PARIS FASHION WEEK: Not many fashion designers can bring both a sense of playfulness and depth to their collections, but one such master is the Japanese Naoki Takizawa for Issey Miyake, whose daring and beautiful spring-summer collection was full of the originality one has come to expect from his remarkable hand.
Held in the industrial surroundings of an old market hall in the Marais area, his show was one of the highlights of Paris Fashion Week so far.
Make-up artistry, the application of colour and texture to clothes rather than skin, was the stated idea behind the collection. Clever cosmetic effects were deliberately engineered so that a tailored white, black or Prince of Wales check trouser suit was judiciously spattered with spray-painted colour. The shoulders of an inky-blue trench coat seemed dusted with powder, and a white silk dress was shot through with sunny shades of red and orange pigments. That might sound juvenile, but the clothes looked striking and assured.
Taking the conventional and giving it a modern twist is nothing new, but Takizawa's reworking of the classics really pushes forward. A pinstriped or grey wool trouser suit softened with silk insets looked fresh and feminine, a black jacket had a sexy, sheer, cutaway back. Big coolie hats hung with manes of fake hair, silver disc jewellery and ruffs of shredded plastic added extra spice.
Eveningwear was equally impressive. Flapper dresses exquisitely made from tightly layered rectangles of fluttery silk recalled the fringing of the 20s but were modern in spirit. His pièces de résistance were the plain, stiff skirted white and black dresses that undid to reveal their underpinnings - millinery straw, shaped gracefully to the body, spreading at the hem like a floppy brim.
At Ungaro, the theme was traditional Greek costume, those heavy white skirts worn with black leather jackboots and tasselled hats, a notion reinforced by the music from Zorba the Greek. Ruffles and pleats were everywhere: on skirts, on capes, on baby-doll dresses, but the show never reached its promised Olympian heights despite an array of golden goddess dresses in all sorts of brashly colourful silk mousselines. Simplicity was a black suit with red jewel buttons and puff sleeves, but green satin trousers with green boleros of printed rabbit fur would hardly be packed for Corfu.
What all the chic jeunes filles in Paris want to wear are the ultra-cool clothes of Isabel Marant, and they turned out in force for her collection at the Beaux Arts. This designer could take your mother's old lace curtains and turn them into something sweet and beautiful. The feminine touches said it all: the embossed silver or shiny gold belts on jacquard jackets, the thin silver sequin scarves, the jewelled vests and tunics, the little beaded cardigans worn over tight, sexy skirts or jeans.
Even battledress khaki and highland tartans were given a real French polish. This will go straight to the streets.