When couture challenges and provokes
Blood-splattered dresses, limbs for a bridal tiara, Hello Kitty balloon skirts, and a gown made of living organisms. Definitely not the usual fare at an elegant maison’s salon. And these were just some of the intriguing pieces at the recent Fall-Winter couture shows and the reason why the fashion flock troops to Paris to escape into an alternate universe where imagination is limitless, as is the time and expense to create what the most creative minds conjure.
Only the world’s one percenters can do their shopping here but it has become accessible digitally to the rest who can dream and be inspired. Or be challenged to think about what’s going on in the world and our place in it. The bottom line isn’t really a concern of the houses as far as this segment of the business is concerned, relying instead on the prestige and publicity it creates, fueling demand for their prêt-à-porter, accessories, and perfumes.
It’s no wonder that celebrities from all over the world, including the Philippines’ Pia Wurtzbach and Heart Evangelista, are dressed by the houses to attend the shows and pose for paparazzi in the streets of Paris. Asia is a huge market for luxury, after all, and designers from the region like Robert Wun and Rahul Mishra are included in the couture lineup together with the Parisian old guards of Balenciaga, Chanel, and Schiaparelli.
Schiaparelli
Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli always goes viral and this time it’s because of a jeweled heart necklace that was actually “beating.” Running counter to the herd, he proposes a world without screens, without AI, without technology, by stripping away the expected markings of modernism, and focusing on the elemental which in turn feels revolutionary. New silhouettes are dramatic without using corsetry and surrealist touches are reimagined through intricate tailoring and handmade details. “It’s a meditation on how the past can guide us forward, reminding us that nostalgia only matters when it carries meaning into the future,” says Roseberry.
Balenciaga
“Bring fashion out of the ballrooms and into the streets!” is Demna’s clarion call at his swan song at Balenciaga before he moves to Gucci, using the dress codes of “La Bourgeoisie” as a starting point for couture renditions of archetypal garments that are sculptural and intricate in construction. Done in luxurious taffeta, cashmere, and vicuña, they embrace minimalism and a reduction in architecture. Blown away by Neapolitan tailoring, he dispatched a bodybuilder to Naples for a jacket requiring multiple fittings for his atypical shape and later put the same jacket on much smaller models, to underline the idea that “it’s not the garment that defines the body, but the body that defines the garment.”
Robert Wun
Hong Kong-born Robert Wun shocked the audience, opening with a satin coat splattered with blood beaded in red crystals. It was rooted in his experience at the Met Gala, with all the intense preparation behind the scenes, leading to a profound exploration of identity and the deliberate choices made in dressing to present oneself to the world. The blood was inspired by “fashion accidents” used to tell a story and hinting at life’s big moments while contemplating the “ritual of dressing” and the human emotions tied to it. The use of extra arms and hands, appearing as boleros or clinging to the body, shows fashion’s transformative power, the process of becoming, suggesting the idea of embodying multiple selves or the struggle to integrate different aspects of one’s personality.
Rahul Mishra
Huge swirling hearts of silk and giant stemmed flowers emanating from bodysuits were some of the stunners from Rahul Mishra who pondered Sufism’s Seven Stages of Love: attraction, infatuation, surrender, reverence, devotion, obsession and ultimately, death (the final dissolving of the self into the beloved) – all artfully expressed through the gradual evolution of form, color and texture, from delicate beginnings to richly embellished climaxes that feature Indian craft traditions executed by communities of around 2,000 artisans. “How love blossoms is full of beautiful memories,” said the designer who envisioned it in all forms. In one suite, he showed a predilection for Gustav Klimt whose multiple faces and gold mosaics blended into some pieces: “His paintings of women reflected attraction and reverence, carrying a kind of mystery.”
Germanier
Balloons in couture? When they’re Hello Kitty, upcyled and made to measure, they will suit the runway of Germanier who has always prioritized sustainability by recycling and working with craft communities including those in the Philippines. He also considers it his responsibility to engender joy and play during these difficult times that we face, experimenting with prints, bold colors and tactile materials. Feathers from past designs are given a new life in statement pieces and leather ensembles from a Eurovision project are reworked into fun looks.
Viktor & Rolf
This duo’s witty, provocative designs and unconventional approach is evident in “Angry Birds”—made up of pairs of identical garments with each pair featuring two versions of the same black outfit but with one voluminously stuffed with vibrant colored feathers (11,500 individually hand-made), sculpting an exuberant couture silhouette, while the other is a “deflated” version, all crowned with custom hats by Stephen Jones.
Iris Van Herpen
Iris Van Herpen probably presented the most sensational couture piece for the season: a living dress that she actually grew. Made of 125 million bioluminescent algae, it was cultivated in a gelatin-like substance that was molded into a lattice frock which glowed in response to the model’s movements. Van Herpen says it was “the next step in not being inspired by nature but collaborating with it.” When not being worn, the dress is returned to its natural habitat since “it’s like a human being, it needs eight hours of sleep, sunlight and minimal stress.” The point behind the dress and the rest of the collection is “to force a rethink of our relationship with the ocean” as well as with our garments, which we should choose judiciously and take care of so that they last longer and don’t just end up in the heaps of discarded fast fashion.
