March 6, 2016
Paris Fashion Week: Mugler, Elie Saab, Vivienne Westwood & More
Thomas Adamson READ TIME: 4 MIN.
Wendi Deng attended Nina Ricci's Paris collection just a few hours after her ex-husband, media magnate Rupert Murdoch, got married to Jerry Hall across the English Channel in London.
At the wedding Hall wore a Vivienne Westwood ice-blue chiffon gown - appropriately enough on the same day that Westwood herself unveiled her fall-winter ready-to-wear collection to the fashion world.
At Elie Saab's show, meanwhile, Kendall Jenner continued to reign supreme.
Here are the highlights of the day's ready-to-wear shows including reports from Elie Saab, Vivienne Westwood, Mugler and Nina Ricci.
MUGLER'S ROMAN FEMBOT
Designer David Koma oiled up Mugler's atelier design cogs to produce yet another robot-tinged ode to female beauty in Saturday's show.
Against a backdrop of a sun and dystopian red sky, a series of 36 tight-fitting looks filed past oozing power and sexual confidence - exposing the midriff, leg, shoulder and cleavage.
Stiff shimmering black leather bodices evoked the mechanical theme that has quickly become associated with Koma's designs, and with near-fetishistic bands wrapping the bust and fluttering, frayed ribbons in the skirt.
At times the silhouette - circular collar, stiff bodice and short slim skirt - channeled a sort of Roman centurion.
It was a woman dressed as if ready for battle.
The saleable collection mellowed as it progressed to produce its best look: a slinky cream and burnt orange satin gown, with a flash of a sporty stripe.
ELIE SAAB'S DARK GLAMOUR
Lebanese designer Elie Saab turned up the glamour stakes for fall-winter in his dark, sultry and brooding collection that riffed on the Seventies.
Lashings of lace, fur, ribbons and masses of decorative layering adorned feminine floor length gowns that often fluttered with the delicacy of the fabric.
For once, the overriding sensuality of the 56 looks wasn't achieved by exposing inches of flesh, as is often the case with the popular 51-year-old designer.
In this more subtle show, it was the suggestion of flesh, made faintly visible by sections of sheer tulle and lace, which gave the gowns their power.
The darker palette - lots of black, deep red and ultramarine - gave this collection a more sophisticated feel.
But occasional flashes of Seventies boho prints, like one red tie-dye style silk gown modelled by Kendall Jenner, also ensured the collection had a little fun.
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD IS RENAMED
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has renamed her Gold Label brand, which she presents each womenswear season in Paris, after her husband and house creative director, Andreas Kronthaler.
Kronthaler, a 63-year-old former fashion student of Westwood, whom she then married, has long worked on the fashion designs. But the name change "Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood," the house says, will signal a "new direction."
The changes came in a plan to streamline the British house, a direction popular among established London-based houses recently, such as Burberry and Paul Smith.
WESTWOOD'S VARIATIONS
This season's installment of Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood delved into the styles of the East.
It might have been a new geographical direction for the house, but the eclectic fashion fusion remained the same.
Looks started with baggy Indian pants, voluminous layered coats and loosely-draped Indian-style fabric gowns that came in the colors of natural dye, such as Chinese red, orange and carmine pink.
But when Japanese-style platform shoes were unearthed it became abundantly clear that this collection's Asian musing wouldn't be confined to India, and would voyage far.
A wide Chinese hat was then followed by a pale blue satin buttoned-up jacket and pale pink sweater that conjured up the pajama styles of age-old Burma.
In the creative hotpot this season was also a pale blue 1820s embroidered satin skirt suit, and floral embroidered shirt that reminded spectators of the designer's obsession with historic fabrics.
Kronthaler proves time and time again that he's never one to be pinned down.
BLUMARINE STORE OPENING
Capitalizing on recent financial success, Italian brand Blumarine inaugurated their new Paris boutique Saturday with a VIP-filled cocktail party hosted by designer Anna Molinari.
Fashionistas took a break out of their busy schedule in between shows to raise a glass of champagne for the house founded in Carpi in 1977, where the company's headquarters are still located today.
The house, known for its leopard-rose print, cardigan with fur trim, and splattering of sequins, has proved successful on the international market and is sold by around 1,000 outlets worldwide.
NINA RICCI
Designer Guillaume Henry continued to move the gamine house of Nina Ricci in a more sophisticated direction.
The romance in the predominantly dark collection, with flashes of vermilion, was still present - but less so than in previous years.
The 42-pieces were very much rooted in the real world with some stand out oversize coats and jackets with a fine cut in gray, green and brown.
One white and black sheep skin coat was stand out.
Elsewhere, there were also some saleable riffs on the styles of the 1930s - the decade in which Maria "Nina" Ricci first founded the house in Paris.
One long sleeved blue-gray woolen with round collar oozed Katherine Hepburn.