Distilled: Paris Fashion Week A/W '11

This is the last in the series.  Paris, following on from New York, London and Milan, is probably the most-hyped fashion week, with a record number of high-profile designers showing collections (and a lot of monotonous flicking through photographs on style.com for me).

Here are some Parisian picks, arranged by trend - I use the word 'trend' in the loosest possible terms, because I've just made most of them up.



all photos style.com



Row 1 - Anne Demeulemeester, Cacharel, Haider Ackerman

Row 2 - Chanel, Maison, Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen

Row 3 - Jean Paul Gaultier, Miu Miu, Tsumori Chisato

Row 4 - Loewe, Louise Vuitton, Valentino

Row 5 - Carven, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Sonia Rykiel

Row 6 - Chloe, Christian Dior, Lanvin

YAY TRENDS

• Row 1 - Absolutes - Make outfit statements in one colour (or two) - emphasis is on texture and silhouette.
• Row 2 - Come together, fall apart - Deconstructed, zipped and ripped apart outfits.  I shouldn't love this because these are oriented towards the willowy of body, but I do anyway.
• Rpw 3 - Little old ladies - Pour talcum powder in your 'do, amp up the boxy silhouette and invest in a furry shopping trolley, as seen at Gaultier.
• Row 4 - Night porter - Leather trenches with very little little on underneath for the dominatrix vibe.  Christian Dior jokes optional.
• Row 5 - Plaid - pensive plaid at Carven, Playful plaid at Castelbajac and Sonia Rykiel - it's all good.
• Row 6 - Textures with pattern - wooly snakeskin at Chloe and flower print gazar fabric at Lanvin. 

NAY TRENDS

• None - though when it comes to Paris, I have rose-tinted specs.  Perhaps there was an overabundance of fur, but that seems to have been an overarching trend covering all four weeks.

What are your PFW picks?

In context: Rene Gruau and John Galliano

I've blogged about Rene Gruau before and was delighted to see that John Galliano had sifted through the archive to draw inspiration from a man who helped to mould the Dior image with his illustrations throughout the 50's and 60's.

I have much love for Gruau's work but his books are all out of print and sell for serious money on eBay - the closest thing I have to a print is a card I received for my university graduation, which has lasted through several house moves and now has pride of place on my fridge.

Gruau's work is painterly, spontaneous, cheeky, seductive, inimitable and just a tiny bit risqué - all words that you could also use to describe Galliano's work.

Gruau'l illustrations for Dior

This illustration was used for Dior Cherie and was also a promotional image for the recent Gruau/Dior exhibition at Somerset house

It's great to see that Galliano hasn't used the clichéd 50's silhouettes that are being done to death.  His subversive eye tallies more with translating Gruau's often abstract paintmarks and translating them into dresses.  A Philip Treacy headpiece looks like a brush stroke and an exclamation point to top off an outfit.  A bow mutates into a shimmering tulle overlay on a ballgown.  A train folds and is tucked so it becomes a whole with a dress.  All the dresses have a fluidity that is synonymous with Gruau's work.  More brush strokes are transposed onto the skirts themselves.  Gruau's trademark love of opera gloves is evident.  And the make-up!  Ah, the make-up... No shading - just black, white and red.

What do you think of Galliano's couture?

John Galliano - or is it?

What fashion blogette worth her salt doesn't have Fashion Gone Rogue on her reader?  Everyone has their reason for clicking; their favourite models, labels, stylists and photographers are all there.  I'm not the biggest fan of editorials, but I do love their Morning Beauty feature - chock full of notable picks that you might not have seen the first time around.

Here's part of a shoot from Vogue Paris' Dec/Jan '06/'07 issue - Dans la Peau de John Galliano, photographed by Peter Lindbergh, styled by new Vogue Paris editrix Emmanuelle Alt and starring Sasha Pivovarova as, er, John Galliano.  The resemblance is uncanny.

No-one remembers Buster Keaton anymore...

I love this image of Keaton and Chaplin squaring off from Damian Blake's Deviant Art profile 

You'd be forgiven for assuming that Galliano's menswear show would focus on purposely shabby, frayed materials if you saw the flurry of twitpics before the show of whey faced Chaplin-alike models with curly hair and suspect mustaches.

Instead it seems more like a play on proportions (tight jacket/baggy trousers) that makes Chaplin the perfect fit (ahem) for the show.





However, when the tailoring and proportions turn more towards the square shoulders and starched collars, the models look more like Buster Keaton, with straw boaters and newsboy caps.



I wish more men dressed like this.  The world would be a much more interesting place if they did.

Watch video of the show here .
Runway photos from style.com