Consistency and style to the forefront in feminine creations
THERE WAS only one word to describe Marc Jacob’s collection for Vuitton yesterday closing the Paris shows: womanly.
Held around a tented fountain in the Louvre, it was called “And God Created Woman” after Roger Vadim’s movie of 1956 which launched Brigitte Bardot’s career.
The empire-line corsetry and decollete, the nipped-in waists and full skirts – so unmistakably 1950s like the swinging ponytails – provided a clear-cut silhouette that defined the entire collection.
It looked modern, ladylike yet romantic. The proportions seemed right and the colours subtle.
Whatever the fabrics, an array of printed wools, boucles, tweeds or leathers, the line remained constant. Daywear had a new girlishness with pin-striped corsets worn with full pin-striped skirts. A cutaway coat flared over a longer dress, a cabled knit spread out over a faille skirt as volume was kept below the waist.
There were some terrific dresses, one a sporty printed halterneck, another in black lace, the loveliest of all being a strapless evening gown in oyster tulle with silver corsage.
Unlike most shows in Paris this week, Vuitton started right on time and was bang on target.
If Bardot was the starting point at Vuitton, it was Bond’s OO7 tough heroine Honor Blackman that powered the look of Gaultier’s black leather tailoring at Hermes.
We’ve all seen leather trouser suits and skin-tight leather dresses before. But the sharp crocodile jackets, cashmere duffels and sheepskin waistcoats looked cool and sassy especially with slim pants, boyish white shirts and ties.
Accessories like bowler hats and rolled brollies were tongue-in-cheek takes on British city gent attire while frock coats with leopard-print dresses mixed masculine and feminine in a frolicsome way, closing the week with a flourish.
Winter trends from Paris:
- strong, spare tailoring, form-fitting jackets. Coats without sleeves, waistcoats with military/utilitarian themes;
- solid fabrics inset with sheer leather in new textures often with lace, tweed, sheepskin. Colours, quiet and subtle – black, grey, khaki, navy. Fuller skirts, a 1950s look with shoes and boots high and blocky;
- hoods on everything in every fabric everywhere. To paraphrase Seán Lemass's slogan – to get ahead next winter, get a hood.