Paris Fashion Week: Naoki Takizawa, keeper of the flame of the legendary Japanese designer, Issey Miyake, yesterday showed his autumn/winter collection at Paris Fashion Week in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in a show of immense beauty and imagination, proving once again that he is a force to be reckoned with in contemporary fashion.
Takizawa's forward looking clothes are an artful mix of the sporty and the romantic; his models, like a corps de ballet, strode out in tight grey vests that spread down over layers of ballerina tulle, uniting in one stroke the worlds of dance and sport.
He played with capes in a completely original way, fashioning them from knitted fur and wool pieces or more simply from a single piece of cloth that could be slipped over the shoulders. Black or coloured plastic visors added a futuristic touch.
His bold sense of colour and inventive cutting appeared in all sorts of ways. There were billowing lime green parachute coats, coats of royal blue and yellow, skirts of silver over silver leggings and soft circular cut jackets in powder pink. The accessories were outstanding; concertina cut bronze bags, sequined hats, necklaces made from bouncing coils of neon plastic, wired head-dresses of quivering colour and modern versions of Victorian widow's weeds that accompanied a surprisingly sombre range of elegant black dresses.
To close the show, cartoon prints commissioned from the Japanese artist Aya Takano depicting images of the earth and moon were used across a range of fabrics and accessories. Models in boots and umbrellas trailed wheelie luggage bags behind them, from which they unfolded padded coats and hats before gathering together in a tableau vivant, sheltering under the brollies as the lights went down.
In a different category altogether, and far less successful, was the Rochas show held in the Musee des Artes Modernes. Belgian-born designer Olivier Theyskens has been hailed as the new saviour of the august fashion house since taking over from Dubliner Peter O'Brien two years ago. A mark of his style is the sweetly scooped out bodice, but corset dresses made from traditional elements of lingerie somehow didn't seem very new, fresh or exciting.