This season at Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice wanted to spark joy with his show. Backstage after his show, he explained how he came across a book filled with images of confetti, all shot against a white backdrop. ‘I found myself so happy, full of joy and optimism again,’ he said. ‘It reminded me of the optimism of André [Courrèges].’
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He made the book the basis for both the set —a confetti-storm in the brand’s signature white box backdrop— and the collection, with many of the looks created by draping a long piece of fabric over the model. ‘A streamer is just a long rectangle, and I love to work with flat patterns, so I just did a ‘streamer’ of wool,’ he said. ‘That was the first look.’
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The silhouette was used throughout, as dresses and skirts, in wool, leather and the house’s signature vinyl, which was reintroduced for AW25. Di Felice also returned to using colour, with pops of pastel pink and crimson red, inspired by something André Courrèges said. It was almost like a form of protection against the heavy backdrop. ‘He was saying, “I do colors because it's gray outside.” And honestly, it's so simple. But it says the same thing for [this] moment,’ Di Felice explained. ‘I wanted to put colors [in the collection] because I think it's really grey outside at the moment.’
Protection was a theme Julien Dossena explored at Rabbane this season, juxtaposing textures to explore concepts of finding inner richness. Furry and wool coats were lined with silver tinsel and sequin detailing, which peaked out as models walked by; dresses, too, had peek-a-boo sequin details, teamed with stompy boots and sparkly bonnets; lace-trimmed chainmail slips and more sequinned pieces shimmered beneath layers of PVC macs and sheer dresses.
‘It came from uniforms and how you play around with under-linings, how you keep the precious inside…and protect it,’ he explained.
But themes of modern femininity were also top of mind in the first days of Paris Fashion Week too, as they had been throughout the shows in Milan and New York. Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry, explored the tension of the contradictions between the sexes: ‘How could I give them something that both riffs on masculine archetypes… while at the same time allowing them to embrace the feminine divine?’ he wrote in the show notes. ‘What looks hard is soft, and vice-versa.’
The collection was also partly inspired by the designer’s childhood in Texas, with Western nods throughout, cowboy boots, double denim and a fringed leather overcoat mixed in among the red-carpet worthy gowns and velvet-textured suiting. Tooled leather (a cowboy signature) was used for bags and big-buckled belts, which were worn stacked over leather trousers and skirts, styled with the house’s signature eyes and nose-motif jewellery.
Chloé, now the poster-brand for French femininity, was pure Bohemian romanticism. The headline news was the return of the Paddington — the It bag sensation first launched by Phoebe Philo in 2004, which hung off of the arm of everyone who was anyone cool at the time — but when it came to the clothes, Kamali continued to craft her own narrative at the house, continuing to put her own spin on the house's core codes.
This season, lace, frills and frou adorned floor-length, spaghetti-strap dresses, low-slung maxi skirts and pussybow blouses with ’80s power shoulders, while sheer ballet slipper pink and cream dresses billowed as models walked. The outerwear was particularly strong, especially the long quilted coats with faux-fur trims and vinyl macs, which were styled belted with C H L O E charms.
Isabel Marant showed another side to the French-girl wardrobe, amping up the sex factor with clothes made for a good night out. Lacey mini-dresses and hot pants were worn with lace-patterned tights, oversized-blazers thrown over the top, the bottom of the tailoring just skimming the hemlines of what was beneath.
Meanwhile, Victoria Beckham zero-ed in on sensuality: a flash of stomach between a low-rise trouser and a slightly cropped jumper; a torso peeking through the sheer panel of a slinky dress; a little thigh between the hemline of a collar-less dress shirt that skims the hips and hold-up sheer stockings.
‘This collection was really rooted in a reality, but always really considering every, single detail,’ she said. ‘It’s all about the execution. Making things look so effortless but everything is so considered’.
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