Four days of the fashion world’s top designers displaying their most extravagant designs have come to an end, with flowers, balloons and live horses featured on the Haute Couture runways.
Dior’s line by Maria Grazia Chiuri started the week for 2022-23 autumn/winter collections with simple and elegant design.
The stage set was created by Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko, with a collection featuring everything expected by the average person from Haute Couture.
Some described Iris van Herpen’s collection as “futuristic” and like out of a “Marvel Movie”: They were not wrong.
The show, entitled “Meta Morphism”, was also a milestone for the award-winning couturier, marking the 15th anniversary of her namesake fashion design house.
It may have been Iris van Herpen’s birthday but Giambattista Valli brought the balloons.
In fact, they had so many balloons it would be easy to mistake the brightly coloured runway with the birthday of a seven-year-old.
In Elsa Schiaparelli’s runway, she asked the age-old question: How do I get my partner to buy me flowers?
The answer is simple: Don’t, be the bouquet yourself, in her collection aptly titled “Shocking! The Surreal Worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli”.
Day two Chanel treated the audience to a more hazardous show, forcing models to walk down stairs in the name of fashion because walking in heels isn’t already dangerous enough.
Alexis Mabille also got the memo on being the flower you wish you could be.
Giorgio Armani finished the day with an early 2000s blue-light disco favourite combination: dresses over pants.
This couture season, the Italian fashion legend wanted to “give new space to sparkle and frivolity”, inspired by the universe of Art Deco Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka.
Day three brought some interesting designs courtesy of Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing collection for Jean Paul Gaultier.
Rousteing had models wear pregnant, conical bras in black and flesh, a nod to supporting lesbians having medically assisted reproduction, something the French parliament allowed last year.
Elie Saab’s collection seemed to hark from a fantasy movie, featuring the pastels and glittering dresses the designer is known for.
Franck Sorbier took the runway outside, added some forces and unicycles and gave us permission to take our high heels off in the name of fashion.
The final day of Haute Couture had Fendi by Kim Jones wanting to “step away from Rome” with creations that drifted between different eras, cities, memories and cultures, beginning in Japan.
One of the final shows was Yuima Nakazato’s autumn display, accurately titled “BLUE”.
The designs appeared something off a distant Star Trek planet in the abstract blue blobs that models walked by.
Nakazato’s work revolved around technology, and the house said he used non-gendered creations to “explore the future of clothing”.
The fourth day concluded a week of Haute Couture, the age-old Parisian tradition of producing exorbitantly priced, made-to-measure garments for the world’s richest people.
Designers return to fashion week in September for their Summer/Spring collections.