Paris fashion week a sparkling affair

Paris, city of lights, took on a whole new meaning yesterday as fashion week opened with the first of the spring/summer collections for 2014. Light-reflecting, mirrored fabrics and loose, easygoing shapes echoed a feeling of lightness and soft femininity that chimed more prosaically with the city’s sultry heat. Guy Laroche’s prelude may have been a riff on the quintessential white shirt and black trousers, but it was followed by a profusion of dresses in fringed optic fibre, hoodies and fluted skirts in high-tech, high-sheen fabrics and white leather jackets that looked like crackle glaze porcelain.

The papery gold foil invitation to Dries Van Noten’s show was a foretaste of more airy luxuriousness ahead. Set against a backdrop of industrial wooden pallets, the use of gilded ruffles, gold lame pleats, brocades and micro-pleated lace in this lovely collection brought a lavish, nightime glamour into daywear. With the Antwerp master’s usual visual command of tribal textiles, ethnic references abounded and details like embroidery, tassels and cowrie shells abstracted from antique carpet and saddle bags were used in playful ways as trimmings or insets on tunics or coats.

Some outstanding pieces included a coat of Ottoman splendour with a tulip motif in heavy silk reproduced from an archive print and a dress festooned with 16 metres of cream and black silk ruffles.

Elsewhere, dark glasses were needed to cope with the reflective glare at the Rochas show where sparkling, crystal covered tent coats and blouses in pale pastel colours vied with iridescent balloon shaped jackets and ice blue shifts.

Long Victorian-style gowns took on a modern look in silver and gold brocade adorned with long ropes of crystal beads. Future fashion shines.