Animals free, dancing and dressed upside down. Haute Couture Week in seven collections – Observer

And in the wake of the second day of Haute Couture week, animals once again invaded the catwalk. For the third collection in which Virginie Viard, the woman at the helm of the Chanel collections, collaborated with the artist Xavier Veilhan, they both decided to venture into the animal kingdom. It all started in Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment at No. 31 on Rue Cambon, which is also the home of the haute couture atelier since forever. “For this third entry, I asked him to reinterpret the apartment ranch and incorporate his own,” Virginie says in a statement. From Mademoiselle’s house, he brought lions, deer, deer, birds and camels, and later cats, rabbits, swallows and even real corgis.

The setting of the parade this time was inspired by a village square, as if this event were a festival. It included eleven of Veilhan’s giant wood, cardboard and paper animals that were much more than ornaments, they were actually hiding places from which the first models of the show emerged.

The essentials a true Chanel fan wants to see were all there. Suits in various colors or dresses with ruffles, lace and embroidered transparencies. Tweed suits were enlivened by shapes and details inspired by parade uniforms and Maori costumes, as well as other pieces such as capes, short shorts and pleated shirts. And even in accessories they allow themselves to be contaminated, such as hats, white gloves or boots with bows.

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The designer from the Netherlands presents at the official week in Paris, but in reality her creations see an enchanted world of their own. At times, it may be closer to sculpture than clothing, but science and technology have yet to come together — the data that makes Iris van Herpen’s signature has been issued. The designer told Vogue that she wanted to create a collection that would be used underwater, a medium where more power is needed and where one loses one’s voice, as a symbol of female protest, with an emphasis on the case of Iran.

The collection only has six looks, but the designer turned it into an underwater poetry video lasting about four minutes and with the help of Julie Gautier, a French dancer, diver, choreographer and director. Because, after all, dreams and creativity are two of the engines that drive Haute Couture, it’s worth a look.

Pierpaolo Piccioli took two extraordinary universes, gave them his magic and served up a collection of 89 appearances. That is, he took the brand he inherited from the legendary Valentino Garavani and took it to the club, or rather to a space under the Alexandre III bridge, in the Parisian night. The clubs of the 1980s that inspired Piccioli, whether in New York or London, had in common the fact that they set fashion trends and were spaces of creativity. For this collection, the brand claims to have found “a spontaneous and synergistic language” between the worlds of Haute Couture and nightclubs, as both share values ​​such as “gestures of excess, the idea that clothes are tools of transformation, the creating an identity, a dual vocabulary of display and revelation, performance throughout life’.

As a result, in a completely dark room, the brand’s icons such as long dresses with an impeccable cut, cascading decorative elements and or abundant volume stood out even more with neon-toned colors, sparkles and feathers. The catwalk included a passage from the street and under the mythical bridge. “The incredible becomes material, the imagination becomes reality,” reads the statement of the house of Valentino. Dreams and beauty are fundamental and one of Pier Paolo Piccioli’s flags is inclusion. Although Haute Couture is a universe as exquisite as it is exclusive, at least the inspired side of its collections is democratic.

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Since his retirement, Jean Paul Gaultier has been like an honorary king, enjoying his retirement and appreciating the continuation of his legacy. Perhaps because the founder is irreplaceable, or simply because Gaultier sets his own rules, there is a guest designer for each collection. After Olivier Rousteing (house of Balmain), Glenn Martens (Y/Project) and Chitose Abe (Sacai), this season fell to a veteran, Haider Ackermann.

“I have no sense of humor at all! I have my gravity and he his generosity and joy, we are from two different worlds. But at the same time we have a lot in common. Because we both love women, we love women, we respect women,” Ackerman told Vogue. The collection has 36 looks that combine tailoring, glamor and, of course, a little exuberance. The video below captures some of the magic of this combination of geniuses in less than 15 seconds.