With a great Chanel show ending the season where Virginie Viard finally seems to have found her stride of defining her woman who is young, carefree and a bit sexy to Miuccia Prada bringing back a bit of the ugly chic she stands for with a Miu Miu collection of simple separates with corduroy as the new star fabric, the season ended with a message of real clothes over runway fireworks or logo brandishing which was the first post pandemic fashion moment. It’s about cut and line in gorgeous fabrics and the ability to distill a silhouette.
Chanel F/W 2023
Miu Miu F/W 2023
Demna at Balenciaga was the focus of attention, and he found his groove back with a beautifully tailored collection which eschewed the grandiose set and celebrity catwalkers and political messages of the past. Retailers are smiling happily, editors yawned a bit but all in all the four-city marathon confirmed the status of the fashion industry as a cultural force to be reckoned with ending with a conference at Unesco where Christian Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri spoke on a panel.
Balenciaga F/W 2023
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Christian Dior F/W 2023 collection
Valentino even went as far as bringing back the men’s tie on the women’s runway and the house was flooded with a few thousand requests to shop the runway ties while they are not even in store yet. Another sign how social media has changed the business as customers crave things immediately. A fact Jonathan Anderson at Loewe grappled within his show: How can you present a collection of clothes which still feels fresh after six months when they are seen on mobile screens worldwide while the show is on? Maybe ending live streams is a way forward for the bigger houses to keep their runway clothes a bit more secret before they hit the shop floor.
Valentino F/W 2023
Loewe F/W 2023
Valentino
Pierpaolo Piccioli is the designer most visibly engaged in a major turnaround of a staid Haute Couture house with clearly defined codes. He embraces a dark formality for his new collection for which the house invited one third of clients instead of press and buyers to bring a palpable enthusiasm to the audience. His biggest sartorial operation was on the white shirt which he paired with men’s ties and interpreted as dresses or jackets. Men’s power symbols to elevate women was a clever take on an edgy and sharp collection which played with mostly short silhouettes.
Valentino’s gender-powerplay
Mostly short silhouettes
Chanel
Focusing on the house icon, the camellia flower which was shown as a giant sculpture for projections of the model’s faces, and which waited on each seat for the guests, the camellia also appeared on the collar of trench coats and embroidered on the knitwear. Viard likes bicycle shorts and short hems this season and her attempt to take a good 20 years off of the target demographic seems to work with this simple trick. The beautiful dresses often with waist high slits soared along the pumping soundtrack in the Grand Palais. Her finale song “French Kiss” which boasts orgasmic moaning best describes the new territory Chanel is mining now.
Viard’s use of the iconic camellia-flower
Lace bikershorts at Chanel F/W 2023
Y/Project
To experiment with construction is the ethos of Glenn Martens. And not unlike Rick Owens with his very own code of signatures, Y/Project has been at the forefront of establishing a whole new look with denim. The buttoned panels which turn into sculptural folds along the legs, or the double layer fishing boot look have become signatures by now and reflect the immense craftsmanship that goes into making them. Half of the audience was dressed in Martens faded Mad Max regalia and flanked by his work at Diesel which is deemed a success after many failed reinvention attempts, Martens now has the statue to hold the spot of closing Paris Fashion Week.
Glenn Martens’ heavy use of denim at Y/Project F/W 2023
Staple Y/Project boot-looks
Miu Miu
This show has become a must to see on what is going on in the mind of the coolest 73-year-old in the world. Miuccia Prada and her styling partner Lotta Volkova are having fun at Miu Miu and it shows. The sexy secretary look as the core to the formula with a bit of ugliness in too tight and cropped cardigans and blended with classic wardrobe staples like corduroy in big boxy caban jackets made for a winner collection. Of course, it helps when you have Emma Corrin closing the show dressed in a simple turtleneck and bejeweled knickers.
Miuccia Prada and stylist Lotta Volkova seem to have fun with Miu Miu
Emma Corrin closing Miu Miu F/W 2023
Loewe
With a strong London showing for his namesake brand, Loewe designer JW Anderson nailed the theme of the season that less is more with a knitwear focused collection of gray cardigans and cape topped tube dresses. Channeling the artist Gerhard Richter – who at 90 will have a show of his new work in New York next week – by printing antique garments on white duchesse satin dresses, Anderson proved again that fashion for him is about provoking thoughts just like his fuzzy coats shaped like violas.
Printed on white duchesse garments
Strong knitwear focus at Loewe F/W 2023
