Renaissance art and celebrity interruptions hit Paris shows

By Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press on March 2, 2023.

PARIS (AP) – From Renaissance art to couture and celebrity interruptions, Paris Fashion Week shows continued in vibrant form – presenting the final trends for fall-winter 2023-2024.

Here are some highlights of ready-to-wear collections Thursday:

GIVENCHY GETS FEMININE

The once-street and urban Matthew M. Williams uttered a word not often heard describing his designs: Elegant.

“Yes, I love elegance and the house is a very elegant house. It’s easy to find that way when you’re here,” he said following his fall show for the Parisian stalwart.

Find it this season he did. Williams went back to Hubert de Givenchy’s DNA and moved in a more fluid, gentle and feminine direction than previous seasons. It was a fresh, welcome evolution from his harder-edged aesthetic.

Menswear tailoring in black angular shouldered gowns and coats provided subtle contrasts against feminine touches, such as sheer chiffon that poked out underneath caressing a naked leg.

Another sheer gown in pink chiffon with long fluttering train exposed hints of nipples and buttocks.

“I love that breath of air and skin and fluidity,” he said. “There’s always a dialogue with both, but the women’s is much more feminine (this season).”

Pieces were taken direct from the archive, such as a fish motif that the house founder once created, and Givenchy’s famed atelier made multiple couture garments including shimmering metal dresses, as well as evening gowns with off-kilter dropped or raised waists.

Beyond the fashion, Williams – an erstwhile collaborator with Kanye West and Lady Gaga – brings with him the razzmatazz that likely helped him get the job.

Jared Leto interrupted an interview with The Associated Press, exuberantly exclaiming: “Genius! Parfait! Beautiful. The best! And you can quote me.”

CHLOE’S HISTORY

Fall saw Gabriela Hearst growing in creative confidence with her beautiful and thoughtful Chloe display that riffed on the Renaissance.

Inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi, the pioneering 17th-century female painter, flattering scooped out shoulder details, long thick statement coats and flared textured pants were among standout garments that felt at once modern and historic – emanating a quiet feminist power.

The baroque musing was handled with subtlety. A giant A-line puffer cape in ruffled Elizabethan segments came in restrained and contemporary black. While harlequin-style gowns came in just three colors – black, white and muted red ““ toying with color blocking.

The piece de resistance?

An eye-popping multicolored tapestry dress with sporty straps that was constructed of fabulous paneled images. The tapestry was inspired by Gentileschi’s painting “Esther before Ahasuerus,” the house said, and made by Mumbai’s Chanakya International embroidery studio that provides hand embroidery training for women from low-income communities. Its vibrancy also evoked the Modernist paintings hanging above the venue at the Pompidou Center’s National Museum of Modern Art.

Champagne-sipping stars such as Emma Roberts applauded from the front row.

SHANG XIA

The brand sometimes known as the “Chinese Hermes” among fashion insiders put out a wearable and loose collection for fall in pastels with flashes of black.

Creative director Yang Li of the brand launched in 2009, which also boasts Hermes investment, has a simple and effective approach.

Ties and knots created dynamic but gentle ruching in fabrics, alongside oversize red sweater-skirts that sported another skirt nonchalantly flapping out from underneath.

Backless and heel-less pointed leather “stilettos” were one of many fashion forward moments in a collection that gained power from not trying too hard.

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