Paris Fashion Week SS27: Part 1
And that's a wrap!
This season, Paris was preoccupied with character. Designers looked beyond individual clothes to ask a bigger question: who exactly is the woman wearing them?
After a week of collective dissociation from visual overstimulation, it felt as though everyone suddenly snapped back into the room. Herded into the Grand Palais, we joined two rather spectacular flocks: hundreds of glowing birds overhead and hundreds of VICs below, many playing the ultimate game of who-wore-it-best in the same Chanel blazer from last season.
For Matthieu Blazy, the birds represented freedom, as he continued his conversation with Gabrielle Chanel by looking not at one definitive Chanel woman, but the many women contained within her. The collection moved through different incarnations of Gabrielle: Edwardian corsetry gave way to masculine tailoring, raw-edged gilets and pencil-skirt suits, while sequined gowns and knits were constructed to feel as easy as T-shirts.
The casting was as brilliant as ever, even including Nigerian model Rachel Ojuromi, who has become known online for recreating Chanel runways herself. And then there was the soundtrack. Cinematic orchestration and the arrival of birds brought more than a few in the crowd to tears, before a giant “It’s Britney, bitch” rang through the Grand Palais and prompted a communal giggle.
Dyanira Hurbuscher opened carrying Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 bag from the house archives, before returning with it to close the show, bringing Matthew’s story quite literally full circle. A year into the job, Matthieu has completely reinvigorated Chanel and what a delight it has been to witness.
Rumoured to perhaps be Anthony Vaccarello’s last collection for Saint Laurent, if this was a swan song, what a very golden one it was. There is a certain conviction, and confidence, required to take a collection almost entirely gold.
Sahariennes, trenches, blouses and wrap skirts from the house vocabulary met Anthony’s own sharp shoulders, tiny suits and enveloping blouses, rendered in seemingly every gold imaginable. Lamé, organza, lace, brocade and even latex coated in gold leaf shimmered past, before black floating clouds of draped tulle eventually swallowed the light for the finale.
But perhaps what we admire the most was how little explanation any of it required. We know this woman by now. We know how she dresses, how she walks and probably where she’s going afterwards. Anthony hasn’t simply built a recognisable Saint Laurent wardrobe; he has built her entire world. If this really is goodbye, he left it shining.
DRIES VAN NOTEN
Dries Van Noten might just be one of the smoothest creative-director handovers we’ve witnessed in recent years. Rather than attempting to reinvent the house, Julian Klausner has taken everything at the heart of Dries and allowed it to flourish in ways we didn’t necessarily predict. For SS27, the result was colourful, emotional, joyous and completely delightful.
Julian looked to the simple pleasure of dressing up, and almost nothing was allowed to remain just that: simple. Tops were embellished and piled with necklaces, poppy-embroidered skirts met clashing colour and print, while sheer layers, brooches and flashes of lurex made even the everyday feel worthy of occasion. Yet amongst all that decoration, it never tipped into costume.
Dries- as we editors call it shorthand - has always been fashion-person fashion: clothes that invite a second look, a question, a conversation. Under Julian, that intrigue hasn’t disappeared. If anything, there’s even more to talk about.
RUOHAN
Ruohan is a stealth brand, and no wonder. Ruohan Nie cut her teeth designing at the Row, and when she decided to go it alone, opening a beautiful showroom in her native Shanghai and offering understated, but cleverly designed, pieces with an obsessive fabric development eye, well, it’s working.
Her Spring/Summer 2027 collection was light, developed from a grid. Technically sophisticated, using drape and clever darts, her women wafted through a space dotted with large sculptures in a neutral palette and fabric choices that will be useful in this climate crisis, heat inferno moment that the upcoming Spring/Summer periods will no doubt bring. Someone to watch and invest in.
