Fall 2010 Couture: Jean Paul Gaultier

One of Jean Paul Gaultier dearest themes is androgyny and this time, the way this was expressed was more subversive than as usual. On the surface, the dresses and gowns innocently said 1940s Hollywood, with Lauren Bacall jackets, Myrna Loy dresses and Joan Crawford gowns. But the wild exaggeration actually screamed drag queen. The collection had all the hyper-feminity of a female impersonator revue.
The extreme shoulders and sleeves were outlined with a pie crust of fins. Armorial leather bodices looked like the carapaces of beetles, and looked combative, not appealing. The menacing bat-winged coats looked like a predatory manta ray. The bride wore a trench coat. Even Dita Von Teese, who took a turn on the catwalk, stripping down to an hourglass corset, had the look of a cartoon-y female impersonator, despite her famous hand-span waist.
All this was made dazzling, and saved from looking frankly ridiculous, by the amazing cuts and innovative draping of this couture master.Top 3 for me:
1. Dior 2. Jean Paul Gaultier 3. Chanel

Fall 2010 Couture: Chanel

Obviously meant as a tribute to Carine Roitfeld and her windswept chic, this collection is a redux of all things 1980s, a favourite reference period of Ms Roitfeld's. The bolero tops are cropped high and sprout substantial Ivan Trump sleeves. The pencil skirts have elongated Rifat Ozbek waists, and the entire thing is smothered in baroque gold ornamentation that suggests the word 'encrusted'. It's been a while since I saw this much gold piping. Lacroix, anybody? The day suits look suitably powerful and the coats with the sable bands look smotheringly heavy. Just skimming the knees is not an easy length to carry off, especially with mid-calf boots however elaborately embroidered. But if this isn't one of those immediately attractive eager-to-please collections from Karl Lagerfeld, it yet showcases the many wizard ways of couture and at more than 60 looks, there's a charming little black dress in there for someone like you.

Fall 2010 Couture: Dior

At last, an inspired collection from John Galliano. This sees this genius, so subdued of late (for how many seasons has he been lying dormant?), bursting into full blossom once again. Quite literally. This has the charm and prettiness of spring, whereas his last couture (spring: the horse and highway man one), felt heavy, like fall. Couture should be like this, bouyant and poetic, using the utmost in technique to imaginatively capture the utmost in beauty. The colours combined (the same optimistic note that sounded at the mens collection) does remind one of Christian Lacroix, and is in a slightly different mode from the colours Mr Galliano usually employs. Tulips, unfortunately, will always suggest Irving Penn now, I suppose, and I will leave the other writers to give you those heavy-handed floral puns, but I hope that the bouquets this collection recieves will allow Mr Galliano to emerge from under his recent creative cloud. Beautiful.

"His basic reference point was Christian Dior’s 1953 spring collection, which introduced the “tulip line” and included floaty prints." - Cathy Horyn

Fall 2010: Three English Women

Three English designers, all women, and all who first made their mark designing for Chloé, showed collections with a similar 'modern' vibe, but with varying degrees of success.
At Céline, Phoebe Philo described her look as “sharp, strict, reduced” which translated into workable separates which tried to harness the DNA of Celine — a bourgeois Parisian label that peaked in the 1970s. It was largely unremarkable, and underwhelming, even though the critics-who-don't-see have given it slobbering reviews, tails wagging. It seemed to me a watered-down follow-up from her wildly successful Spring show. In much the same key, Stella McCartney sent out graphic coats with notches and slits and sweaters and slacks quite plain and very clean, for her eponymous line. It has a 1960s vibe to it and is one of her better efforts. It's neat, humourous and stylish, though the cocktail numbers with satin mermaid trains looked suspect.I liked Hannah MacGibbon’s collection for Chloé most of all. I felt that it came closest to defining this season’s sensibility in a convincing style. Ms MacGibbon borrowed utilitarian masculine tailoring: The camel coat, the tan blouson, the butterscotch leather jacket, the herringbone tweeds and Prince of Wales checks, were taken from a British gent’s closet. The breezy wearability, however, was given her edge. She took that from the golden era of American sportswear (the 1970s), the days of early Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein — when racing to work while looking wholesomely sexy defined American glamour. Vogue used to call this look 'racy'. This collection wonderfully austere in another way: At just over 30 looks, this was one tightly edited collection, and I liked almost every look.

Fall 2010: Hermès and Gareth Pugh

Meticulous tailoring seemed to be the point of the Hermès collection by Jean Paul Gaultier. I like it very much for showing the best workmanship in the lushest of materials — croco, leather, cashmere: Can you want anything more from the house that defines high luxury?
Mr Gaultier used the The Avengers as a starting point for this collection, but he could just as well have done without it, because the masculine Savile Row tailoring (such glossily beautiful hats and bags and the furled umbrellas!) effectively demonstrated classic Hermès values on their own, with no concessions to trendiness.An almost all-leather collection, it nonetheless felt brisk, and not leaden (the polished workmanship elevates and excites) despite showing more than 50 looks, and mostly with outerwear. It was slyly sexy, and a very adult outing.If you don't know what I mean by 'adult', it would be illuminating to compare Mr Gaultier’s show with Gareth Pugh’s, which similarly featured almost-all leather outfits. But without any finesse or fit, or feeling for luxury, Mr Pugh’s suits of leather looked as stiff as vinyl. I wonder at the fashion writers and bloggers who rave at this collection: Do they not see what is before their eyes? I find it frankly banal and childish, and if they fitted thus-awkwardly on models, is there hope for mere mortals? This young designer wanted to convey strength, but succeeded only in heavy, dour and forbiddingly dreary Darth Vader coat-dresses and pants-suits glazed like bus seats. This is the ‘minimalism/futurism’ of a banal computer game, the antithesis of adult clothes.