Luxe Looks That Boldly Say, ‘Let Them Wear Mink’
PARIS — If anyone can harness the power of beauty to lift the spirits, it’s the French fashion houses. Some of the world’s leading designers here unapologetically delivered a kind of luxuriousness and wild creativity that wasn’t expected from a fall season that began so downbeat.
As fashion week came to a close, top houses from Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent embraced a glass-is-half-full approach that made even all-black or sensible separates seem like indulgences--so expertly were they turned out. Perhaps designers sensed what economists reported this week--that wealthy customers kept spending, even amid talk of the end of luxury and conspicuous dressing. The moneyed, it’s clear, want to look rich, and they will have ample opportunities this fall.
They’ll have lots of luxe versions of--how ironic--peasant wear, including dense embroideries, chunky furs and thick, hand-knitted sweaters. Even shoppers in sunny Los Angeles may be tempted by some of the best outerwear in years: neat princess coats, embellished cardigans, racy motorcycle leathers and capes.
Tote bags have grown enormous, as have the must-have accessories, embroidered scarves, stoles and wraps. Heels stayed high, especially on fall’s tall boots, and they’re made to show under a won’t-die trend for knickers and other cropped pants. Working women will at last have abundant tailored jackets to pair with flaring, knee-length skirts, narrow and wide-leg trousers or even a few miniskirts. In an all-eveningwear collection, Tom Ford’s Yves Saint Laurent gave after-5 dressing a new look: Call it post-coital Elizabethan. Ruffles, dangling ribbons, bows, empire waistlines and queenly quilted velvet maxi coats added the royal elegance; velvet knickers and satin leggings didn’t. Yet curve-hugging tight skirts, plunging necklines and soaring heels and clothes that seemed in a state of undress shored up the sex appeal. Ford’s parade of little black cocktail dresses with big decorated cuffs may revitalize cocktail dressing.
Valentino’s fellow yacht and villa dwellers evidently have endured all the deprivation they can stand. The designer spelled out his Midas wishes on the runway and in his program. He described the shining, all-gold knee boots, handbags, belts and fur bags as “an excuse for pure indulgence.”
It’s just as hard to ignore the opulent message that Marc Jacobs sent down a gilded runway at Louis Vuitton. Anyone who can afford tall mink boots, Persian lamb-trimmed rain boots and silk tops with attached, exotic feather skirts isn’t worried about the value of their 401(k). There was actress Angie Harmon in the front row wearing spring’s $15,000 embroidered leather coat and matching boots, setting an example for jet-setters. Though Jacobs tried to downplay the excess with dour schoolmarm cardigans over the plumed wonders, he was kidding no one--based on his finale of jeweled, sheared-mink skirts and dresses.
When sheared-mink boots, fedoras, coats and even pants also showed up at luxury provider Hermes, it was clear that designer Martin Margiela, along with Jacobs, had reversed the meaning of shorn pelts. Removing the fluff from a luscious, fluffy fur used to disguise it into something mistaken for velvet (and thus avoid protesters’ attacks). Now the shiny, rich furs look every bit their breathtaking prices.
Though John Galliano’s clothes can be as costly as Hermes’ or Vuitton’s, their exotic, entertaining flamboyance spreads the pleasure to spectators. With fellow groovy dresser Lenny Kravitz in the audience, Galliano made a convincing blend of geisha and American Indian dresses in his 11-minute show. So many of the ideas were plucked from his Christian Dior collection shown last week that his signature collection seemed like a deluxe evening-wear arm of his Dior work.
Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel also layered it on--with a surplus of wardrobe ideas. He mixed up the new square, cropped Chanel jacket with a leather knee-length coat, a fuzzy outerwear vest or a wave-printed blue chiffon skirt. Witty as ever, Madame Coco’s image was chalked onto blackboard-black totes, and her signature chains were shrunken into fringe-like hair accessories or trim for jackets.
Younger customers will flock to his many flirty miniskirts, but old folks in the audience (including Chanel chairman Alain Wertheimer) plugged their ears when the amplifiers wailed with live rock from Belgium’s Vive la Fete. Lagerfeld, strikingly skinny but full of himself, took a runway bow to an appropriate soundtrack song: “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
French fashion designers dare to deliver such rich moments as that--and the clothes to go with them. But surely they were kidding about the knickers.
