As we stand knee-deep in catwalk pictures and reports, and pick out the trends you’ll all be wearing next summer, we’re reminiscing fondly on our time spent in
Balenciaga’s track stars
Our Balenciaga crush gets bigger and bigger every season, and now we’re not sure if we can handle it anymore. We wouldn’t necessarily call ourselves a sporty bunch (Nike 10k aside of course), but by God do we want to get into the spirit of it if it means that we can wear Balenciaga’s sport luxe collection. Never has a leather hoodie looked so desirable. FYI: luxe sportswear has emerged as one of the biggest trends of S/S ’10 – we can’t wait!
McQueen’s amphibians
Alexander McQueen has always been ahead of the pack, and even though live streaming of catwalk shows has been very popular at Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton, McQueen made the cameras the stars of the show. Well, almost. The real stars were the models dressed like fabulous creatures from the Blue Lagoon, who looked like they were emerging from the sea (complete with gills). Although they wouldn’t get far in the water with those 12” heels!
Louis Vuitton afros
A brilliant collection mish-mash that was a first class ticket into Marc Jacobs' head! We left seriously considering buying a ginger afro wig.
Chanel’s jig
We are still tapping our feet to Karl’s barn-dance hoedown, thanks to a performance by Lily Allen and another covetable collection.
Lapping up Lanvin
Can Alber Elbaz do any wrong? Of course not! As we exited the beautiful show we heard someone say ‘that was the best show. EVER!’ Praise indeed.
Hussein Chalayan’s notes
The designer commentated the entire super-beach-chic collection in French. Why can’t every designer do that? It would be so much easier if they explained their influences as the pieces were presented. Or maybe that is just us being lazy?!
Viktor and Rolf’s confectionary
Every outfit was good enough to eat at V&R. Surely there is no tulle in the world after they presented these mind-blowing dresses, but it all went to a great cause!
Blooming Moncler Gamme Rouge
Ah, Giambattista Valli who designs Moncler’s Gamme Rouge collection, always pulls out all the stops with his Parisian presentations. Last year it was white horses and ‘Russian guards’ at the Opera House, this year it was an enchanted garden in the Musée d’Art Moderne. We walked on wet moss and peered into boxes to observe the seemingly impossible. Pink flowers grew over white jackets, and a virtual flower bed made us forget that outside the autumn chill was taking hold.
The surprise guests
Other than the sun, we found ourselves excited by the oddest sights. Model Miranda Kerr transformed from LA cheesy
The FROWERs!
That’s the front row stars to you and me. Points indeed to Rihanna who clocked in an amazing amount of FROW time, only challenged by Leigh Lezark. Both looked stunning everytime we saw them, but we were surprised by how tall Rihanna is. Tall! Janet Jackson made an appearance, but our favourite spot was REM’s Michael Stipe, who popped up at Balmain and Viktor & Rolf. Why he was there we have no idea, but it made us listen to End Of The World As We Know It on our ipods later that evening.
The Parties
We were quite well-behaved and civilised for most of our visit, but we did venture out into the Parisian night a couple of times. First to the Pierre Hardy party, where there were some serious shoes on guests (naturally), and a seemingly never-ending supply of champagne. We positioned ourselves by the window, which quickly became home to the
And so we’re back to normal back in the office, with bags under our eyes as the only evidence we were ever away. Well, that and loads and loads of show reports. Once we’ve untangled all our notes, we’ll be back to reveal the trends to you. After all, as the scarves and gloves are thrown on, you need to know that come summer you’ll be wearing micro minis!
- Kay Barron
