Posts Tagged ‘Paris Fashion Week’

Valentino Spring 2010 Collection @ Paris Fashion Week

Valentino Spring 2010 Collection @ Paris Fashion Week

Valentino @ Paris Fashion Week

It will be a very nude season in Valentino-land. This is the second ready-to-wear collection designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli for Valentino since taking the reigns from Alessandra Facchinetti and the duo seems to be finding their legs and asserting their own vision on the house.

What does that mean? No red dresses.

The designers took the sheer trend and ran with it with a muted color palette of grey, cream, khaki and ecru. Flirtatious cocktail dresses swirled above the knee and revealed glimpses of skin underneath floating organza. Even seemingly demure floor-length gowns got a little scandalous with sheer lace to show off bits that normally go covered.

But the absolute best part of this show were the shoes created by Philip Treacy which were like sculptures for your feet. Lace at the toe revealed just a hint of sexy toe cleavage and lace dripped around the ankles or winged out from the back, creating a delicious confection of a shoe.

It was all very soft and pretty, but a little too oatmeal-y for my tastes.

Valentino Spring 2010 Collection @ Paris Fashion Week

Haute Couture Brides

Haute Couture Brides

Haute Couture bridal gowns
Click for the full size image

The couture shows are over, but ’tis the season for getting hitched, so I decided to give you a second look at the haute couture brides.

The Chanel bride was probably my favorite. The look was marked by layers of tulle cascading from the veil and down the arms, but the gown itself was very sleek. The banded waist continued Lagerfeld’s tubular theme from the rest of the show and a cascade of beading led down the skirt and pooled into the train. Beautiful!

Gaultier’s bride was the most modern of the bunch with a body-con lace dress and his futuristic caging carrying over into a helmeted, cage-like veil.

Reem Acra is the master at evening and bridal gowns and his couture creation was very fanciful and fairytale-like.

Haute Couture Brides

Valentino Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Valentino Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009
Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009

Can I be any more of a Facchinetti/Valtentino fangurl?

For the first time, Alessandra Facchinetti seemed less reverential and willing to experiment and step outside the Valentino house iconography. This is her first haute couture collection, but she has had a year to cut her teeth on resort and ready-to-wear and this collection showed that she was certainly ready to step out of the shadow of Valentino’s retirement.

Like a kid in the atelier candystore, she played with shape, texture, and for the first time, took Valentino in a very personal direction. Red dresses still made an appearance, but it was a more subtle nod to the past than in previous collections.

Where her previous collections were a bit of an homage to the departing master, this haute couture collection seemed totally Faccinetti.

Valentino purists will have to get used to the New Jack, but I love the way she’s shaking up the house a bit while still giving us the feminine shapes.

Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009
Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009

Valentino Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Gaultier Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Gaultier Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Gaultier Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009
Gaultier Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009

All of my favorite models in one show — Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, and Coco Rocha? Swoon!

The Gaultier haute couture show was certainly the most vibrant of the bunch. Models walked wearing colorful feathers and lattice cages over their slinky, Day-Glo gowns. Coco Rocha’s emerald gown with it’s matching feather shrug (here) was one of the most stunning dresses I’ve seen lately.

These might be tough economic times for the rest of us, but there was no shortage of luxury at Gaultier, with fur and leather on many pieces as well as an equestrian theme that gave us leather and suede jodhpurs and a brown fur coat with an overlay of saddle-inspired caging.

John Paul Gaultier’s revealed that his richly colored collection was influenced by ’80’s hacker flick Tron and said of his cage motif:

“Women feel so free nowadays that they are wearing cages again. It’s the ultimate stage in women’s liberation.”

Gaultier Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009
Gaultier Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009

Gaultier Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Chanel Haute Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Chanel Haute Couture Fashion Show F/W ‘09

Chanel Haute Couture bride Fall/Winter 2009
Chanel Haute Couture bride Fall/Winter 2009

So this is what it looks like in Anna Wintour’s closet!

Lagerfeld created an army of Wintourettes in shades of grey sparked with the occasional shot of rosy color — a very classic and grown-up collection from Chanel.

I’ll skip the commentary as there is plenty of it in the video from the Chanel haute couture runway show below.

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