The Positives of Paris

Human installations at the Iris Van Herpen show

Fashion month for the Autumn/Winter 2014 has come to an end, and the tedious work between now and when the collections will hit stores and boutiques worldwide begins. As Paris is the fashion capital, the trends that spurt out of the designer's collections are the most influential, but God only knows how or if designers from other streams of fashion will distort or glorify the trends. In every fashion week, there are the beautiful collections and there are the downright questionable ones, so let's save you the eye sore for the moment and explore the most pleasing.

The second collection from the resurrected Vionnet label was indicative of the naturalist fad that has come about in recent years. Goga Ashkenazi emphasizes the trend of the organic into this collection with the minimal floral motifs and brightly greens, and coupled with the structural form of the garments, makes the proposal of bringing pinstripe into some of the pieces welcome. The straightness of the collection, with singular block lines and blocky silhouettes, is somewhat a perfect contrast to the more organic elements. There seemed to be a balance of the positive and the negative looking back at the collections presented, so I took to analysing what made my favourite collections either of the two.

The pleats trend for the upcoming Autumn/Winter season is no doubt mastered by Yoshiyuki Maeme for Issey Miyake. The pleats in the collection are not produced in the usual up-and-down model, but flowed with the fluid forms of the garments. The juxtaposition of the curvaceous and the quadratic is apparent, with the squarish bags and prints diversifying this modernly beautiful collection. The cross-cultural and minimalist aesthetic of Issey Miyake has been preserved perfectly once again. 

Of course, one of the most anticipated shows of the season, Karl Lagerfeld unveiled the Chanel Shopping Centre - a pseudo-supermarket right in the Grand Palais and the sight of the Autumn/Winter 2014 show for the parisian pride label, Chanel. Amongst the shelves and piles of faux Chanel groceries, the models walked out revealing a continuation of the urban x high fashion look shown in the Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2014 collection. Pairing iridescent metallic sneakers with classic Chanel tweed is a a reflection of women today and of the past - chic yet fashionable, wherever they are and whatever they're doing. The glory of women has been personified in one collection - oversized coats reminiscent of the power dressing era of the 80s and an ode to the sudden rise of feminism amongst the youth recently. But, even though this symbolic collection emerged as the best of the week, the trend of mixing high fashion and urban trends is not new.

Now, don't be fooled, the beauty of these collections were much overshadowed by the preposterous collections by other respectable designers. As most of us know, fashion isn't always beautiful, and sometimes even the best of the best make mistakes, and I will explore these in my next post....

Images courtesy of Style.com, Louise Damgaard, Dazed Digital, Metro, Marie Claire, Chanel and Fashionising