Trends: Paris Fashion Week F/W 07/08

Been meaning to post this for some time now.. just never got around doing it. An image-heavy guide to fall/winter ‘07-’08 trends. (Plus some entertaining extras at the end.)

BELTS

Still wide and high and used to really cinch the waist. (Balenciaga, Christian Lacroix)

KNITS

Lots of knits for this season.. mohair knits, cable knits.. worn loose, draped, layered and sometimes cinched with a belt. There’s even a knit evening gown from Chanel- very comfy. (Christian Lacroix, Kenzo, Louis Vuitton, Nina Ricci, Stella McCartney, Chanel)

High Waisted Pants

These silhouette-lengthening trousers are going to stay here quite a while. Tops usually tucked in or cropped. (Chanel, Kenzo Givenchy, Valentino, Celine)

BOWS

Along the decolletage, printed allover, around the waist, as a collar.. these knots don’t have to be always pretty (read: pink) and overly obvious to work. (Chanel, YSL Rive Gauche, Commes des Garcons, Valentino)

SHORT CUTS

Skirts and dresses are short short short despite the season.. remember dark tights make your legs look thinner. (Loewe, YSL Rive Gauche, Sophie Kokosalaki, Alexander McQueen, Christian Lacroix)

TEXTURES

Leather with wool and nylons, satin with brocade and jersey, chiffon with velvet and fur.. It all goes together.. go wild on textures. Keep from being boring, stale and cliche when wearing a one-colour outfit (like white): try playing with lots of different textures for interest. (Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galiano, Balenciaga, Viktor & Rolf)

WIDE PANTS

Very wide pants.. Are we finally moving on from those impossible skinny jeans? (Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Givenchy, Hermes, Sophie Kokosalaki)

LBD

If all else fails, we always have the little black dress. Here are my favourite designs from those that sashayed down the catwalk on Paris Week.. in all sorts of textures and cuts. (Givenchy, John Galiano, Elie Saab, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Hermes)

PLAID

On bags, skirts, boots, coats, trimmings or all of the above.. (Jean Paul Gaultier, Chanel, Kenzo)

PENGUINS

Yes. As in Happy Feet penguins. On shirts. In the Chanel show. Super adorable!

EVENING WEAR

In my opinion, the decadent dessert of every fashion show. (Elie Saab, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Nina Ricci, Alexander McQueen, Valentino)

FEATHERS + HAIR

I love love love! the effect of single ostrich-stranded hair extensions on long, naturally wavy hair.. so unexpected, ethereal and still pretty.

LOVE

I love this look the most. (Christian Dior)

ETC

The weird, the funny and the ridiculous. Fashion has its moments. (John Galiano, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix)

It’s a bird.. It’s a plane! No, no! It’s an…. origami gown. XD

A missing press-on nail on the John Galiano show.

At the Lacroix show. Yes ridiculous woman, people are going to take you so seriously because you’re nekkid. *Sarcasm*

Models Designers and Models

At Antonio Miro’s fashion show at Barcelona, Spain..

The boat prop in the background is called a cayuco. Cayucos carried about 30,000 Africans to Spain’s Canary Islands last year alone. Many of the boats are believed to have sunk, drowning thousands of people. Antonio Miro’s employment of illegal, undocumented Senegalese migrants for his fashion show caused quite a stir. He also used to recruit prisoners. He said it was to draw attention to the plight of these illegal migrants, and he paid them “token sums”.

I swear it isn’t nice.. It’s ghastly. I wouldn’t want my clothes go down the runways fluttering off just a mere walking hanger. I’d want real people wearing them. And I’d want the audience to look at my clothes not at the model’s ribs and collarbones and *insert scientific bone names here*. It’s not pretty, it’s not okay and it’s not right that young women are being made to think this is what they should look like. And because of recent incidents like this, Madrid, Spain and Milan, Italy now require models to have a certain height-to-weight ratio- which is also followed by the U.S. fashion industry. Milan orders models to have a minimum Body Mass Index of 18.5 to walk the runway. I also like the recommendation that models should be required to pass a physical before walking the runway. Not that I want to force anything on those wanting to become models like diets or prohibit them from doing and eating things they want but at least pass the physical. It’s reasonable..

I like this photo of John Galiano (by Richard Avedon):

He’s a British/Gibraltarian couturier. He first designed for Givenchy, appointed by Bernard Arnault who owns luxury goods comglomerate LVMH, before moving less than two years later to Christian Dior. He also has his own label named after him and creates roughly 6 couture and ready-to-wear collections every year.