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Paris Fashion Week: Rihanna’s Fenty goes online, while menswear gets romantic at Valentino and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White show

A model presents a Virgil Abloh creation as part of his spring/summer 2020 collection for Off-White in Paris on June 19. Photo: Reuters

The photogenic front row at Valentino’s show had Riverdale actor Charles Melton, NBA player Jaylen Brown and Stevie Wonder’s model son Kailand Morris among the seated notables, ensuring cameras stayed busy snapping in Paris.

However, the vibrant collection didn’t need VIPs to promote its message, a colour-rich ode to world culture.

Designer Virgil Abloh, meanwhile, sent spring wafting into the air on Wednesday with the offering for his Off-White brand, which attracted renewed interest after the designer last year became artistic director for Louis Vuitton menswear – the first African-American to head a major European fashion house.

Here are some highlights of the men’s spring/summer 2020 runway shows.

Valentino’s exotic utopia

Photo: Xinhua

Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli crossed frontiers, mixed high and low, and blurred cultural boundaries to bring back an encyclopedic show.

Valentino’s dramatic Paris offering leaves Celine Dion in tears

Photo: Xinhua
Photo: Xinhua

From Valentino to Pierre Hardy, edgy trainers that come with a kick

Photo: Xinhua

A brown djellaba, a loose robe traditionally from North Africa’s Maghreb region, appeared on top of a pair of grey sartorial office pants. Camouflage print trainers capped the look in a clever, triple contradiction that is typical of the cerebral Italian designer.

It was a style the house nicely summed up as “exotic utopia”.

Photo: Xinhua

Valentino goes grey for autumn/winter 2019 with monochromatic show

Photo: Xinhua

Combat-style shirts in eye-popping hues created the display’s highest creative point. Piccioli then channelled fantastical landscapes in sporty jumpers featuring luscious prints of trees and oceans. The designer credited the prints to the work of British artist Roger Dean, who applauded from the front row.

Photo: EPA

The only drawback of the 47-look ensemble was that the contrasting colours and competing references, when worn together, sometimes came over a tad busy.

One-minute bio: Valentino Garavani

Off-White goes romantic

American designer Virgil Abloh. Photo: AFP

LV and Off-White show how streetwear drives innovation in hardware

Thousands of wild white flowers planted in a grassy field dazzled Off-White’s guests inside the Carreau du Temple show venue, a 19th century former market hall styled with decorative forged-iron.

A giant patchwork scarf recalls the paintings of Austrian symbolist Gustav Klimt. Photo: AFP
Thousands of wild white flowers dazzle guests. Photo: AFP

The romantic decor seemed to be the starting point for menswear styles that shifted from the usual hard, urban Off-White aesthetic in a dreamier direction.

Virgil Abloh teases new Off-White 3.0 ‘Off-Court Lows’ trainers

One cropped-sleeve jumper evoked gentleness with its thick, huggable knit and round, boxy shape; black combat pants below sported a soft touch, owing to fine speckles of white paint.

Photo: AFP

Elsewhere, a sheer white anorak in loose, lightweight material seemed to float down the torso; its long A-line shape cleverly evoking a 19th-century Parisian dandy’s evening coat.

Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP

The piece de resistance? A giant arty patchwork scarf with intricate detailing that enveloped the model and recalled the paintings of Austrian symbolist Gustav Klimt.

Does Gucci, Off-White or Balenciaga rule the fashion world?

Rihanna’s Fenty

Photo: AP

Fenty, the new fashion house of singer-turned-designer Rihanna, is rolling out clothes online on a “see-now-buy-now” basis to coincide with fashion week.

It’s an open question whether this kind of business model will garner the same attention as a conventional catwalk show, but commentators say Rihanna’s immense personal celebrity will bridge the gap.

Rihanna launches Fenty fashion brand with Paris pop-up

The 31-year-old marked the launch of the online collection, entitled “Release 6-19,” with a pop-up at New York luxury store The Webster until the end of June.

Previews of the garments were sent by the LVMH-owned house to media and featured colour-rich, sportswear-infused dresses with ruched detailing.

Meanwhile, oversized printed T-shirts, which Fenty said were aimed at “championing the immigrant experience” of Barbados-born Rihanna, were a centrepiece of the collection. The singer found fame after she moved to the United States for her career as a teenager.

Rihanna made history this year when she became the first black woman to head up a major Parisian luxury house.

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Virgil Abloh takes Off-White in a dreamier direction, Pierpaolo Piccioli blurs boundaries and Rihanna’s Fenty goes online