As if nothing had happened: in Paris the fashion week it continues under the banner of a foolish forgetfulness. There were no lessons to be learned, it seems. There is only to forget as quickly as possible to do everything, again, as before.
The location-metaphor of Hermès
Hermès transports the guests – with great expenditure of means and completely French disorganization – up to La Bourget, the airport for private flights. The reason is obvious: the creative director Nadège Vanhee Cybulski has entrusted the creation of the rotating set to the artist Flora Moscovici. The direction foresees the final opening, surprisingly, of the scenic backdrop, with a view of the landing strip, and a vast panorama. Timing is perfect: as the show closes an airplane also lands . “New horizons,” explains Vanhee-Cybulski. But, again and as it used to be before the pandemic, it is mere storytelling. The clothes say more, and very little new (above, right, a runway look from the Hermès spring-summer 2022 collection). The rest Hermès is the temple of an enduring patrician classicism, not a place to experiment.
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A choice of style continuity
In this sense, Vanhee-Cybulski’s work is appreciable: harmonious in proportions, colors, details. But also, without flickers, predictable. This collection is dominated by a palpable dryness of the line, but it is little to justify such a show. Also because it is possible to try new paths, sometimes with ideas of a self-evident simplicity, perhaps adding a little humor to the recipe, given how pretentious fashion is and how it takes itself seriously.
The surprises are from Balenciaga
It is Balenciaga who defeats . The show is a screening, complete with a red carpet broadcast live, waiting for the film. All guests are invited to take the usual photo, taken by the cameras, and among these the models wearing the looks of the collection are mixed: the usual marked faces that the creative director Demna Gvasalia loves so much, but also team members, friends like Juergen Teller, and later Naomi Campbell and Amber Valletta. Screen view (top left, a moment of the parade), the live broadcast is a metanarrative game that makes you reflect: oncontemporary obsession with fame, on the fact that today everything exists only if recorded in a live broadcast; on the transformation of fashion into entertainment.
Contamination between fashion and cartoons
Food for thought abounds, but the final swerve nullifies all heaviness and demands – which are rampant elsewhere, with designers taken and understood as maitre à penser – with a fat laugh. After the red carpet, in fact, the film starts, which is an episode of I Simpson created ad hoc, with a fashionable theme, with hilarious branding ideas. A successful, light, effective operation. And the clothes? Those are always the same: giant shoulders, abrasive glamor, urban militarisms and a cast of black. It is the demonstration that what matters today is not the content, but the container and the modality. If you get them right, everything is worth it.