Paris Fashion Week SS18 - South China Morning Post

Serge Ruffieux of Carven has a bright new vision for the brand

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 02:01:04 +0000

Serge Ruffieux is a name you will definitely become familiar with if you are a fashion lover. The Sonia Rykiel alumnus, who spent his past eight years at Dior, is the main man at Carven. The newly appointed creative director of the French fashion house is ready to take the driver’s seat. To mark this new chapter, Ruffieux showed his debut collection at the Jussieu Campus – a Brutalist style architecture designed by Édouard Albert – which has been an iconic cultural centre since 1964. “This is...

7 big runway trends you’ll be shopping next season

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:39:00 +0000

The spring summer 2018 runways at Milan and Paris gave us plenty of sartorial food for thought and an insight into the trends that will be trickling down to the high street soon. Three big houses Chloe, Givenchy and Roberto Cavalli, ushered in new designers: Claire Waight Keller at Givenchy, Natacha Ramsay-Levi at Chloe and in Milan, Paul Surridge debuted his first collection at Cavalli. Donatella Versace honoured her late brother Gianni’s legacy (it’s been 20 years since his death) in a...

How Paris Fashion Week has weathered online revolution so far and lured more fashion designers to put on shows

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:00:59 +0000

Paris can feel like a museum. Beautiful and endlessly fascinating, but still more firmly entrenched in the past than the present. However, the city is still the epicentre of haute couture. This is no small thing, because the industry feels much less geographically concentrated since the online revolution. Paris has fought tooth and nail against this gradual slide away from the traditional fashion week – and it looks like it has succeeded. From Saint Laurent’s epic show set against the backdrop...

Stella McCartney takes on the ‘80s at Paris Fashion Week

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 04:00:45 +0000

British-American designer Stella McCartney slashed a bubblegum pink disco-debutante dress in taffeta at the bottom – giving it a surreal shrunken effect – and paired it with billowing pants that make the model’s legs disappear. Stella McCartney’s eco-friendly fashion is fuelled by her innovative and tenacious spirit It was deceptively simple, like many of the 39 looks in the fastidiously-constructed display at Paris Fashion Week. A loose green silk gown was jazzed up with a visually-kinetic...

Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière infuses sporty chic with aristocratic high fashion in Paris

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:28:46 +0000

Nicolas Ghesquière has already taken fans on a globe-trotting journey from Rio to Kyoto with his collections. For the spring/summer 2018 season, however, he travelled back in time – and the result exceeded expectations. The show took place at the Louvre’s newly opened Pavillon de l’Horloge, which was once part of a medieval fortress. Models were followed by the gaze of the Great Sphinx of Tanis a sculpture dating back to 2600BC. Inspired by 18th-century French aristocratic garments Ghesquière...

Chanel created a waterfall for its spring/summer 2018 collection, making raincoats and wellington boots chic again

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 02:30:30 +0000

It was a sunny day at Chanel’s show in the Grand Palais, but models donned rain jackets, boater hats, wellington boots and fingerless gloves rendered in transparent PVC. Why? Karl Lagerfeld brought the river canyon Gorges du Verdon and its multiple waterfalls to Paris for the house’s spring/summer 2018 collection. The force of nature, particularly water, inspired this collection. A midriff tweed top with matching Bermuda shorts and thigh-high transparent plastic boots opened the show. The...

L’Oreal brings diversity to Champs-Élysées runway as Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda lead the show

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 16:33:38 +0000

Big fashion moments are few and far between, but this fashion week, it was make up giant L’Oreal providing one of them by staging an epic fashion show, featuring 18 designers and 70 vibrant different make-up looks. Actress Helen Mirren, 71, and Jane Fonda, 79, both took to the runway alongside model of the moment Adwoa Aboah, as well as modelling stars Doutzen Kroes, Irina Shayk, Bianca Balti, Grace Bol and Maria Borges. The lack of diversity on runways has been a reoccurring issue at global...

Floral explosion at Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer 2018 Paris show

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 07:30:30 +0000

Guests were wowed by magnificent scenography as they arrived at Sarah Burton’s spring/summer 2018 show for Alexander McQueen at Orangerie du Sénat at Paris Fashion Week. Gazebos were decorated with tulle tapestries in which wildflowers, embroidered or rendered in feathers, needed to be observed up close to get a sense of the craftsmanship behind the ambience. Minutes before the Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2018 womenswear show at the Orangerie du Sénat in Paris. Photograph by...

Valentino elevates ordinary staples with extraordinary details for spring-summer 2018

Tue, 03 Oct 2017 08:30:00 +0000

Luxury brands today are smote with the millennial generation. In an effort to play up to the clientele of the future, there are designers who start afresh in an entirely new direction. And there are others who are conscious of the relevance of our time. They work those new elements into their house’s timeless, iconic codes. Valentino’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, who just showed the brand’s spring/summer 2018 collection at Paris Fashion Week on Sunday, is obviously a man of the latter...

Major labels say they will honour ban on underage and size zero models at Paris Fashion week

Tue, 03 Oct 2017 04:31:00 +0000

Labels from Givenchy to Saint Laurent showed off their new designs at Paris Fashion Week, alongside another innovation meant to wean the industry off its association with unhealthily thin and underage models. All said they were honouring a new charter by their parent companies LVMH and Kering, setting age and size limits for the people parading their clothes – a timely development say campaigners, who want it to spread even further. French fashion giants LVMH and Kering ban ultra-thin...

Clare Waight Keller drives change at Givenchy while honouring classic looks

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 07:30:00 +0000

Those who doubted Clare Waight Keller’s ability to design menswear can now rest their case. The designer, who’s known for her romantic womenswear she created throughout her six-year stint at Chloé, has shown that she’s got what it takes to impress in her men’s and women’s collections for Givenchy at Paris Fashion Week. “Fashion is a tool for self-metamorphosis,” she says. “It can transform the spirit through a new attitude for new beginnings.” The show certainly marks this new chapter. For...

Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren walk L’Oreal’s giant catwalk on Champs-Elysees

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 03:45:45 +0000

Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren were the toast of Paris as the two septuagenarian actresses modelled for L’Oreal. The cosmetics giant transformed the Champs-Elysees avenue into a dazzling open-air fashion runway for a one-off event on Sunday. Other sought-after Hollywood actresses flew in to the French capital to see the collection marking a new chapter of a storied fashion house. Tourists munching hamburgers on the first floor of the Champs-Elysees McDonald’s couldn’t believe their luck as they...

Loewe puts an innovative spin on timeless classics – and Aladdin shoes get a high fashion update

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 02:45:15 +0000

JW Anderson’s well in the groove of things at his Loewe tenure. His new 2018 spring/summer collection, shown at Paris Fashion Week on Friday, is a great demonstration of his understanding of the fashion house’s codes and clientele, and is peppered with whimsical elements that could stir up a social media frenzy. @loewe #ss18 captured in motion #fashion #parisfashionweek #paris #styletakespfw #pfw #loewe #fashionvideo A post shared by Style_SCMP (@style_scmp) on Sep 29, 2017 at 8:37pm...

Natacha Ramsay-Levi brings Chloé new romance with flou silhouettes, structured tailoring and boots made for stomping

Fri, 29 Sep 2017 09:00:45 +0000

Natacha Ramsay-Levi checked all the boxes in her Paris Fashion Week debut as Chloé’s creative director, yesterday. Her lines ranged from ethereal romantic flou silhouettes to more structured, sartorial tailoring and eccentric prints. Ramsay-Levi also took every bit of Chloé essence along the way. “Chloé girls have a suave mix of sophistication and humility,” the designer says. “They are timeless but never conventional.” Chloe moved its show from the usual Grand Palais to its newly opened...

Balmain opts for operatic excess at Paris Fashion Week

Fri, 29 Sep 2017 04:00:45 +0000

Fashion needs its showmen, and Balmain’s designer Olivier Rousteing is one of them. On Thursday he took his guests to the opulent Paris Opera, where thousands of white roses peeped out of foliage decorating the venue’s stone staircase. And in case guests were unsure what event they were attending, a giant gold-medallion embossed “Balmain Paris” gleamed in the centre. Model Natalia Vodianova strutted out to operatic music, sporting a loose black sheeny jumpsuit, gold-chain shoulder-straps and...

Lanvin’s Olivier Lapidus offers luke-warm debut at Paris Fashion Week

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 06:30:45 +0000

Lanvin is the oldest French fashion house still in operation. It was founded in 1889 by Jeanne Lanvin, a woman who smashed the glass ceiling almost a century before that term was invented. It is also a brand in turmoil, still reeling from the acrimonious 2015 exit of its much-loved figurehead Alber Elbaz, whose luxurious draped and ruffled dresses made the brand the toast of the red carpet throughout the noughties. Since Elbaz’s departure – which he said at the time was the decision of Shaw-Lan...

YSL lights up the Eiffel Tower & feminism on Dior runway

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 16:11:40 +0000

Yves Saint Laurent: Glittering lights sparkled all over the Eiffel Tower to gasps from the fashion crowd and an audience of public that had gathered along a wall - and then it began. A post shared by The Catwalk Italia - TCI (@thecatwalkitalia) on Sep 27, 2017 at 3:46am PDT A stellar line up of the industry’s top models, including newcomer 16 year old Kaia Gerber, daughter of Cindy Crawford, walked along the runway at the Trocadero fountains with...

Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello reinterprets iconic looks against a sparkling Eiffel Tower

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 09:45:45 +0000

Creative director Anthony Vaccarello loves dramatic entrances. To top the crane with neon-lit YSL logo he showed last year, Vaccarello called in Paris’ iconic Tour Eiffel for help this season. The show took place at Trocadero – a favourite spot for tourists to view the Eiffel Tower. The Parisian icon sparkles every night at 8pm, when the show was expected to start, which explained the request for guests to arrive 15 minutes before the show to be seated. The hustle was worth it. Models strutted...

Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri sharpens millennial edge in her spring/summer collection at Paris Fashion Week

Vivian Chen — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 07:45:15 +0000

Dior’s first female artistic director, Maria Grazia Chiurikeeps matters of feminism and femininity close to her heart. Following success in the past couple of seasons, the Rome fashion veteran continued to explore the theme for the spring-summer 2018 collection yesterday at Musée Rodin in Paris. The result is a collection filled with whimsical motifs rendered in a rainbow of candy hues from bubblegum pink to bumblebee yellow. Although the collection delivered a slingshot at millennial...