Hottest trends from the Paris Haute Couture Week 2017
Assuming you’re as fit as an 18-year-old with the metabolic rate of an Etruscan shrew, the elaborate dresses at Paris Couture Week fall/winter will be the perfect inspiration for the upcoming season. Every major designer label turned paree into their personal runway for the 2017/18 collections, with dreamlike chiffons and sparkling sequins casting a spell on appreciating FROW suspects.
Lebanese-designer Elie Saab is who you’d turn to for regal flair while staying deliciously flirtatious, as diaphanous tulle and mousseline skirts work their magic. Feathers on shoulders, gold and coloured embroidery on the torso, nipped-in waists are what elegant evenings have been imagined by the couturier, with a confident playfulness that works in every season. The first female creative director at Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri also showcased self-assured femininity, as her models walked down the open air courtyard at Les Invalides in georgette skirts and satin and velvet bustiers. Did we see hints of 40s and 50s fashion in the attenuated waists? Yes.
But we also saw the sexy bohemia that defines millennial women, with casually draped wispy blouses and shorts peeping out from see-through skirts. The ease of throwing on a Dior dress and not being overshadowed by the name is what marked it’s 70th anniversary celebration at the show. Which is why Chanel’s heavy tweed coats with exaggerated curved sleeves and a high-waisted wedding dress — something an Italian Renaissance artist would have approved of in the 15th century — seemed so dated in the current context. Attention to detail like the ruffled halter neck and painterly flower appliqué on thigh-high boots were special, but they were the few accoutrements that stood out.
