by PARIS — Fragile half-ton cubes of colored confetti lined the white Loewe catwalk at Paris Fashion Week. Ushers desperately tried to guide guests including Jamie Dornan, Naomi Campbell and Catherine O’Hara around the blocks, fearing the decoration would be disintegrated at the slightest brushstroke. Sometimes, it partially did.
Jonathan Anderson’s highly creative show – which used feathers, satin and velvet – continued the theme of reduction and ephemeral impressions.
Here are some of the highlights of Friday’s fall-winter 2023-2024 ready-to-wear in Paris.
LOEWE IS SUBLIME For fall, the label’s acclaimed Northern Irish designer continued his exploration of subtle and pared down styles — where a single garment often encompassed the entire look.
Loewe described it as “an idea of elementality: a piece, and that’s all, reduced to the bluntest shape.”
The touchstone of the Old Master painters, as seen in Anderson’s men’s collection, is felt again here with renaissance boots in pleated leather and the use of satin, duchess silk, velvet, crystals and feathers.
The winged pieces of the pastel-rich collection were the most original: The plumes were unusually wide and placed on the clothes like a shell. They came as a fluffy cover over a buttery white top with a few feathers sticking out randomly, or in thick textured blue-grey flared pants that evoked an anthropomorphic bird.
A pale blue dress appeared to be simply a length of satin draped from the chest by a large golden ball. Elsewhere, the idea of fashion or life itself as ephemeral and ever-moving was conveyed through blurry prints on loose dresses that sometimes looked like X-rays.
It was, the house said, “to bring into focus what may seem obscure at the moment.” It’s clear that Loewe under Anderson’s creative eye has become one of the most anticipated collections in the industry.
COLOR BLOCKING In perhaps the most original version of color blocking ever seen at Paris Fashion Week, Loewe teamed up with Italian artist Lara Favaretto to create literal color blocks. Twenty-one 90 cm (35 in) tall and clear confetti cubes in deep red, blue, yellow and green wowed visitors.
O’Hara, who attended the show alongside US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, exclaimed “Wow look at the blue” as a guest dodged security to pose with a cube – prompting a smattering of confetti flakes.
“I was hoping someone would fall apart on the show, because there’s nothing to hold them together,” O’Hara told The Associated Press. “Isn’t that crazy?” O’Hara said Anderson’s designs showed “totally original ideas, fresh, without being new for new’s sake.”
“They were the most unusual silhouettes and shapes, but they were still flattering,” she added.
ISSEY MIYAKE’S SQUARE A fusion of music, dance and theater awaited at the Japanese house that loves textile technology.
A live performance of marimba percussion opened the show at the Chatelet Theater, one of Paris’ most famous venues. The show took the idea of a musical score, a canvas or a fabric being square – and explored this theme of squareness.
“The collection engages with this rational shape… to develop clothes with striking shapes,” explained the house. She said her aesthetic was based on “a new iteration” of unfulfilled space.
3D cocoon dresses folded like paper origami. Square patterns were woven horizontally and vertically — whipping up a stretchy green dress with a lozenge-shaped front. The creative looks included dresses made with cutting-edge technology to shrink the woven thread into a unique texture.
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