PARIS (AP) – Flowers, art and Dior’s world-famous atelier collided Friday to bring a fragrant surge of creativity. The brand’s Paris Fashion Week show was a tribute to the late British painter Duncan Grant and famed member of London’s Bloomsbury Group, who died in 1978.
Guests were dazzled to enter a DIOR-branded tent and discover a temporary countryside landscape – some 19,000 real poppies, wildflowers and plants planted on a hill next to two reconstructed English country houses. All this for a 10-minute fashion show. The set, of course, was designed to evoke Grant’s undulating landscape.
There were almost as many famous faces on display as there were flowers. David Beckham and son Cruz, Naomi Campbell, J Balvin, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel were in the front row of a star-studded Dior, gazing at the petals and grasses.
For spring, designer Kim Jones recreated the painter’s world not only by evoking his masterpieces but also by creating the actual garments he wore while at work-his straw gardening hats, for example, were reimagined as pergolas fused to baseball caps, made by hatmaker Stephen Jones. Grant’s iconic suits are also a key theme, but reimagined in Jones’ style through clever fashion forward twists and turns.
In the 1930s – the artist’s heyday – countless references were repeated. On a loose vanilla double-breasted suit, two sleeves were used instead of a vintage belt. They draped abstractly down the middle and poked out from under the jacket. Elsewhere, cropped shorts feature a flip-flop waistband, slightly awkward for the period between the wars.
The wool socks and gardening shoes are an amusing tribute to the painter who spent most of his time outdoors, but also to Jones himself, a designer whose humor was never far away. The collection’s palette is appropriately green and blue, as well as pastel-inspired gardens and ponds.
Paul Smith Layer
A fresh and sensitive closet awaited guests at Paul Smith’s spring show in southeast Paris.
Layers and visuals were the theme of the season, with looks based on the colors, florals and suit shapes of the British master tailor.
A beautiful silver jacket suit, loose and flowing, is paired with blazer shorts for a sleek collegiate look that draws the eye to socks and suede loafers.
Elsewhere, it was the soft field of optical illusion in the pattern that gave several ensembles a kind of movement.
A granite-colored drawstring tunic shirt made of fluted fabric swirls down and changes shape as the model walks in zigzags.
JUNYA WATANABE makes a denim statement
The Japanese fashion designer – a protégé of iconic Comme des Garcons womenswear designer Rei Kawakubo – unveiled an urban and muted presentation for his eponymous label on Friday.
At the heart of Junya Watababe’s designs is a concept called “Monozukiri,” which means “production” or “making” in Japanese, and for him In his case, he has mastered the know-how of cutting-edge technology in garment making.
For spring, contrasting prints, patterns and textures create visual tension, while diagonally cut faux jeans filled with colorful appliqué patches add some fun to the collection.
The Coca-Cola logo and the burger image on the jeans are a great time to reflect on the capitalist nature of the world, as well as the fashion industry itself.
There are a number of interesting design twists: a Japanese denim denim jacket has an imperial hardness that contrasts with its lack of a worn chest pocket.
Super Kids
Guests sat like students in a school auditorium, lined up for Kidsuper.
The irony was not lost on the invitees, who appreciated the witty vibe that pervaded the alternative house’s fun and engaging coeducational design.
The vibrant exterior is urban in style throughout.
Printed faces stare out from capes, pants and jackets in colorful outfits that span the colors of the rainbow.
The strongest look in the 24-look collection was a layered multicolored bubble dress made of lime, bronze and orange tulle that looked a bit like a kindergarten teacher’s redesign of Cyndi Lauper.
