Paris Review: Spring 2010

Oh my...I just love Paris! The energy and the lights create the perfect background to all of the fashion that happens this time of year. This Paris fashion week was no exception to its predecessors, stunning from beginning to end. Here are some snippets of the trends I picked up on:

Color

Color on the runways seems to sway between minimal or absolutely exuberant. There were no in-betweens. For Color Anne Valérie Hash is a must see. She nailed it on the head, check it out:

What can I say? Wonderful! Amazing! Tres manifique! This was by far my favorite collection. It took Phoebe Philo's phenomenal collection for Celine from two seasons ago and brought it further into fashion's current direction. It was minimal, but soft, and large on skill and craftsmanship. It was above all things how a woman is going to want to look next season. Color and cut were both right. and were simply exquisite. Please note the color focused on what was aptly described as "make-up tones" on Style.com. Powder beige, blush, and slate completed a soft, focused palette.

Now, on the exuberant end (and in this case I don't mean just color), please note the following designers:

Manish Arora

Limi Feu

Zac Posen

I questioned not just the palettes these designer chose, but their overly exaggerated shapes. Seriously? I thought the 80's had come and gone. Twice now. Designers: y'all need to quit all your clowning around. No one wants to leave the house feeling like they're heading for the circus, and that's how these girls look. I was also disappointed in Limi Feu's decision to just create a strict palette of just black and whites. When they say "austerity measure" in Europe, I don't think anyone meant to take it quite that far. Otherwise from her a strong collection.

Print

Prints were almost non-existent on the French runways. The few exceptions included bits of graphic plaids here and there, and some snippets of snakeskin by Barbara Bui (the perfect evolution from last years leopard).

Overall I felt as if the cries for beauty and subtlety (Anne Valérie Hash, Barbara Bui) were right on the mark. The party dresses (from Zac Posen, Manish Arora) had a bit too much 80's attitude which has been done so many seasons now. They felt quite passé. Those looks need to walk right of that runway and walk far far away.

Spring 2010 Couture: Chanel

Favorites, and some who didn't make the cut, with commentary. From the Spring 2010 Paris couture shows. All photos from Style.com.

These were the words running through my head when I viewed the most recent Chanel collection. They're partly based on some sound bites Mr. Lagerfeld gave before the show: Karl. Silver. No gold. Lagerfeld. Pastel. Confections. Communion. Space Age. Now. Future. Old lady. Infantile. Mixed. Contradiction.

Karl Lagerfeld mixed in all the things I loved and hated about the couture shows. Something fresh and modern (tweed suits with shorts?) with old lady (again, like at Christian Dior, I thought I spied some Esmeralda hair from 101 Dalamations). Exquisite details rife in couture were abound, and I was impressed with the creativity and technique. But still, I felt like only a few of the pieces stoked my desire.

Spring 2010 Couture: Thimister

Josephus Thimister couture show. All pictures of fashion shows Style.com

Absolutely loved this show. I found it to be extremely relative to the times, but also including a bit of fantasy. Exaggerated and wearable. And again, the red! It's really just enough to raise ones blood pressure. Mr. Thimister, you just may give me a heart attack with all this red. But please, give me more anyway.

Spring 2010 Couture: Valentino

Valentino could be summarized like this: pure genius. The color palette was something only a mastermind could come up with. More flesh tones, sure, but also acid yellows, the perfect shade of tomato red I've been lusting after and brick (brick!). The workmanship felt exquisite, like couture quality should. There were all the special details and workmanship you would expect from couture. He referenced trends, and then built on them, making them his own. Now here were some clothes that I would pay top dollar for.

Spring 2010 Couture: Alexis Mabille

Where did this guy come from? He's so young, fresh, and ready to just take over the world one fashion show at a time. Loved the looks at this show. It was a little Batman-esque, with these outfits that I could see the joker grabbing right off the runway. That's what I liked though. Sometimes, it feels so good to be bad.

Spring 2010 Couture: Christian Dior

Sometimes I feel I'm crazy because I think the opposite of what all the fashion editors think. I consider myself an expert on all things fashion related. After all, I've been wearing and admiring clothes for 30-odd years now, so I would think it would give me just as much right to comment as anyone else. But whatever. Rest assured that everything I thought about the Christian Dior show was different than the feedback I read. Because I hated it. What was to like? I mean, the ball dresses at the end, they were nice, sure, sure, but there's a whole beginning part I have to review too, and the over all feeling towards that was hatred. First of all, I hated the buttoned blazers over turtleneck with long skirt look. It was very 2010-meets-old-lady. I think they show more skin in Saudi Arabia. You made stuff my grandmother would want to wear, not fashions for the next generation. It just seemed so staid and stuffy and overwrought. And then the next set of looks didn't get any better. You took the old lady and sent her off to Sunday school. Egads! All those frilly over done confections, what were you thinking John Galliano? People may say all that ends well bodes well, and the show ended well enough, with some lovely and wearable ball gowns at the end. But I say never forget, and with those frocks I had to look at in the beginning I'm having a really hard time wiping the old memory slate clean. Isn't that one of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder?

Dazed and Confused No More

Images from December 2010 Dazed and Confused Magazine featuring tie-dyed hair

These photos from the recent Dazed and Confused (for December 2009) are just so...wow. The title explains that the look is a tie-dye for hair to take "it beyond its hippie heritage". These colors are perfectly aligned with the electric colors seen for Spring 2010 on the runway (see: It's Electric). I felt a charge just looking at them.

Print Happy

Kudos to Dolce and Gabbana for showing us that roses get mixed up sometimes too. Thanks Style.com for photo, Dolce and Gabbana Spring 2010.

Coming Up Roses

My art history teacher says that every decade has it's flower, and when you think about it, it's true. Art Nouveau has its iris, the 60's the daisy, and the 80's had the lily. Well, I hearby de-clare 2010 the decade of the rose. The roses were popping up all over the runway this season, from Dolce and Gabbana to Oscar De La Renta. I consider an them an ode to the classics. No-thing gets more basic than an old-fashioned rose. Because a rose is a rose is a rose.

Givenchy's girls are of a different stripe. Thanks Style.com for photos, Givenchy Spring 2010

Walk The Line

Almost as classic as a rose print was the black and white stripes seen all through out fashion week. It was shown in a sort-of minimalist, I'm-too-cool-to-wear-anything-but-black-and-white-but--oh wait--here I am mixing it up with stripes aren't I fun?-sorta way. I say throw caution to the wind and where them with your rose print stuff. Hey, you only live once.