Balmain
The day before the start of the Haute Couture Week, Parisians attended the Balmain show - without any accreditations or invitations. The show, ahead of the official schedule, took place right on the Seine: the creative director of the French brand Olivier Rousteing ordered a barge so huge that it accommodated a dance group of 50 people, girls in dozens of outfits from the couture collection and the singer Yseult, who performed a musical number surrounded by men in square sunglasses and black and white signature tuxedos.
The performance could be seen not only from the Eiffel Tower, which opened after the quarantine, and from the Notre Dame and Pont Neuf bridges, but also on the TikTok social network, where Balmain planned a two-hour broadcast. However, the live extravaganza lasted only a few minutes: first the sound disappeared, and then the image. Only the weather and the collection itself were ideal that day: in addition to new outfits, it included dresses designed by the founder of the brand Pierre Balmain, as well as by his successors Eric Mortensen, Oscar de la Renta and Olivier Rousteing himself. According to the designer, he wanted to acquaint viewers with the history of the fashion house Bamain, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. However, the appeal to the archives was also due to the quarantine: the suspension of the work of the studio did not allow to prepare all the new items on time.
Dior
In conditions of self-isolation, not only the new is born, but the old is also resurrected. So, being away from her friends, clients and employees of the Parisian atelier, imprisoned in her native Rome, Maria Grazia Chiuri decided to present her couture collection in the format of a traveling exhibition. To this end, the creative director of Dior came up with 37 different looks and dressed them in miniature, doll mannequins. Subsequently, they will be placed in special chests and sent to customers of the fashion house around the world. Only those outfits for which the order will be placed will appear in full size.
This technique was already used in 1945: in the post-war period, fabrics were in short supply, and the public did not seek to dress up in lush, long and delicately embroidered. To save the fashion industry from stagnation, as well as raise funds for survivors of the war, the French haute couture syndicate, with the participation of major designers of the era, including Cristobal Balenciaga, Pierre Balmain, Jeanne Lanvin, Nina Ricci and, of course, Christian Dior, created a mobile Théâtre de la Mode in outfits one-third the size of a man's height. “Born in more than difficult circumstances, but in solidarity and hope for the future, [the dolls] represented creativity, skill and pride in the excellence of French artisans, couturiers and artists. They are actually like a phoenix, a symbol of life, "- wrote about the exhibition director of the Paris bureau of American Vogue Susan Train.
The tour of dolls in new couture outfits from Dior Maria Grazia Chiuri showed in a short film directed by the director of the films "Scary Tales", "Dogman" and "Pinocchio" Matteo Garrone, who, by a lucky chance, also spent his quarantine in Rome. According to the plot, a chest with miniatures, made in the form of the brand's flagship boutique in a historic mansion on Avenue Montaigne, goes to an enchanted forest: mermaids, nymphs and even snail girls become clients, who, after seeing dresses with pleated chiffon skirts and a scattering of emerald and tourmaline stones, order themselves full-size options. Matteo Garrone also showed how the craftswomen of the fashion house worked on them. In gratitude, the names of the employees were mentioned in the credits of the film.
No less touching is the dedication to women, whose works, like the Théâtre de la Mode, marked the triumph of creativity in difficult, gray and full of hardships years. These are the photographers Lee Miller and Dora Maar and the artists Leonora Carrington and Jacqueline Lamba, whose surreal techniques became the basis for the color palette, silhouettes and details of the couture collection. On one of the dresses, you can see the phrase “Blanche et muette, habillée des pensées que tu me prêtes” (“White and silent, dressed in the thoughts you lent me”), taken from a poem by the Belgian surrealist poet Marcel Marien. “[With her help] we wanted to say that women are not just muses, but also artists,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri.
1 of 51 Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020 / © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Office Dior Couture,© Dior Couture Press Service, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press Service, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Dior Couture Press Service, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service
Dior Couture Fall / Winter 2020/21
Dior Couture Fall / Winter 2020/21
Ulyana Sergeenko
The news of the collaboration between Ulyana Sergeenko and Krestetskaya Line in January 2019 had the effect of a bomb. Still, the only Russian fashion house in the official schedule of the Paris Fashion Week has turned to a factory in the Novgorod region, which is reviving folk craft, for embroidery for the next haute couture collection. “For us, Ulyana Sergeenko played a huge role in climbing a notch higher,” said Alexandra Georgieva, who, together with her husband Anton, bought the factory, restored it and restarted it.
It was there that the creators of the short film, telling about the new collection of Ulyana Sergeenko, went - the designer has been actively working with Kresttskaya Strochka to this day. The unique embroidery of a clear geometric shape, which, according to the revelations of the craftswomen, "is not easy to combine with the model," this time adorned a black linen apron and cropped shirts. In some of the items, the cross stitching alternated with Vologda lace, another ancient element often referred to by the Russian fashion house. The craftswomen have also mastered the “tatting” technique of lace-making: it involves combining strips of lace with different patterns into a single canvas, after which details with floral ornaments are woven into it.
The silhouettes of some of the outfits resembled images of Hollywood actresses of the 30s - Joan Crawford, Diane Carroll, Dorothy Dandridge and Marlene Dietrich, with whom the former creative director of American Vogue Andre Leon Telli once compared Ulyana Sergeenko herself. Photos of muses flashed on a mood board located in the atelier of a fashion house in Moscow, where the second part of the video presentation was filmed. The third - and final - chapter showed the direct fashion show of the models led by the designer, as well as her walks across the Russian field against the backdrop of sunset. One of the final shots - the one where Ulyana Sergeenko sits on a birch fence - became a reference to Andrei Tarkovsky's film "The Mirror".
1 of 37 Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall -winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press- Ulyana Sergeenko Couture service, fall-winter 2020/21 © Ulyana Sergeenko Couture press service, fall-winter 2020/21 © Ulyana Sergeenko Couture press service, fall-winter 2020/21 © Ulyana Sergeenko Couture press service, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture,fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press -service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn- winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture,fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press -service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn- winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service of Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press servicefall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press -service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press servicefall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press -service Ulyana Sergeenko Couture, autumn-winter 2020/21 © press service
Chanel
Nature was so purified that Chanel showed a couture collection without the usual set design: no fountains, libraries, Montmartre and giant lions - this time the focus was on clothes. Dresses made of velvet, tulle and tweed, traditional for the fashion house, made their debut against the plain background of a Parisian photo studio - it was there that the video was filmed. Director Mikael Jansson, armed with a blinking lamp and an energetic yet light soundtrack from the musical duo Jockstrap, tried to approach the atmosphere of the Le Palace theater, which at one time was transformed into a nightclub and won fame with Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, Iva Sen -Laurent, Paul Bourget and, of course, Karl Lagerfeld.
“This collection was more inspired by Karl Lagerfeld than Gabrielle Chanel,” said Virginie Viard, the Kaiser's once right-hand man and now Chanel's creative director. - I thought about the eccentric princesses, about those women that Karl Lagerfeld liked to accompany at parties or at Le Palace. In taffeta dresses, voluminous hairstyles, feathers and lots of jewelry."
Remembering the eccentric princesses, Viard could not fail to mention Marie-Antoinette and her contemporaries, more precisely, how they were portrayed by German portrait painters (“I really thought about Karl's world”). Hence in the collection - panniers, wing cuffs, small puffs on the shoulders, square cutouts on the chest and rich embroidery typical of Chanel couture. In one of them, you can recognize the Maltese cross, which refers to the work of Christian Lacroix. This element also appeared in the Chanel fall-winter 2020/21 collection, shown in Paris just a few days before the start of quarantine.
1 of 30 Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Chanel Couture Press Service, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Chanel Couture Press Service, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Chanel Couture Press Service, Fall-Winter 2020 / © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall -winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture,fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press- © Press Service Chanel Couture Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture Fall-Winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press serviceFall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture service, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press serviceFall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture, Fall-Winter 2020/21 © Press Service Chanel Couture service, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press servicefall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press servicefall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service Chanel Couture, fall-winter 2020/21 © press service
Viktor & Rolf
“This is a home shirt or, I could say, a night dress,” said a voice-over from the five-minute film Viktor & Rolf, commenting on each look from the new collection of the Dutch design duo. Everything is like in the golden times of haute couture: a half-empty hall, a presenter presenting new products to clients, and lush dresses. Only if earlier splendor was synonymous with luxury, showiness and wealth, today it primarily helps to keep a distance, preventing the spread of infection.
The collection is dedicated to this difficult time, or rather, to the emotions that have become familiar to everyone during the coronavirus pandemic. It consists of nine images and is divided into three blocks: the first one talks about feelings of sadness and anger (through dense fabrics, clear lines and dark colors), the second - about changing mood (through asymmetry and seemingly incongruous shades), and the third - about the transition from longing to serenity (through lace, soft textures and embroidery in the form of hearts). “Love conquers everything,” the voice-over commented on the third part. "And we all deserve to be loved, regardless of age, color, gender, religion or sexual orientation." And this is perhaps the best conclusion that can be conveyed to people, including through beautiful clothes.