Bulbous embroideries such as gold inflorescences and stones, gnarled trimmings like mutant vegetations, metallic and incorruptible backsides, but also dense and present intertwining of tweeds and accumulations of folds, draperies or quivering sequences of flounces: the Parisian haute couture session has come open today in the name of touch and touch, long denied by distancing and digital formats. The fashion shows are mostly in attendance, and this certainly does not mean that they can be stretched by hand on the catwalk to appreciate so much three-dimensionality. However, the movement away from virtual flatness is clear in favor of something deeper and more volumetric. The adjective of the moment is haptic, or tactile.
Dior, weaving and embroidering as the essence of dressing
For Maria Grazia Chiuri, from Dior, everything starts from the materiality of the fabric, as is generally appropriate for those who make fashion and not concepts, and specifically for a maison originally founded on the agreement between a creator, Christian Dior, and a textile entrepreneur, Marcel Boussac. Chiuri, however, approaches the issue from another angle, with a feminine pragmatism that is its unmistakable acronym and with a thought full of empathy for those suppliers who are an essential link in the fashion food chain, and who have been hit hard by the pandemic. .
Loading…
In weaving and embroidering, manual actions that have been handed down from the dawn of time, Chiuri sees the raison d’être of making clothes. He thus combines the French sense of architectural design with the Italian taste for manufacturing, and plays on the balance between heavy and light to create voluptuous silhouettes with a high specific weight – in a literal sense. Completely alien to the festive and smugly foolish escapism that hovers elsewhere, Chiuri seems rather caught in a painful reflection. The collection, presented against the backdrop of Eva Jospin’s colossal Chambre de Soie embroidery, is of a severe and melancholy sobriety that flat shoes and heavy fabrics make at times heavy, even leaden. At the end, everything evaporates in clouds of muslin and petals, but the message is serious: fashion must start from doing, and doing must start from fabric. Point.
Valli and the “taste of the shady”
Fashion, on the other hand, wants to start from celebrating and frolicking, this is clear. Giambattista Valli imagine a fantastic story that is a hymn to the newfound lightness, and populates it with flowery women with knotted hair and floating trains and men with cloaks and double-breasted ones, like Udo Kier in Paul Morrissey’s Dracula. Proud of not having fired a single employee despite the complex moment, the Roman couturier speaks winkly of “taste for the shady”. His, however, is a sinister sensual, not criminal: a personal vision, distorted like the long shots and wide angles of the presentation video, in which grandeur does not exclude unleashed fun, hedonism from the slums, and elegance is a state of mind rather than a state of haughtiness. In short, with a cloud of tulle, for Valli, you can also go to the underground club, and the message convinces.
Roseberry’s maximalism for Schiaparelli
The breast, reproduced in metal as in a wearable sculpture by Lalanne, is the protagonist, together with cope embroidery, composite bijoux and sculptural forms that oscillate between Lacroix and Gaultier, from Schiaparelli, where Daniel Roseberry leaves his moorings and embraces a wildly maximalist and decidedly nostalgic vein, producing a postmodern pastiche whose sources are as evident as personal interpretation is evident. Comic-like and gigantic, Roseberry’s surreal lexicon for the historic maison may or may not be liked, but it is certainly unique and unmistakable, which is an achievement these days.