PARISIAN SPRING SUMMER 2020 FASHION SHOWS TAUGHT US HOW TO ACT THE PART OF A TRèS CHIC, AND EVEN FUNNY, CHARACTER IN A “COUTURE-TO-WEAR” WARDROBE
Text by: Annarosa Laureti
September just came to its end taking away summer dreams but letting us plunge right into glamours ones. Paris Fashion Week is always the last appointment of the frenzied “back from holiday” fashion agenda. Now we can finally relax waiting for renewing our Spring Summer 2020 wardrobe.
To best choose your next season looks we are giving you some advices… Looking at what we love most from Paris, as fashion means also dream and fun, it will be easy being extra by playing the role of a creepy sailor boy or an algid Marie Antoniette, never loosing charm at all!
MAISON MARGIELA
Surely the surprising and unusual fashion show’s last exit made a great buzz on social media: several videos of a eerie yet super funny Leon Dame in the guise of a sailor boy on high-heels stumbling through the catwalk literally broke IG. But Maison Margiela Spring Summer 2020 was much more than this. John Galliano conducted a real reflection on the concept of Uniform: in addition to seamen we saw nuns in leather jackets and mini dresses, nurses in white coat, soldiers of delicate face and angelic allure and sexy new dandies with house painters cap.
The creative director challenges the line between reality and illusion by using several sartorial tecniques such as the “projective filtrage” – the impression of light-projected imagery adapted into prints on translucent fabrics – the “nomadic cutting” – that transforms a garment into another, for example trousers becoming dress – and the trompe l’oeil “hack print” that makes light cotton or wool resemble the textures of fabrics from the classic men’s wardrobe.
Finally among the accessories the Snatched genderless bag, launched during last “Artisanal” Collection, returns in mini sizes.
CHANEL
The new ambassador of all those who dreamt at least once in a life of walking down Chanel runaway is the actress and Youtuber Marie Benoliel – aka “Marie S’Infiltre” on IG – who joined with extreme nonchalance the maison’s models army during the fashion show’s final. Kindly escorted to the backstage by a Gigi Hadid in the role of a security guard, the French comedian surely added a funny touch to the romantic show.
Complicit of the fascinating overall was the whole setting over Parisian roofs. The Spring Summer 2020 Chanel woman by Virginie Viard is the new kind of a cheerful Nouvelle Vague girl, young yet timeless and elegant. Among chimney pots and attic windows, she admires the dreamy urban landscape wearing the very sky’s colors: from the pink of the sunrise to the deep blue and black of the night, passing through the sunset’s hues of red and orange. Feminine fluid silhouettes take us back in a très chic era with a nostalgic cinematic atmosphere. Transparencies, sequins, feathers, balloon sleeves, ruffles and seen-not-seen lettering as well, remain (as always) the better way to make gentle and charming jackets, tops, Capri pants, puddle skirts and long dresses rigorously worn high on the waist.
THOM BROWNE
From the charming Nouvelle Vague to the early 2000s cinema: the Marie Antoniette with a punk rock soul by Sofia Coppola – masterfully interpreted by the algid Kirsten Dunst – in fact comes out the big screen to reach Thom Browne catwalk. For the Spring Summer 2020 Collection the iconic seersucker paints itself with 1780s Versailles and 80s punk accents.
Despite the gentle and pastel colors, the up-to-day version of the last Queen of France has a strong and irreverent attitude, wearing tie and Oxford shirt matched with corsets, jackets and skirts with crinolines, the latter in some cases worn also over the clothes themselves.
With a friendly dachshund (bag) on her hand, showing a big veil and a straw hat, she perfectly protects herself from the sun light maintaining the noble, pale complexion.
VALENTINO
French nobility’s classiness pervades also Valentino catwalk. For his Spring Summer 2020 Pier Paolo Piccioli, who meditated on shapes and volumes, transformed the Ready-To-Wear Collection into a Couture one, presenting his personal reinterpretation of what has always been the designer’s favorite white canvas since the fashion dawn: the white shirt.
Shirking every worthless frills the designer went straight to the very essence and pureness of garments. As in a never-ending loop path, start and end coincide: white – the non-color par excellence – became the container of several different and neon shades rigorously exhibited in monochrome blocks or in jungle prints that remind us a kind of Paul Gauguin’s blend with Matisse’s imaginery.
To end, extra gold jewels adds a more precious touch to fluid silhouettes yet enriched by feathers details, sequins, rouches, flounces and laces.
Cover: Valentino Spring Summer 2020 Fashion Show Finale, Courtesy of Valentino
