PARIS – The Louis Vuitton red carpet was rolled out at the historic Place Vendome on Wednesday for a much-needed happy ending to a dark Paris Fashion Week season, marred by the multimillion-dollar heist of Kim Kardashian West’s jewelry.
A roll call of actresses including Alicia Vikander, Jennifer Connelly, Michelle Williams, Sophie Turner and a heavily pregnant Lea Seydoux joined tennis star Roger Federer in the front row – posing with Vuitton’s lauded designer Nicolas Ghesquiere.
And what a show it was.
Here are the highlights of Wednesday’s ready-to-wear collections, capping the spring-summer 2017 season.
Louis Vuitton: the clothes
In Ghesquiere’s finest collection since restyling the house in 2013, the French designer exposed his passion for the ‘80s and riffed on science fiction.
Big hair, big shoulders, big sparkle, big prints, big eyes: that was the mantra for spring-summer.
Bold sunset-shaped eye make-up that stretched from ear to ear setting the fashion dial firmly to the age of Glam Rock.
That era was also known for its obsession with sci-fi films, referenced by Ghesquiere in three-dimensional stereo-sound in this 45-piece show.
Styles that evoked Star Wars were seen in lozenge patches over the bust, curved asymmetrical forms on shirts with metallic sheer overlay, tunic-like gowns with boots, and armour-like white shoulder pads that looked like they might have been snipped from the back of a Darth Vader paratrooper.
But the beauty of this collection was in its remarkable stylish silhouettes and the deftness of the cuts that made it a more grown-up display that we’ve become used to.
A loose grey jacket with structured, mushroom-shaped oversize sleeves produced a stylish silhouette as it gently curved out at the bottom – in almost deconstructed patches.
The designer, who revitalized Balenciaga during his tenure there from 1997 to 2012, seems to be doing the same at Louis Vuitton.
Alicia Vikander surprised
Oscar-winning actress Vikander landed in Paris on Tuesday and was surprised to discover her face plastering billboards all around town.
“Well I didn’t actually know, but I arrived yesterday and I see that my film (“The Light Between Oceans”) is coming out today in France, so I’ve seen the posters up,” she told The Associated Press from the Louis Vuitton front row, wearing a white blouse and cleanly cut Louis Vuitton naval jacket.
The “Danish Girl” star may well not have enough time to talk to her PR team on her movie release dates as she’s simply too busy jet setting around the world.
“I live on an airplane. I’m kind of a nomad living out of my suitcases,” she said.
And when she’s not in the sky, she’s busy with her new role as film producer.
“I just produced my own film after starting my own (film production) company last year. I wrapped my first production a week ago, ‘Euphoria,’ with Eva Green and Charlotte Rampling,” she added.
US Ambassador bids farewell
Ever since Jane D. Hartley became U.S. ambassador to France in October 2014, the well-groomed diplomat has been a regular face on the front rows of major shows such as Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton.
But her appearance at Louis Vuitton’s spring-summer show in their new store in the Place Vendome will be her last.
The 66-year-old, who sat in the front row next to LVMH’s Bernard and Delphine Arnault, and spoke to the AP on her passion for fashion and her sadness to bid farewell to the spectacular Paris shows.
“Oh, I will definitely miss (the Paris shows). For sure,” she said, wearing a black Vuitton T-shirt with silver zigzags.
“It’s wonderful being in Paris and being at these shows and the beauty and the style. I’m lucky,” she said.
“I think it’s such an important industry here, but it’s an important industry back in the U.S. too. It’s beautiful, it’s creative – but we really can’t forget it’s a job creator on both sides of the Atlantic and I’m hugely supportive of this industry. I’ve also seen what fashion can to revitalize a city and give a city life,” she added.
The ambassador, the second woman to serve in this position after Pamela Harriman (1993-1997) and will leave her post following November’s U.S. presidential election.
Moncler Gamme Rouge
A barren desert and rugged boulders provided a sort of fashion assault-course for Moncler Gamme Rouge’s battle-tested models in the French military-inspired Wednesday show.
Hybrids of the hard, round shiny-tipped hats worn by the French Foreign Legion were the opener.
And in case there was any doubt about the French army theme, designer Giambattista Valli began to use sashes with the French tricolour flag across round-collar tops – gwith the famed red, white and blue colour combination repeated on Velcro straps on sneakers.
Straps, for perhaps a parachute, structured a ‘60s-style, sporty mini-dress in stone.
And even when the signature flowers finally appeared (Valli famously loves his blooms), even then, they were imagined as a print on an X-shaped dress that evoked the military through its stiffness and shoulder epaulettes.
It was an interesting and focused display.