Which is more ridiculous:
Sacha Baron Cohen storming a runway in Milan, or a man in a rabbit suit in Paris? Either way, the ridiculous and the hilarious were par for the course for the summer 2009 fashion
circus season.
The ready-to-wear season has just wrapped up in Paris and what a carnival it was. Besides the clothes themselves, the show stealers were Milan’s bullying of London – threatening to squash the UK’s shows down to four days. Then the Italian city degenerated into Baron Cohen’s runway hijack and Prada’s universally canned collection.
Trust Paris to re-instate the spectacular of ready-to-wear shows. The main attraction over this last week were designers who threw economic gloom to the wind and performed their wild and crazy couture tricks.
Alexander McQueen (who’s collection is pictured here), Galliano,
Bernhard Willhelm, Gaultier, Nicholas Ghesquiere,
Gareth Pugh, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and
Louis Vuitton delivered stand-out performances and the kind of ready-to-wear you’d mortgage your soul for. Can you call Pugh’s Jacobean space suits RTW? Well, he does. So let’s.
In the fiscally astute/wearable/affordable corner were Cacherel, Stella McCartney, Chloe,
Rykiel, Agnes B and Dries Van Noten who know where their bread is buttered. They all delivered highly saleable collections which were safe, yet striking and elegant. We all know how important
elegance is.