The first week in March saw the butterflies of fashion jet into Paris for the Autumn/Winter 2013/14 ready to wear collections.
Winter dictates heavier fabrics, more muted colours and wool everywhere so it’s always interesting what designers do with the sheer practicality that they’re designing for cold weather. Some failed miserably to produce anything tasteful, Saint Laurent being the principle culprit, whatever the grunge, nineties thing he produced, it belonged in the dark corners of a housing estate park, not on a catwalk, anywhere. Some failed to be particularly interesting, producing collections that were very flaccid with only fleeting moments of brilliance, see Chanel (I know, I know but it just didn’t cut it) and Miu Miu who we all know is crazy but this was just boring-crazy and not even that crazy.
Mais, comme toujours, there were some wonderful offerings, and with nods to Chloe and Paco Rabanne, I’d like to thank the following:
Louis Vuitton (under Marc Jacobs)
There were waists, masculine tailoring in coats and lapels all combined with silky night-gown dresses, beautiful deep V-neck sweaters. The overall aesthetic was that the LV gal was just waiting for her man to get home and in the mean time was playing and altering his clothes. It was both sexy, empowered, interesting and there was such a variety of cohesive textures and shimmer!
Valentino:
Beautiful strayed from the dark colour palette with winter white, blue and intricately embroidered black with the most aesthetic unity of all the shoes. Not only were they interesting enough to use colour, there was quirkiness in the conservative collars and some splashing blue prints.
Givenchy:
Move over Kenzo, Givenchy has officially made the coolest sweater on the block. And perhaps the coolest Bambi sweater of all time, waisted with a hooked cord. That’s enough to earn them a spot.
My favourite? Céline
The sleeves as waist ties, the leather boots in khaki, the dime-store plastic hold-all pattern as a reversible coat, the boxy shoulder-skimming tops and swinging skirts and the use of white, navy and grey were stunning. It was a very structured collection, which reminded me of Jil Sander until the quirks of the sleeves and prints emerged. If Stella McCartney had toned down her silhouettes she could perhaps have come near something as good as this. Innovative, varied, wearable and so covetable. Phoebe Philo deserves a big glass of Moet and a new pair of shoes, actually, she deserves a wardrobe of Céline.
The Lucky Portfolio 