Fashion

Dior AW20 bringing a London twist to Parisian menswear


Kim Jones injected a spot of English
aristocratic insouciance into the DNA of Dior Friday, with a starry men’s
Paris fashion week show that riffed on British upper class eccentricity.
This was the fabled French label at its most dandyish and decadent, with
top coats with velvet collars, trompe l’oeil grey minks and a staggering
silver-embroidered opera coat which will retail for 75,000 euros (83,000 US
dollars).

Jones dedicated the show to his friend Judy Blame, the British stylist
and
punk and New Romantic iconoclast who died two years ago.
Several of Blame’s jewellery designs were included in the show,
including a
chain with a coin bearing his head, as well as his signature pearl-encrusted
opera gloves.

“The world is a bit depressing at the moment and I wanted to do something
celebratory” as a tribute to Blame’s genius, Jones told AFP.
“It’s really upscale and decadent and terribly couture, with luxurious
materials like vicuna and beautiful cashmere coats imitating sealskin.”
The British-born creator said he “always loved that London twist on
Parisian chic couture”, with leather trousers and natty re-imagined Chelsea
boots.

“I like the thought that some of it looks like it has been handed down
through an aristocratic family,” Jones added.

Berluti not shy with leather

Berluti had earlier gone hell for leather for luxury in a day marked by a
strong streak of decadence.
Kris Van Assche, the Belgian creator who has rebooted the high-end French
cobbler into a major fashion player, made a pitch to be the tailor of choice
for the gods of global showbiz.

With hundreds of screaming fans waiting outside the Opera Garnier to
catch
a glimpse of Korean K-pop heartthrob Sehun and Taiwanese-Canadian actor
Eddie
Peng, Van Assche produced a collection that was as sensual to the touch as
it
was to the eye.

The former Dior designer has long been a prophet of a return to serious
tailoring, and the rest of fashion seems to have caught up, with a battalion
of other labels this week revisiting the classic men’s suit.
Rethought double-breasted suits came in rich reds and decadent purples
and
greens, with supermodel Bella Hadid rocking a mothball-blue one in the co-ed
show whose front row was crammed with American rappers.

Van Assche further played with people’s minds by making a puffer coat in
feather-light patent, as well as Prince of Wales pattern overcoats and
bomber
jackets finely woven with leather.

Dries Van Noten presenting signature prints to the catwalk

“It is that little bit of originality that people come to Berluti for,”
the
designer told AFP.
“Sure, we are a traditional shoe company, but that doesn’t mean our
clothes
should not stand out in the street.”

“My job is to bring beauty to the world,” Van Assche declared.
The Dior and Berluti shows were further proof that Paris fashion was
turning away from streetwear, which has dominated the catwalks for several
seasons, towards a new and often eye-catchingly eccentric classicism.
Dries Van Noten, the Belgian “Prince of Prints”, talked about the
emergence
of a new “playful decadence” as he sent his models out with false fox furs
and
jewels draped around check jackets and coats.

Japanese designer Junya Watanabe tried to combine the two competing
currents, splicing bomber jackets and sportswear into tweed jackets and
coats
in a valiant attempt to have the best of both worlds.

But Vetements, the rebel label founded by fashion’s current enfant
terrible
Demna Gvasalia, was there to kick convention between the legs.
Its first show without Gvasalia, who is now concentrating on designing
for
Balenciaga, was typically iconoclastic.

Kate Moss look-a-like

It featured a Kate Moss lookalike sprayed with fake tan (the real one was
in the front row of the Dior show) and a baseball cap with the legend,
“Gvasalia for President” above a T-shirt that warned sarcastically, “No
social
media thank you.”(AFP)

Photo: Dior AW20, Catwalkpictures



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.