PARIS FASHION Week, which opened officially yesterday, sent out Balenciaga, the biggest gun in its artillery, earlier than usual.
The show was the first major salvo in almost 100 catwalk presentations taking place between now and Wednesday next.
Phrases such as “extreme femininity” have been bandied about to describe the trends for spring/summer 2010 in London and Milan, where lightness, transparency and a mix of prints and embroideries set the tone of many collections.
But these are tough times and Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, the designer responsible for those wider shoulderlines and silk drapery so widely picked up by the high street, sent out a hard-edged collection for spring 2010.
The show was presented in the ornate gilded and mirrored salons of the Hotel Crillon. Lean leather trousers are very much Ghesquière’s signature, while black-leather hooded vests and chain-knit ankle boots bore an unmistakably dark urban glamour. It is a trend already evident on the streets of Paris, where every second female was sporting black latex leggings and killer heels.
The collection celebrated unconventional workmanship in conventional shapes. Fluorescent strips of leather on sheer fabrics added a zany modernity to natural linen dresses zippered at the front. Ghesquière’s reinvention of the kilt in black mesh and wool pleats and worn with banded print tunics was a combination bound to be widely copied.
At the Musée de l’Homme, Irish designer Sharon Wauchob presented one of her most wayward and delicate collections to date.
Wauchob is one of the few independent female designers in Paris. Her collection was a play on black and white lace, but it was done in a fresh way with ruffled dresses of white guipure or with exaggerated black crochet on mesh worn with tight leggings Indian style, many inset with lace.
The theme of conceal and reveal was expressed in sheer tops over soft slouchy trousers, while tunics and boleros cut like fine filigree were stellar touches.
Among those in the audience was the new Irish Ambassador to France, Paul Kavanagh.