MARC JACOBS at Louis Vuitton closed Paris fashion week yesterday with a Chinese takeaway collection – a post-modern take on 1930s Shanghai style jazzed up with animal prints – that was not the firecracker it could have been.
As the world’s most profitable luxury brand with further expansion planned for Asia, this collection saw the designer camp up the familiar lexicon of Chinese clothing cliches like cheongsams, mandarin collars and fans artfully, but without his usual sophistication. A quote from Susan Sontag – “Camp taste is by its nature possible only in affluent societies,” – gave a clue to his approach.
It was all slits and slashes in seductive, close-fitting silk sheaths studded with crystal tassels with polished hair and curved heel sandals driving home the look. Multicoloured metallic fringed dresses shimmered and models strode the lacquered catwalk in sheer black lace carrying fans or wearing slim pants teamed with jewelled knits.
But despite some sleek separates, it was not clear at whom this collection was aimed and items like a white trouser suit with a giraffe print leg or a panda print tunic in black and white sequins seemed more of a joke than the stuff of a grown-up wardrobe.
Over at Hermes, Jean Paul Gaultier cracked the whip for the last time at the luxury leather house assembling a troupe of dressage riders in a chandeliered arena who went through their paces as the collection successfully harnessed the Hermes equestrian heritage.
It was a polished, thoroughbred collection, all handsome leather riding jackets, trim jodhpurs and soft suedes in tan, camel, chocolate and black.
Models strode the runway in Spanish riding hats and boots, high-waisted pants and leather cummerbunds, armed with crops and the new wicker bag.
As the week closed, some of the trends for spring were obvious like the prevalence of white, particularly white shirts and shirtwaister dresses, an austerity balanced by colour and print in new forms.
Lengths are heading downwards altering proportions, but counter-pointed by shorts. Lace and lace embellishment were reworked in innovative ways, but so were sporty elements and a certain boyish androgyny, a mix of masculine and feminine, gave a softer streetwise edge to the whole season.