lifestyle F A S H I O N Models wear creations for designer Giambattista Valli’s Spring-Summer 2015 Haute Couture fashion collection. Model’s hair was collected in a chignon, from which a hoop hung, holding in place a disembodied cosmic fake blond ponytail. Barbarella would be proud. Valli’s flower women It’s not just at Dior; Italian designer Giambattista Valli excels in channeling flowers. It’s dangerous ground to tread on to compare designers to one another. Yet trans-pollination is ubiquitous in Paris. So I’ll say it: There was more than an echo of the age-old Parisian house in the Italian designer’s Monday show in its full skirts, large peplums with echoes of the Fifties, diaphanous tulle and floral embroideries. But they were only echoes. Valli owned the styles completely, and with a more muted pastel palette - he stunned with the most ambitious couture-work seen all day. Elizabethan ruffs pushed the silhouette in a northern direction from the neck, or brought it down with net visors that covered the top part of the face and Fifties head bows. Skirts in incredible, billowing, voluminous A-line white tulle had guests audibly gasping. It’s coming up to 4 years that 48-year-old designer has been creating couture. Understandably his show is among the calendar’s most eagerly awaited. Dior’s back to the future ith “Star Wars” actress Natalie Portman in the front row, the space-age theme - as imagined from the climate of the 1960s space race - was particularly prescient at Dior’s show. White scaffolding held in place silver-mirrors that constricted guests like in a spaceship, and designer Raf Simons called his couture show “an alien journey through the past’s ideas of the future to reach the point of today.” It’s a common theme in Dior’s show to anchor the present in its rich heritage. Here, guests saw the cosmic sheen of vinyl thigh-high boots mix with the psychedelic colors of an acid green skirt coat with a retro Peter Pan collar. Elsewhere, white sanitized flower women or photo-printed plastic shifts mirrored the house’s famed New Look silhouette. The thickly embroidered paillette body suits in stripes evoked how observers in the Sixties imagined what space-age fashions might be - as Russia battled with the U.S. for dominance in space during the Cold War. But there was no nostalgia is this vibrant collection - it was replete with irony and fun. One of the best details was the hair. W Schiap is back Schiaparelli’s couture show went back to the light artistry that the couturier, Elsa, was famed for - and improved in focus, following the departure of the more heavy-handed designer Marco Zanini. The two-piece menswear tuxedo that opened the show - diaphanous yet authoritative - set the period: the Katherine Hepburn of the glamorous Thirties. And the deceptively simple burnt orange leather coat that exploded on its back with a giant effervescent bow, and 3-D heart appliques stabbed with pins, set the tone. Carla Bruni, on the front row, gasped in delight. After two off-seasons, the subtle, playfulness of “Schiap” - the formidable rival of Coco Chanel who befriended surrealist Salvador Dali, invented shocking pink and gave the world the lobster dress - was truly back after her 60 year sleep. The design team built on the creative skeleton Zanini had started to trace, but gave it true style. A sharp black bolero cut a dashing silhouette, and a Golden Oldie emerald green satin dress featured embroidered hands on the back, as if the model were slowly being undressed. — AP Models present creations for Chanel during the 2015 Haute Couture Spring-Summer collection fashion show. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
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