In Paris, Continuity and the Present Moment Collide

The fashion cycle is relentless: Once the tide changes, everything else looks dated, or worse, old. Keeping up is both a drag and a wonderful challenge for creators. The exercise of being at once oneself, spawning and refining one’s personal language, while adapting to the transient moment can be electrifying. Just look how much Karl Lagerfeld both changed and tried not to over the years, always offering his take on the air du temps.

The codes — both of designers and the brands they inhabit — clashed with “the now” to varying degrees of success on the second and third day of haute couture shows in Paris. With stalwarts of the craft like Dior, Schiaparelli and Chanel out of the way, Balenciaga, Robert Wun, Armani, Viktor & Rolf and Jean Paul Gaultier took their turn.

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut couture show at Balenciaga — the 55th couture collection by the Kering-owned house — was an amped-up display of fashion drama, packed with signatures of both the Italian designer and the brand he joined last year. Balenciaga’s sculptural shapes and gestural flou were dressed up in Piccioli’s unique sensibility for colour. This was couture in the old sense of the term — asking for Avedon or Penn to take a picture.

But despite how huge the outing looked (even more so in the scorching daylight), what stood out most was the extent to which the action commenced exactly where Piccioli left off with his last Valentino couture show, from the soundtrack to the movement to the final bow accompanied by the entire couture team. Despite claims of lightness and attempts at ease, the goings-on were weighed down by anachronism. It felt predictable, and needlessly grand.

Of course, Piccioli is doing precisely what he was hired to do: The many homages he has paid Cristóbal over the years were surely a key qualification. On paper, he is perfectly suited to the role. But providing a point of view on why Piccioli’s Balenciaga matters today — on how today’s woman really lives her hectic life — is where the brand ought to look to maintain relevance.

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Something similar happened earlier in the week at Boloria, the much-awaited comeback (co-ed, this time) of Olivier Theyskens. The decadent elegance, the drama, the deft hand with flou were all present. But it also felt, at times, like Theyskens had been frozen somewhere in the aughts and only now defrosted. A sense of the undone was captivating and fresh, but mostly came across as an exercise in extreme styling rather than something more substantial. A stronger connection with the here and now, a bit more forgetting of his personal archive will be welcome in the future.

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Robert Wun inhabits a bubble all his own: an angular fantasy world populated with otherworldly characters whose identities he builds through painstakingly constructed costumes. Costumes, not dresses: That’s what Wun’s creations are — arty drag. Which likely explains his success with the crème of the image-obsessed. Like it or not, Wun’s commitment to the craft is admirable, and so is his sartorial ability. This outing, based on dreamy feelings of naiveté, felt particularly accomplished and light: Indeed, it looked like everything was created by a child having fun, despite the sculptural quality of the silhouettes.

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In an age of generalised aesthetic chaos, clarity and consistency can offer solace, despite the risk of seeming one-note. That was the case at Armani Privé, where Silvana Armani opted for velvety restraint and the eternal play-off of masculine and feminine, in a charming palette of faux blacks lit up with thoughtful beadwork. The collection was well-edited and to the point, her subtlety and elegance commendable. Some more daring would help spice things up a bit.

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Standing Ground’s Michael Stewart — the London-based designer who showed Monday as a guest on the couture calendar— is a fashion auteur in the making. His focus on technique and the body is so relentless, his vision so clear. Both a sculptor and draper, Stewart and his deft hand belong to the Azzedine Alaïa and Charles James breed of creators. His internal beading approach to construction is a joy to behold, sparking a vaguely tribal frisson — the beaded seams recall ritual scarification. They rebalanced silhouettes that were rather classic, but full of beauty. The graceful restraint of Stewart’s vision was elating.

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Ever the conceptualists with a knack for catchy theatrics, Viktor & Rolf delivered a pointed, timely commentary on the contradictions of the now. Staged as a silent theatre piece, Restraint and Decadence — two identical ladies wearing identical gowns, one in burlap, the other in glitter and gold — performed painstakingly synchronised dress and undress on a rotating platform. Decadence and restraint came across as two faces of the same coin, with both expressing versions of excess — one by adding and the other taking away. Which is to say: Balance is what we truly lack today.

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At Jean Paul Gaultier, finally, shapely experimentalism was the name of the game. Duran Lantink’s body-distorting take on XVIII-century panniers and bustiers was humorous, dry, inventive, playful and thought-provoking, but also technically progressive. It made for one of the most interesting moments of these rather discombobulating couture days: one in which tech innovation — thermoplastic materials and 3D printing — met traditional handiwork, and forms got so distorted they turned into performance. Rather than over-decorating the wardrobe — as today’s golden boys of couture often do — Lantink focused on the silhouette with unprecedented freedom. He even did away with the need to beautify.

“I prefer to question the silhouette rather than the body,” he said. It made for a mind-expanding trip through history. What kept it all grounded and not costumey was the bluntness of tone, the direct, even crude sexual innuendo that is Lantink’s signature. It was a well-thrown punch.

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