“Fashion is dead. Long live the clothes!”- Maybe that would be the slogan with which the fall-winter season 2016-2017 of the Parisian prêt-à-porter week will go into the history of fashion.
Brand “Vetements” (“Clothing” in French), a group of young designers led by Demna Gvasalia, turned the street style, until recently considered a sign if not of a bad taste, but at least of belonging to alternative subcultures, to the status of a new fashion religion. While Gvasalia, now occupying the chair of creative director at Balenciaga, received from investors – the Kering Group – a “carte blanche” for a complete transformation of the House.
Street style gaining access to money with an official status, got reborn and refined as version 2.0 of deconstructivism which blew up catwalks of Paris back in 1981 in the works of legendary Japanese Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo.
Combination of incongruous, rejection of symmetry and rationalism in favor of decentering, new aesthetics of “ugliness” that comes to replace “boring” classical canons. Tired of the endless repetitions and citations of the last century, designers are looking for new identity, burning bridges to the past.
Oversize as one element of androgyny is still in power. The shoulder line is getting lower or disappear completely, sleeves extend below fingertips, and waist doesn’t exist anymore. The new femininity is no longer feminine: the gender division is gradually abolished
Denim is new leather. Comfortable, practical, durable and inexpensive – it closely matches the high-speed world of virtual reality in which we live. Denim clothes are the hit of Paris fall-winter season catwalks.
Whatever turmoil the fashion world experiences, the sublunary world lives according to own laws, and to keep warm in winter knitted items are essential in it. Take a sweater 3 sizes bigger than yours, preferably torn in several places. Do not be afraid to look like a “clochard” – you are in a trend, and refer to the latest Parisian collections all those who “don’t get it”.
In the new season we bare the most sensual, according to many designers, body part – an ankle. Pants are shortened, turning almost into bermudas. Rolled a few inches up pants can be a great alternative to buying a new pair. Utilitarian approach to one’s look is the main rule of the fashion post-apocalypse.
Velvet as a relic of the past, a splinter of luxury on the ashes of the bourgeois fashion is present in every collection of Paris prêt-à-porter. Everything is allowed: a total look is just as appropriate as individual elements made of this noble fabric with a shiny soft nap.
Lacing is much more decadent than a zipper or buttons. It takes time, which is spare. And if the fashion world is moving to a denial of itself, it is appropriate to assume that we will soon return to corsets just to spend hours tightening them.
Several leading Parisian House released on the catwalk models with dark plum, almost black lips. Gothics keeps up with decadence, which, in turn, anticipates the birth of the New Look of XXI century. What it will be – time will tell.
Photo cerdits belong to corresponding brands