SALON

Wednesday, Jul 4, 2012 8:45 PM UTC

Gaultier and Givenchy give grand couture finale

By

Topics: From the Wires,

PARIS (AP) — The final day of Paris’ haute couture shows was like a glittering fashion encyclopedia.

Wednesday’s shows went from the Renaissance-feel of Valentino’s shimmering blue silk capes to the 19th century, where couture’s enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier, paid homage to the black top-hatted dandy.

Elie Saab went decorative with Imperial motifs of the Ottoman Empire. And, nearer to the present day, Givenchy reworked house founder Monsieur Hubert de Givenchy’s little black dress, made famous in the 1960s by Audrey Hepburn.

With the couture season thinned from a week of shows to only three days, designer must make an immediate impact. Wednesday’s shows offered a rich display of craftsmanship from the century-old Parisian clothes-making tradition.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier loves film. For proof, look no further than his dandyesque couture offering, which paid homage to the silver screen.

The show took for its muse an unlikely matinee idol: the singer Pete Doherty, who made his acting debut as a 19th-century figure in a film that screened at Cannes. The movie, “Confession of a Child of the Century,” bowled Gaultier over. “I said my god he is so seductive, a decadent dandy,” said the designer backstage.

The result was an androgynous and theatrical couture delight.

Nineteenth century top hats accompanied high taffeta collars, deconstructed texture-rich satin crepe waistcoats and a lot of black, broken up with explosions color and bright fox fur, which provoked whoops of delight from the crowd.

Gaultier threw in other cinema references. As if straight out of that 1927 science-fiction film “Metropolis” was a gray metallic looking cape with golden lining. The piece de resistance came in the form of a science-fiction corset cage — like a mechanized hourglass.

The show was an hour late — luckily Gaultier omitted any other references to time.

GIVENCHY

Hubert de Givenchy’s column dress from the 1960s — made famous by actress Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” — was the muse behind the house’s imaginative couture presentation.

At a private show in a lavish Parisian mansion, guests viewed ten ornate and plunging creations in black and light beige.

When “Monsieur Hubert” originally designed Hepburn’s 1960s dress, it was all about simplicity of form. The garment — alongside Coco Chanel’s — is among history’s most iconic little black dresses. Here, 50 years after Blake Edwards’ romantic comedy, the look is far more eccentric.

Designer Riccardo Tisci gave the famous designs a gypsy-infusion at this show, taking bohemian foulard print to inspired intricate reliefs of bonded leather. Several pieces owed their column form to the sheer weight of the ornate detailing.

It was a master class in craftsmanship. There was only one problem: a model got tangled in some long, heavy fringing by simply lifting her arm.

VALENTINO

Valentino opened its art history books for a vintage-feeling fall-winter 2012 show, with couture inspired by the Old Masters.

Choker-collar gowns in silk chiffon and crepe de chine blue capes floated past with the eerie, magical feel of a bygone age. Why the old-school references?

“We just love our past,” said designer Maria Grazia Chiuri. “The capes are the idea of the woman as the new Madonna… like in Giotto and Botticelli.”

But there were intentional contradictions in the style. One piece with a gentle V-neck had an on-trend inflated arm. Another piece, a belted jumpsuit in blue opium crepe, looked very contemporary.

Two pale pink silk gowns, with fresco-like images of branches, had a Renaissance-style Empire waist, a look that has been making a comeback in recent seasons.

As ever, the incredible work the “petites mains” — the old Italian seamstresses — was on display. One blouse and trouser ensemble, the program notes say, took 1,200 hours of stitching.

But, the best pieces were often the simplest. In some of the lavish garments, there was an overkill of embroidery, and the designers’ message got lost.

ELIE SAAB

Elie Saab used Ottoman motifs to give his show an imaginative lift.

The move expanded his strict repertoire of va-va-voom column dresses and created a strong offering for this year’s couture season.

A superb array of embroidered black gowns in tulle, lace and georgette — which opened the show — was the best sequence. Pearls glistened alongside sequins in decorative shapes.

“The black was fantastic, this season he’s put in much thought,” said stylist Susan Tabak.

The blacks then gave way to a typical Saab palette of champagne, pink and sky blue. And the money-shot came at the end: an embossed organza bridal gown with gold brocade leaves.

Saab’s program notes said the patterns had been “lifted from a palace along the banks of the Bosphorus” — and the glimmering decorative effects did endow the show with a certain Imperial element.

Saab — a designer with a faithful following of women — made no big creative leaps here.

But then again, he doesn’t need to.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

More Thomas Adamson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations