Paris Fashion Week kicks off with stone and fur inspiration
It's the last of the major fashion weeks for Fall/Winter 2012 collections and Globe Style's Amy Verner is there, dispatching from all the big shows at Paris Fashion Week. On Wednesday, she catches the latest designs from Dries Van Noten, Marco Zanini of Rochas and Gareth Pugh
Whereas Dries Van Noten zoomed in on photo print landscapes for his spring collection, his starting point for fall, 2012, was historical Asian prints that he worked into soigné silhouettes.Jacques Brinon/The Associated Press
Here’s a studied (but not overwrought) grouping of pieces that express the Dries-ian attitude: a cropped parka, high collar white shirt, extra long crewneck sweater and a skirt that glints in stone pieces - presumably not sourced from a bathroom store. Town, meet country.Stephane Mahe/Reuters
After a series of more traditional applications of the prints, this look veers more toward flamboyant. Still, he does not stray from the men’s wear touches.Jacques Brinon/The Associated Press
Van Noten was not the only designer experimenting with a stony theme on Wednesday. Marco Zanini, who designs for the Rochas label, opened his show with a manipulated stone mosaic print. But he balances the all-over gold and bronze with proper, forgiving silhouettes.Jacques Brinon/The Associated Press
It was a textural, catchy collection, filled with wools that looked amusingly pilled and prints of varying scale (inspired, apparently, by postwar Swedish ceramic artist Wilhelm Kage). Crisp trousers flared gradually toward the stacked platform heels.Jacques Brinon/The Associated Press
The dresses that closed the show were a delightful exercise in exaggerating volume while underscoring demure, doll-like shapes.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Note the rich colours and fabric mixing. This recurring necklace consisted of pieces that formed a talismanic-style character. It could also prove useful as a kid’s plaything - except during teething.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Demure would not be a word used to describe Gareth Pugh’s intense, oftentimes threatening aesthetic. The exaggerated fur detailing- so plush and satiny - made me think of highly evolved wildebeest.Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Or, in the case of this dress, a vamp Vader.Benoit Tessier/Reuters
But seriously, Pugh knows how to work a right angle. Here, sleeves transition into triangular folds that connect front and back like an origami fortune-teller. The collar-cum-mask is something Pugh revisited from last season. Hey, she may actually be smiling under there.Benoit Tessier/Reuters