Paris Fashion Week is fashion month’s cherry on the cake. The City of Love’s Fashion Week is home to many established names, juxtaposed with their younger colleagues. These younger counterparts often show their progressive view on fashion and sustainability, where established labels rely on their signature look and feel. This results in an interesting mix of designers, trends and cultures. Fashion Week translates the city into a melting pot of young and old, traditional and progressive and everything in between. Therefore, we provide daily updates about the shows, collections and the stories behind them. Today: Ann DeMeulemeester and Off-White.
Check out the complete Paris Fashion Week schedule here.
Cover photo: © Pexels
Paris Fashion Week
The great thing is that Paris Fashion Week is home to many female designers. Take for example Sarah Burton (Alexander McQueen, Claire Wright Keller (Givenchy), Stella McCartney and Virginie Viard (Chanel) – all great women who show during Paris Fashion Week. We can’t longer suppress our excitement. Luckily, we don’t have to, since PFW is in full force. Read everything about Ann DeMeulemeester and Off-White below.
Looking for the complete schedule of all fashion weeks? Check it out here.
Ann Demeulemeester
On Instagram, Ann Demeulemeester’s explanation of the collection was quite mysterious: “The collection is dedicated to the proud, untamable legendary creature, a symbol of courtly love, which infuses the medieval literature.” Translation: this collection was inspired by the unicorn.
When a brand opens its show with this message, many would shiver. However, that wasn’t necessary at all at Demeulemeester, since any hint to My Little Pony and associates remained absent. Sébastien Meunier rather looked at the Middle Ages, when Unicorns were the symbol of the untamable.
The collection created an alien atmosphere, evoked by the metal head accessories, hoop skirts and peplums. Furthermore, waists and shoulders were surrounded by perfectly placed metal as well. Overall, the collection formed one big hint to the Renaissance. Metal panniers and billowing sleeves added just a little extra.
When looking at similarities with other collections, Meunier’s collection is very original. The only trend that will stay for sure the upcoming year? A good pair of leather trousers.
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Off-White
Last January, during his pre-fall presentation, Virgil Abloh revealed Off-White’s rebranding. The brand changed a lot during his enforced absence and it didn’t stay unnoticed. The new Off-White logo displays a sinking person, with his hand and face just below the words “Off” and “White”.
This new direction is very striking and Abloh knows. After his last show he said it would have been easier to just rely on his success and arrowed-logo. Now that he declared streetwear as “dead”, Abloh reinvented the label to a more sophisticated version.
And Abloh is a smart guy. During the last two year, he said, the best selling piece in womenswear wasn’t a pair of sneakers or a white T-shirt. You might guess what it actually was: a tailored jacket. This clearly explains the transition from the streetwear brand to a hardcore designer luxury label. Because of its newness, it’s hard to say whether something is typically “Off-White” (yes, the quotation marks do have a double meaning here). Most of all, it’s being told by the garments’ labels.
However, it doesn’t have to hold back Abloh’s new direction and chances of success. Bella Hadid opened the show wearing a gothic black dress, entirely deconstructed. Several other models followed, covered in skirts and hats made of cow skin and other animal materials. It felt like a mix between country side and the city. Just as at Mugler and Ann Demeulemeester, leather was one of the pivotal materials. At the seventh look, Abloh’s handwriting was slightly visible, when a leather blazer with graffiti entered the runway.
The other looks consisted of a mix between chic day- and eveningwear, combined with cut-outs, contrasting materials and chunky jewelry. Layering seemed key and models were of all ages.
Where Bella opened the show, sister Gigi closed it. She wore a deconstructed version of a wedding dress, combining tule with a rainproof jacket. Despite that streetwear may be dead, this piece showed that its deeply rooted into Abloh anyhow.
After Gigi’s a cool looking Abloh received a loud applaus. He briefly entered the runway, wearing – of course – the hottest item of the season: leather pants.
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Check out the best of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020 here.
