each model light, ethereal and romantic. To note; the multiple propositions of short dresses and mini-bags equally embroidered with feathers.
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
Sixty-one ways of saying « I love you ». Jean Paul Gaultier offers his own declarations of love in 61 haute couture models. From the tuxedo to several jumpsuits with trick of the eye effects, paired with a jacket or with a skirt, the couturier’s vocabulary is found in each sublime model. A cardigan embroidered entirely from beads, and another a dress ending with fringing. Or even this dress in python regius and satin embroidered in crystals! The technical prowess combined with the creativity transforms the gowns into true sculptures. Those invited to do the show, and the fetish models of Jean Paul Gaultier bring the room to boiling point, whilst in the form of the final bouquet, Naomi Campbell finishes the show in beauty.
VALENTINO
Once again Valentino works magic! Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli closed this 3rd day of Parisian Haute Couture collections with a Valentino show offering a multitude of dazzling dressings in slimline silhouettes or decorated with ethnic embroidery. Brushed velvet in dark and subtle tones bestow an impeccable fall on the long straight dresses, to lightly revealed backs and finally to blouses in the shape of wings. Several dresses in tulle are embroidered with naïve designs, a rainbow, clouds in silver lamé and messages of love.
