The link between the 10 designers on this list is that the young and the senior alike overcame aggression and divisiveness, and brought a sense of cross-generational unity to the fore. Progressive thinking centered on refashioning the Parisian values of tailoring and dressmaking. That, and the creative integrity of the personal point of view.
Dries Van Noten spoke about “couture, but not in a retro way.” John Galliano at Maison Margiela applied all his couture-learned knowledge to a vision of genderless equality. Rick Owens’s fiercely inventive skills cut a wardrobe for superwomen.
In the end? There was an overarching positivity in seeing designers enjoying applying themselves to clothes to make people feel good. It took intellectual effort, honed skills, innovation, playfulness, and a refreshing sense of reality. All this came together in places as disparate as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Paco Rabanne, Junya Watanabe, and Loewe. The last word should go to Pierpaolo Piccioli, who had everyone on their feet applauding the sheer life-enhancing, couture-fabulous inter-generational relatability of his show. “Everyone is talking about escapism,” he said. “I don’t believe in that—I think everyone should just live their identities.”
Valentino
“Valentino tonight was just utterly, lusciously all-round gorgeous. . . . In a season when there’s been so much talk about the appreciation of couture dressmaking and craft skills, Piccioli just took it to the ultimate. It was as accomplished, as complexly cut—and as simple as that.” —Sarah Mower
Paco Rabanne
“Julien Dossena’s superb collection for Paco Rabanne would make an exemplary study of climate on creative fashion intelligence: how skillfully a talented designer captured the universal impulse to get away from cities, took on the mix-match hippy-souvenir aesthetic, and modernized it. . . . It was obvious that Dossena did not spend all summer lounging on a beach, because there was so much sophisticated work, thought, and variety in the long, slim, deftly layered silhouettes. It was an amazing composite of slip dresses, narrow sarongs, fine Lurex T-shirts, dresses over skinny trousers, and checked tailoring.” —S.M.
Dries Van Noten
“Ears backstage have become so inured to designers nattering on about the importance of capturing millennials and Gen Z that to hear someone considering how a modern woman might enjoy her clothes sounds almost radically avant-garde. Dries Van Noten discussed just that today, in relation to a collection that was extra specially on point. . . . No wonder Van Noten’s well-wishers were wreathed in smiles backstage. It was his best collection in quite a while. And grateful smiles of self-recognition among grown-ups runway-side are a rare thing these days.” —S.M.
Loewe
“[Jonathan] Anderson had his models walk among works by three disparate contemporary artists in the landmark UNESCO heritage building. It’s his seasonal curatorial practice, part of the subliminal flattery in being invited here. Ergo: You are now entering a zone in which you will be treated as if you have an intelligent art-attuned mind, and then I am going to tempt you to death with a beautifully made assembly of clothes and accessories handmade for the person you are.” —S.M.
Balenciaga
“Possibly what has been missed in [Demna] Gvasalia’s career so far—what with the way he’s been responsible for the rise of hoodies and dad trainers, and the new wave of ironic logomania—is that he’s also an innovator in cut and pragmatic problem-solving. With this collection, the emphasis was far more on creating new silhouettes—squared shoulders, a different iteration of the ‘C-line,’ creating a pulled-back cocoon cut with collars shooting forward to cover the face. Yes, there was a smattering of logos to keep the Balenciaga market for that ticking over. But far more interesting was Gvasalia’s consideration of how to cut and drape a red dress out of a single four-meter piece of silk, and the way he came up with two-piece evening suits in the shape of a shirt and a sarong skirt.” —S.M.
Rick Owens
“Flanged collars, peeling shoulders, and exuberant cuffs turned jackets into impenetrable carapaces. Like the metal scaffolding of the headpieces and arm cuffs that qualified as jewelry here, those jackets looked designed to ward off predators. [Rick] Owens’s laser-cut and paneled cloaks conjured goddesses and super-heroines. Sometimes the models even carried torches. Other elements were weaponized in different ways. Minidresses aswirl with silk fringe, for example, looked unreconstructedly sexy. All of this was as sui generous as it gets, including his new Birkenstock sandals and boots.” —Nicole Phelps
Maison Margiela
“[John Galliano] fit the entire collection on one of the snake-hipped boys who stomped the runway, draping suits on the bias, golden brocade bustiers, and what looked like repurposed 1950s beaded frocks over tapering second-skin pants. Taking his cue from his gender-unspecific Fall Margiela Artisanal collection for men, Galliano cut Crombie coats as capes with sleeves merely suggested with seaming, like the visites that Victorian women wore over their bustles to make their calls (Martin Margiela himself referenced these garments in the early ’90s). . . . There are ideas aplenty to gladden the heart of serious fashionistas, but beneath the apparent madness there is also serious method—and clothes and accessories (the messenger bag, the rainbow-lensed eyewear) that point to the increasing commercial success Galliano has had at Maison Margiela since he took the reins of the house in 2014, success that has been achieved by staying true to his vision.” — Hamish Bowles
Chanel
“Who wouldn’t kill to be at the C-side right now? Karl Lagerfeld’s invitation to a tropical beach, complete with fake waves, gave Chanel’s global audience an uplifting mini break. For all the insane illusionary grandeur of the set, it was a show of real and relatable fashion—a blissfully easy trip bringing us back to the heart of Parisian chic. . . . Lagerfeld’s show sur la plage reconnected us with all the solutions that Coco Chanel first invented to boost female social confidence. There has been a lot of avant-garde-ish discussion about designing around bourgeois classics this season—beige, ladylike suits; silk dresses; chain bags; logos. Mademoiselle Chanel had a hand in writing those rules. Lagerfeld—who keeps young people around him constantly—intuited exactly how to work that to full advantage.” —S.M.
Louis Vuitton
“In a season of solutions dressing, in which designers have been emphasizing the real-world applications of their clothes, [Nicolas] Ghesquière was in a world of his own tonight—starting with his set, a space-age anachronism set down in the courtyard of the centuries-old Louvre. He said he was interested in the edge between the virtual reality we experience through our social media streams and real life. That played out via 1980s callbacks (the decade’s exaggerated silhouettes are recurrent motifs in his work), high-tech fabrications like molded rubber, space suit sleeves, Memphis Group prints, and the Parisian savoir faire of sculptural dresses in sequin-embroidered mesh.” —N.P.
Junya Watanabe
“Junya Watanabe is always at his brilliant, refreshing best when he’s in a romantic mood—or when he trains his brain on investigating some sort of generic piece of clothing. A happy morning for fashion, then, when his two strengths came together in a collection about denim intersecting with the processes of dressmaking. Or, as his team translated afterward, ‘A romantic feeling in rock music.’ Ah, yes: Another thing about Watanabe is that he’s a music buff.” —S.M.
