Paris Fashion Week, which ended this Wednesday (March 9), surely will be kept in mind as the ‘Fashion Week of the Galliano scandal’. The nine-day-schedule started with a beat of the drum: Famous fashion house Dior had fired its eccentric and admired designer John Galliano after 15 years of cooperation because he had insulted several people making anti-Semitic and racist statements. This overshadowed the whole week and dominated the talks of the fashion crowd, who speculated who will become Galliano’s successor. The biggest chances were admitted to Riccardio Tisci, Designer at fashion house Givenchy. Thus, the Dior fashion show on Friday was the highlight of the week and became a memorable moment in fashion history, as the house professionally dealt with the whole affair through an emotional speech by CEO Sidney Toledano talking about values and responsibilities. The official show of John Galliano’s own label was cancelled and replaced by a small and private presentation.
Apart from this scandal, Fashion Week in Paris showed a bigger consensus in trends than the years before. Elegance is now completely back, and quite a lot of houses showed the tendency to a certain modern bourgeoisie. The presented designs were quite feminine and classic in a way of modern transformation. Some details were inspired by the ‘80s, and even more by the ‘70s. Designers and fashion houses like Lanvin, Loewe, Rochas, Martin Margiela, Hermès, Martin Grant, Viktor & Rolf, Nina Ricci, Dries van Noten, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy and even eccentric designers as Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Alexander McQueen or Jean-Paul Gaultier created garments for women of our days. Pencil- and pleated skirts in a knee-length or even longer, waist jackets, feminine dresses - close to the body or fluttering around the hips - could be seen nearly on every catwalk. The pants are on the counter march and often designed as shorts or wide floating boot-cuts, if not they are kept in the still dominating skinny form.
The second big trend is new purism. Prior to all other is to mention Céline. The Parisian house is getting more and more pure from season to season with simplified cuts and unicolored. The same design approach is taken by Damir Doma, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Haider Ackermann, Hakaan, MiuMiu, Akris, Rick Owens, René Storck, and also Roland Mouret. Clear-cut dresses and skirts, rigid coats, straight trousers and often voluminous jackets in a one-color-styling give a simple, but nevertheless, very elegant silhouette. In order to have a touch of decoration, designers very often added metallic wrist bands at the arms, which look like jewelry and are an additional eyecatcher.
Apart from the nearly 100 official shows, small fairs, presentations, and store openings completed the week. For instance, Michael Kors opened his first shop in Paris, Chanel cooperated with Colette for a crowded pop-up-store on the shopping spot of Rue Raubourg St. Honoré.
