Fall 2009 Paris Fashion Week

>> Two very different designers, Alber Elbaz for Lanvin and Yohji Yamamoto, showed collections with a largely red and black color scheme today.  The latter said his red stood for “blood and crazy,” but it's not as terrifying as it seems.  In fact, the collection was quite beautiful: wool coats in all shapes and sizes — bunched, brushed with red or white, boasting asymmetrical flaps or gauzy overlay.  The Moment called it "poetic," which seems most appropriate; even with the punkish streaked hair, one-eye eyeliner, the soundtrack was still eery piano.  Neon pink and red flats and booties made their debut, part of Yohji's new collaboration with Salvatore Ferragamo, and it all finished with a choreographed finale: five models, hand-in-hand, each wearing a tomato red coat, formed a circle, displaying a strip of hot pink down their backs.
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>> Martin Margiela may be to blame for the overloaded shoulders, shaggy coats, and sculptural necklines we're seeing everywhere else for Fall 2009, and his bellwhether abilities are really paying off — his Paris stores logged a 21 percent sales increase year over year in January.  Despite rumors last season that he was on the brink of leaving the company, "he's still in position," Margiela chief exec Giovanni Pungetti assures, although he disclosed that the designer recently reduced his day-to-day involvement and is seldom in the company's headquarters.  Instead, "He’s concentrating on more strategic projects. He’s still working with us in the key decisions of the company.  This is the spirit [Martin] wanted to create; that’s his philosophy.  He’s more consulting with us than designing every product. The team is more Margiela than him.”

Indeed, the Fall 2009 collection — whoever designed it — seemed the essence of Margiela.  The show was about "morphing," and models walked the zigzagged catwalk, starting with a woman wearing only a bra and nude tights, graduating into greater states of dress — slashed trenches and tops, looped capes, and Margiela's newest answer to the highlighted shoulder — clear plastic shoulder pads held by black bra straps.  One model wore a cotton cloud.  The crowd was left speechless at the end, and a muted applause broke out amongst the bewilderment.  But it is here that the seeds of future seasons are planted.
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>> The runway at Lanvin was watered down to look like wet pavement, but the collection was anything but washed up — Alber Elbaz formulated dresses in a modern ode to the '40s power woman, frame bags their accessory of choice.  Largely black with a flash of red or nude, the collection was sensual, glamourous, but appropriately sober — filled with the kind of pieces that will encourage women to bring out their pocketbooks, even in these tight times — those necklaces!  A testament to his devotion to the collection, each outfit was baptized with a name — Arlette or Violette; Alber always knows how to serve it up — whether it be the chocolate cherries and cherry rum cocktails white bow-tie-clad waiters offered pre-show, or the clothes themselves — and this is no exception.
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>> The PETA protesters who haven't shown up much this season were out in full force outside Christian Dior this afternoon, brandishing bloodied pelts and yelling "Assassins!!" at the showgoers.  Backstage, the models were feeling pain of their own — everyone's eyebrows had to be dyed blonde, and 200 hair pins had to be secured to their heads, causing some to cry and call their families and agents to complain.  Inside, John Galliano took a trip to a faraway place — somewhere between Persia and the far East, sending harem pants, jumpsuits, medallioned jewelry, and even a bare bottom down the runway.  The collection came in a rainbow of colors, and in between all of the exotic there was plenty of the commercial — as one Times UK twitterer put it, "Suits suits suits and the Lady Dior bag."  Galliano said his intention was to restore a sense of fantasy to the world, but why does his Fall 2009 strategy — even the shoes — look so much like his fantasies of recent seasons past?
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>> Rick Owens traded in his Spring 2009 nuns for Fall 2009 swans, with feather headbands and ice queen pastels intermixed into his usual black palette.  Apparently, a good number of the models showed up backstage — including Sasha Pivovarova, who teasingly complained about her jacket causing people to touch her — wearing at least one Rick piece, a testament to his fashion following; another testament: Anna Wintour chose his show as the last to which 60 Minutes's Morley Safer would accompany her.  But when you've got jackets and boots like these, what do you expect?
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>> Olivier Theyskens's position at Nina Ricci is confusing, to say the least — it's generally viewed that the Fall 2009 collection is his last for the brand, and supposedly Peter Copping is already lined up to succeed him when his contract runs out in October, but the company declines to comment.  Now, rumors are going around that management actually already fired Olivier, but he won't leave — he does have the option to do one more collection for the brand, so maybe he's hoping to change management's mind?

Needless to say, Olivier admitted to reporters that today's show was an emotional one, and he took a long bow at the end of the show to a standing ovation.  Gone was the Olivier who shows in the Tuileries Gardens and thrives on romantic gowns; instead, he sent out pieces with Mugler-inspired shoulders and a harder edge in a warehouse setting.  And let's not forget the insane shoes — stilt-like — some say 8-inch, some say 10-inch, platforms with either no heels or conventional stilettos dangling in the air — close-up here. Surprisingly, there were no falls, only a couple of wobbles.  All in all, a return to Olivier's fetishistic roots — the sheer pieces were most successful — but will it be enough?
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>> Christophe Decarnin has launched the fashion set into Balmania in just a few short seasons with his ripped jeans, strong shoulders, and trashy chic approach, and with Fall 2009, he's not ready to change the formula.  Apparently, the big shoulders were so prevalent in the front row that it caused a squishy situation — and on the runway, two models almost got gridlocked due to their hulking shoulder pads.  Christophe, who stopped by the Prada party last night, admitted he was "a bit nervous," and rightly so — all eyes are on him.

He worked with a simple color palette — black, silver, and white, with a few pops of electric blue — placing the attention on the short, short skirts and the rhinestoned everything. Erin Wasson, Angela Lindvall, and Carmen Kass all made appearances on the runway, and Giuseppe Zanotti did the shoes again, but was it enough?  I'm hearing a lot of disappointment and frustration with Decarnin's decision to stay so formulaic; as Suzy Menkes put it, the "show looked very familiar — not least because new ideas were as short as the models' brief, buttock-grazing hemlines. Since every other house copies his approach, Decarnin will have to find a way to move Balmain forward. But for now he remains, at this sobering-up moment, the last designer to leave the party."
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