Paris Fashion Show (Part V)

Chanel
Alexander McQueen
Hermes
John Galliano

Chanel
Karl Lagerfeld is an extremely smart designer and businessman. He has managed to reinvent the traditional Chanel look without losing the Chanel root, and as a result, Chanel has attracted more young clientele than people could imagine yet maintained its classic image.

Karl Lagerfeld introduced denim with tweed trims shown with traditional tweed jackets and jackets with bold colors such as red and purple. In my opinion, though, the classic black, white, and gray combination is still the best in the show. Karl especially designed an outfit with prints inspired by the steel work in the Grand Palais. It was also said that Karl gave out books about de Grand Palais to all the attendees of the show. To me, it is a brilliant idea to tie the classic Chanel with such classic architecture.

Hermes
Jean Paul Gaultier had a great season. He showed fresh yet classic clothes for the Hermes collection and he integrated the Jean Paul Gaultier details with Hermes’s accessories and signature orange well. Outfits were shown with the Kelly bags coming with different sizes and colors, mostly yellow and orange. Kelly style belts are also used in numerous outfits to accentuate the waist line. Lots of people have doubts about red, burgundy, and orange, but the combination just looked stunning in the Hermes show. After years of the Birkin hype, here comes the Kelly era.

John Galliano

John Galliano’s fashion belongs to ordinary people. Instead of sending an army of skinny models, John Galliano showed us from the midgets to the overweight and from the happy to the depressed that we see in our daily life. His fashion shined because of his concerns and the emotion brought by the figures in his clothes.

Alexander McQueen
That show was the biggest disappointment in the entire Paris Fashion Week. After the past outstanding collections, Mr. McQueen showed so many tacky short dresses and too much sexuality on stage. We can easily tell how hard he is trying to make his brand profitable. Unfortunately, Alexander McQueen is no Tom Ford, and he was running against what he was good at.