Chloe sparkles as giant Paris fashion exhibit space opens
PARIS (AP) - Chloe teemed with sparkling detailing at Paris Fashion Week Thursday.
The lofty Grand Palais, decorated with giant gold totems had starry guests to match - including actresses Katie Holmes and Kate Bosworth - and added to the glint of the stylish fall-winter 2020 collection.
Here are some of the day's highlights:
CHLOE GOES REGAL-CASUAL
Designer Natacha Ramsay-Levi clung to the floppy and boho house DNA forged in the 1970s.
Long silvery organic earrings followed foliage-like necklaces, silver eyelets on collars, shiny rings and bracelets, gold handbag chains and buckles. The columns glimmered in the background.
But even though the French designer piled on the detailing - in the polka-dot gowns, contrasting textures, floral prints, giant long silk ribbons flowing down from the neck - it never veered into heavy-handedness.
Styles moved from the retro, such as one checked knitted sweater worn with loose leather pants in autumnal copper, to the ethereal: Silk lace gowns cinched at the waist with an almost Balkan-looking angular silhouette on the torso. It made for an accomplished show.
Chloe is credited with inventing the concept of ready-to-wear clothing, and this show impressively trod a path between the insouciant ethos - one that doesn't try to impress too much - that is the house signature, and a quasi-regal style.
WORLD'S LARGEST FASHION EXHIBITION SPACE OPENS
Paris' Musee des Arts Decoratifs - which is attached to the Louvre - inaugurated to the press Thursday a fully-renovated 1,300 square meter (14,000 square foot) wing dedicated to fashion.
The museum says that the so-called 'œFashion Galleries'ť is now the world's largest fashion exhibition space.
The landmark renovation, fruit of a multi-million private donation, is being launched with a show called '~Harper's Bazaar, First in Fashion' that traces the fashion magazine's history. It will run through July 14, 2020.
Spanning two floors, the multimedia exhibit showcases glimmering gowns by greats such as Schiaparelli and Vionnet as it takes the visitor not only through the history of the magazine launched in the 19th century, but the history of fashion itself.
Harper's Bazaar was one of the first magazines to feature a bikini in 1947, and that garment is featured in the show. It prompted Diana Vreeland, the magazine's fashion editor from 1937 to 1962, to proclaim that '~'the bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb."
RICK OWENS' HUMANOID
'œGame of Thrones" actress Gwendoline Christie brought star power to Rick Owens' front row, in a character-appropriate warrior creation with black peaked shoulders. It prompted smiles and camera snaps from guests.
As the show began, models in sheeny space-cowboy boots stomped out, while smoke billowed onto the runway. It kept on pumping and, in a surreal twist, ended up completely obscuring the bottom half of the designs.
The American designer was on tried-and-tested territory this fall with a glam rock-meets-space-age vibe in muted shades with rich flashes of electric blue. There was nothing particularly new in Thursday's collection - but it still made for a funky showing.
The aggressive, peaked-shoulder aesthetic was once again twinned with large cuffs and exaggeratedly long sleeves that made the human limbs seem spindly. Leather biker's pants sported extra-defined segments in the knees to evoke insects, or humanoids.
ATLEIN
Atlein, a French brand committed to sustainable design whose name is inspired by the Atlantic Ocean, focuses on the body and energy and movement.
In this show, designer Antonin Tron again merged the Parisian fashion traditions of draping, ruching and wrapping with a casual vibe and sporty silhouette in gowns that allowed fluidity in movement.
This season saw him add more decorative touches to the minimalist aesthetic - that was forged by studies in Antwerp.
Tron was also in a dark mood mood for fall.
Lashings of black, faux-snake and sensual lingerie-like trimmings graced many of the 33 designs, which the designer has said have no lining and are often made of jersey fabric.
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Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamson_K