By CATHY HORYN
Published: March 1, 2008
Paris
The Chanel carousel erected in the middle of the Grand Palais, with a zoo of quilted icons bobbing up and down and great clothes, is a reminder of how big Karl Lagerfeld thinks. This is where so many of the brand revivals fall down; their designers can’t project a big picture. They are small-frame thinkers, tweaking at seams and having absolutely no impact.
Mr. Lagerfeld has been the puzzling and dazzling exception in Paris for close to two decades. For a while, Tom Ford occupied a similar position in Milan, when he blew up Gucci. John Galliano’s success at Dior has been mixed, while Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga has made a sharp instrument out of a beautiful but small gem.
Languishing, never quite happening is Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent, the prime symbol after Chanel of modern Paris chic.
Finally, on Thursday night, four years after he was appointed creative director of YSL, Mr. Pilati crossed that mysterious bridge to the big stage. In their movement, shape and attitude, the clothes evoked the swagger and spirit of the Rive Gauche era, when Saint Laurent ruled, just as surely as Mr. Lagerfeld’s capture some undefined essence of Coco Chanel.
Yet, like Mr. Lagerfeld, Mr. Pilati has imagined his clothes in stark contemporary terms. And in Mr. Pilati’s case, they are enormously appealing.
In a sense, he had been laying the foundation all along, beginning with the Parisian polka dots and bourgeois ruffles of his first collection. Even the missteps were a kind of step forward. If he had not done the coquette skirts and the over-rich violet prints — on a violet-carpeted runway — he would not have realized that Saint Laurent required iron and steel, and a good deal less colorful effect.
Building on the simplified lines of his spring 2008 collection, Mr. Pilati added flare to his geometry. For coats and jackets in Donegal tweed and black felt, this was done by keeping the shoulders clean and sharp, the body snug, and putting volume in the tails and hem, so that the unlined coats caught just enough air as the black-wigged models walked briskly along.
Underneath were dark turtlenecks and classic Saint Laurent trousers (cuffed above the ankles) or a new, wider-pegged style in black or chocolate flock.
As Mr. Pilati explained beforehand, flock has a more industrial look than velvet — and to him, that’s modern. He used the material for a close-fitting brown blouson jacket, shown with a gold-chain choker and a black felt skirt that hugged the hips and then flared out, with an off-center divide that lent it shape and interest.
Not only did the collection show a lot of versatility, with an easy-fitting pencil skirt in Donegal worn with a matching pop-over top and a tiered brown wool wrap dress that flashed a strip of cerulean blue from under the hem, but it also had the occasional eccentric piece. Among them was a sharp cocktail dress in burnt yellow Tokyo silk with a center strip of black flock, and a stiff, opulent cotton shirt with the texture (but not the old story) of piqué.
It is indeed a strange thing to realize that a brand is not just a name, or a certain silhouette, or palette. It is also the expression of a specific feeling and place in the consciousness: Rive Gauche. That is what Mr. Pilati has finally tapped into and projected in a big way.
Even people who know Mr. Lagerfeld tend to forget that despite his taste and sense of performance — if you don’t see him around town, you do catch his bronze Hummer — he is actually a down-to-earth fellow.
That is a good way, though, to view his Chanel collection. No style is ever too far from the reality of the street, whether it’s the new, longer wool jacket belted tightly over a slim short skirt, or a navy ribbed boat sweater worn over a semi-shredded denim miniskirt. The clothes are darker and more urban in mood than they were in the spring show, with some of the woolen suits scratched and subtly frayed in places to give a contemporary (if costly) élan.
Mr. Lagerfeld likes double meanings. The front view of stockings is of bare legs; from the rear, they’re opaque black. There are also lace versions. The double effect is repeated in the evening clothes, with an austere tunic in marine-blue satin that is open in the back and loosely strung with jewels, and worn with a straight long skirt.
Sometimes fashion is not about fashion. It is about social success, too. Giambattista Valli loaded his front row on Thursday with young London socialites, as well as Mary-Kate Olsen and the Fiat heir Lapo Elkann.
One wondered, though, if there was a correlation between his clients’ party skills and the preposterous couture shapes of the dresses, which featured grilles of ruffles, pillow backs of fur, inexplicable bulges and cavities of satin, and a large raspberry-like clump planted on the shoulder of a gown.
Mr. Valli makes good clothes, but would his clients necessarily care or notice when they’re not?
Sonia Rykiel opened her show Friday with candy-striped knits and some brightly charming sweaters and tops in abstract animal patterns; I could just make out a German shepherd.
The clothes were cute and friendly, with black tights and Oxford platforms, and the odd romantic fur paired with foxy wool shorts.
Paris
The Chanel carousel erected in the middle of the Grand Palais, with a zoo of quilted icons bobbing up and down and great clothes, is a reminder of how big Karl Lagerfeld thinks. This is where so many of the brand revivals fall down; their designers can’t project a big picture. They are small-frame thinkers, tweaking at seams and having absolutely no impact.
Mr. Lagerfeld has been the puzzling and dazzling exception in Paris for close to two decades. For a while, Tom Ford occupied a similar position in Milan, when he blew up Gucci. John Galliano’s success at Dior has been mixed, while Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga has made a sharp instrument out of a beautiful but small gem.
Languishing, never quite happening is Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent, the prime symbol after Chanel of modern Paris chic.
Finally, on Thursday night, four years after he was appointed creative director of YSL, Mr. Pilati crossed that mysterious bridge to the big stage. In their movement, shape and attitude, the clothes evoked the swagger and spirit of the Rive Gauche era, when Saint Laurent ruled, just as surely as Mr. Lagerfeld’s capture some undefined essence of Coco Chanel.
Yet, like Mr. Lagerfeld, Mr. Pilati has imagined his clothes in stark contemporary terms. And in Mr. Pilati’s case, they are enormously appealing.
In a sense, he had been laying the foundation all along, beginning with the Parisian polka dots and bourgeois ruffles of his first collection. Even the missteps were a kind of step forward. If he had not done the coquette skirts and the over-rich violet prints — on a violet-carpeted runway — he would not have realized that Saint Laurent required iron and steel, and a good deal less colorful effect.
Building on the simplified lines of his spring 2008 collection, Mr. Pilati added flare to his geometry. For coats and jackets in Donegal tweed and black felt, this was done by keeping the shoulders clean and sharp, the body snug, and putting volume in the tails and hem, so that the unlined coats caught just enough air as the black-wigged models walked briskly along.
Underneath were dark turtlenecks and classic Saint Laurent trousers (cuffed above the ankles) or a new, wider-pegged style in black or chocolate flock.
As Mr. Pilati explained beforehand, flock has a more industrial look than velvet — and to him, that’s modern. He used the material for a close-fitting brown blouson jacket, shown with a gold-chain choker and a black felt skirt that hugged the hips and then flared out, with an off-center divide that lent it shape and interest.
Not only did the collection show a lot of versatility, with an easy-fitting pencil skirt in Donegal worn with a matching pop-over top and a tiered brown wool wrap dress that flashed a strip of cerulean blue from under the hem, but it also had the occasional eccentric piece. Among them was a sharp cocktail dress in burnt yellow Tokyo silk with a center strip of black flock, and a stiff, opulent cotton shirt with the texture (but not the old story) of piqué.
It is indeed a strange thing to realize that a brand is not just a name, or a certain silhouette, or palette. It is also the expression of a specific feeling and place in the consciousness: Rive Gauche. That is what Mr. Pilati has finally tapped into and projected in a big way.
Even people who know Mr. Lagerfeld tend to forget that despite his taste and sense of performance — if you don’t see him around town, you do catch his bronze Hummer — he is actually a down-to-earth fellow.
That is a good way, though, to view his Chanel collection. No style is ever too far from the reality of the street, whether it’s the new, longer wool jacket belted tightly over a slim short skirt, or a navy ribbed boat sweater worn over a semi-shredded denim miniskirt. The clothes are darker and more urban in mood than they were in the spring show, with some of the woolen suits scratched and subtly frayed in places to give a contemporary (if costly) élan.
Mr. Lagerfeld likes double meanings. The front view of stockings is of bare legs; from the rear, they’re opaque black. There are also lace versions. The double effect is repeated in the evening clothes, with an austere tunic in marine-blue satin that is open in the back and loosely strung with jewels, and worn with a straight long skirt.
Sometimes fashion is not about fashion. It is about social success, too. Giambattista Valli loaded his front row on Thursday with young London socialites, as well as Mary-Kate Olsen and the Fiat heir Lapo Elkann.
One wondered, though, if there was a correlation between his clients’ party skills and the preposterous couture shapes of the dresses, which featured grilles of ruffles, pillow backs of fur, inexplicable bulges and cavities of satin, and a large raspberry-like clump planted on the shoulder of a gown.
Mr. Valli makes good clothes, but would his clients necessarily care or notice when they’re not?
Sonia Rykiel opened her show Friday with candy-striped knits and some brightly charming sweaters and tops in abstract animal patterns; I could just make out a German shepherd.
The clothes were cute and friendly, with black tights and Oxford platforms, and the odd romantic fur paired with foxy wool shorts.
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