The beautiful and the bold

VERSACE GOT PARIS haute couture shows off to a hyper-sexy start with a procession of powerful femme fatales as the big gun designers hit the catwalk Monday.
Donatella Versace presented a series of revealing strappy dresses and short sporty Formula One-influenced combinations that dared women to get into the fast lane.
“I think women can be strong and capable of achieving their dreams while being beautiful and elegant,” the Italian designer said.
“It is a collection dedicated to all the women who follow their own path.”
To prove her point, Versace used a number of older models, albeit with perfect gym-hewn bodies.
The Italian creator, who took over the reins of the high-glamour fashion house from her late brother Gianni, also created an eye-catching line of superhero inspired pieces which seemed to channel Spiderman and the fin-de-siecle decadence of artist Aubrey Beardsley’s drawings.
Her models powered down the catwalk late Sunday to a rap of “my body, my soul”, the defiant message being that I will wear what I want to make me feel good and in control.
The emphasis was on legs with short embroidered dresses and long ball robes cut away at the front to show off high-heeled pins.
This take-no-prisoners feminist sexiness came into its own in power suits and gowns with cut away sections tied together with stringy not-quite-bondage cords.
Christian Dior, which has been leaderless since the shock departure of artistic director Raf Simons in October, also pulled out all the stops to impress Monday, building a palace of mirrors in the garden of Paris’ Rodin museum.
While there was much to admire in its riffing on the classic fresh and feminine Dior look, with gorgeous wispy lace and delicate off-the-shoulder dresses with clusters of crystal embroidery, it was far from the unbridled fantasy of John Galliano’s time at the helm.
Dior itself appeared to admit that its wild days were over, claiming its clients now prefer “to dress freely and without fuss” in what it called “couture’s new realism”.
Boss Sidney Toledano said afterwards he was in no hurry to find a replacement for Simons, whose minimalist touch lingered on in the dreamy spring-summer range that many critics predicted would sell well. “It’s not like presidential elections where they are deadlines,” he said.
The studio team, which turned out the show in Simons’ absence, was immensely talented, he insisted.
“We are doing well. I am proud of the spirit that exists in this house. It’s like a great orchestra with a lot of virtuosos.”
Schiaparelli had earlier pulled off perhaps the day’s most playful and unexpected show.
Designer Bertrand Guyon mixed food, fruit and kitchen prints with a large pinch of the Italian artist Piero Fornasetti’s surrealism to produce a collection that was good enough to eat. Floor length sheath, empire line and fairytale dresses, often with ingenious tongue-in-cheek culinary detailing, alternated with knee-length skirts, pinafore dresses and jackets decorated with historic horticultural motifs.
Languid models strutting along a grass-covered catwalk in Paris on Tuesday showed off Chanel’s ecologically-inspired haute couture collection that avoided most of the red carpet flash.
Chanel – the fashion house that is perhaps the most synonymous with Paris’s reputation for glamour – sent subtle, classic clothes across a runway outfitted with pools of water and wooden steps.
Dominating the stage was a vast wooden structure that would not reveal its secrets until show’s end.
The clothing – think “Mad Men” meets “The Great Gatsby” – seemed to reach back to a less flashy time in fashion when simple shapes, high-end fabric and understated colours ruled.
“It’s not really bling-bling red carpet,” said designer Karl Lagerfeld as he greeted fans and well-wishers in the oasis of grass, water and wood inside a glass-roofed exhibition hall just off the Champs-Elysees.
Just six weeks after Paris hosted a historic UN climate conference where 195 nations inked a deal to tackle global warming, ecological themes were at the fore, with wood beads, wild cotton and paper featuring in this spring-summer collection.
“We’re in fashion and at the moment ecology is part of the expression of our time, what fashion is supposed to be,” Lagerfeld said.
“That is a kind of, how could I say, high-fashion ecology. It means that all can be used on a level where nobody expects it,” said the German designer who lives in Paris.
The show was not without star power, with British actress and model Cara Delevingne taking a front row seat on the wooden benches.
The “Suicide Squad” cast member, wearing earrings bearing Chanel’s iconic interlocked “C” logo, posed for pictures with Lagerfeld and actress Diane Kruger after the show. Clad in ankle-length skirts, many models wore variants of the cropped coat Chanel has made a fashion standard.
There were also shimmering beaded numbers straight out of the roaring 1920s, some even topped with sheer capes.
Others boasted darker hues of black, deep blue or brown, though plenty of white, gold and even touches of red shined through.
Lagerfeld’s inspirations were wide-ranging, with the models’ long hair rolled up into a heart-shaped, low hanging bun, and Egyptian-looking thin black lines traced around their eyes.
Asked to explain, he whipped out his phone and showed a photo of a Picasso sculpture that bore a striking resemblance to the models’ makeup and hair styles.
“It’s for the eyes and the hair... This was the inspiration,” he said.
And the box?
At the end of the show, the slatted wooden panels covering the massive wooden box at centre-stage lifted to reveal a sort of doll house containing the models, drawing applause from the crowd.
Lagerfeld admitted to the collision of influences in the show, describing the wooden structure as “Japanese and not Japanese.”
“I have never seen a house like this in Japan,” he said, expressing regret that he could never have one just like it at home.
“I love the idea of wood, I would love to have this house in my garden, but in France you’re not allowed. You’d never get it,” he said.