Paris waxes nostalgic: retro spirit of sophisticated ’60s at Valli, bohemian ’70s at Kenzo

Paris waxes retro with Kenzo, Valli collections

PARIS — Paris pulsed with retro energy on Monday, as the French capital’s fall-winter 2010-11 ready-to-wear shows moved into day six with Giambattista Valli’s feather-light display of 1960s elegance and a boho chic ’70s collection from Kenzo.

Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati was also channeling a bit of a seventies vibe, though he subjugated it to a stark, almost Puritanical aesthetic, topping off razor-cut black skirt suits with starched Pilgrim collars and nunnish bonnets.

Valli — an Italian whose sophisticated, ladylike designs have won him dedicated followers among the international jet set — delivered a collection of trapeze dresses and drop-waisted cocktail dresses in a frothy patchwork of sheer silks, fabric petals, tulle and furs.

Kenzo’s genial Italian designer, Antonio Marras, also looked toward a bygone era, reveling in the free, bohemian spirit of the seventies — when the 40-year-old label was founded. The collection of long light dresses and voluminous sweater-coats couldn’t have been cooler if it tried, (which of course it wouldn’t because trying is, by definition, uncool.)

French heritage label Leonard also raided its archive, sending out kaftans and little A-line dresses in a New Age-y, seventies feather print with suede appliques.

Another heritage label, Emanuel Ungaro, made yet another attempt to resuscitate the now-flailing house after last season’s grand publicity stunt — hiring Lindsay Lohan as “artistic adviser” — crashed and burned spectacularly. The label’s then-designer quit just weeks before the show and young Spanish designer Estrella Archs rushed in to prepare a collection that was ravaged by the critics. Monday’s collection, an endless parade of tiny bustier dresses, will likely fare no better.

On Tuesday, Paris’ ready-to-wear shows enter day seven with the displays by French eccentric Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, romantic label Chloe and luxury superpower Chanel — one of the most highly anticipated shows on the French capital’s calendar.

YVES SAINT LAURENT

What is it about the Pilgrim aesthetic that Pilati finds so beguiling?

The Italian designer sent out structured black skirt suits hung with the wide round collars or, stranger yet, exaggerated epaulettes in clear plastic, like what raincoats are made from.

A white poplin peasant shirt was paired with a high-waisted black skirt and round black collar with dangling plastic flaps. Another black pencil skirt and ample poplin shirt was worn with a multitiered black bonnet like those worn by certain orders of Catholic nuns.

Odder still, many of these rigorous, almost ascetic looks were worn with massive gold chains and dangling cutouts of people in profile.

It was an unsettling but not entirely unappealing performance by Pilati, whose uncompromising aesthetic has won him flocks of devoted followers though his recent collections have garnered mixed reviews.

Even among the A-list guests at Monday’s show, held beneath the lofty glass-and-steel ceiling of the Grand Palais, reaction was divided.

Porno-chic photographer Terry Richardson pronounced the collection “beautiful — super sexy and chic.”

“I think Yves would be happy,” he told The Associated Press in a post-show interview, referring to the label’s founder, who died in 2008 at age 71. But, in the interest of full disclosure, Richardson added “I have to say that I’m a fan of a big floppy hat, always. It kills me, it’s always amazing.”

Maria Shriver, on the other hand, was less convinced by the exercise.

The first lady of California and wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger said “I’m not sure where I would wear that.”

“It’s not really my lifestyle,” she told The AP from her front row perch, adding “I’m definitely not a fashion connoisseur, though. It all looked very high fashion to me.”

Other celebrity guests at the show included longtime YSL customer and the label’s one-time muse, French actress Catherine Deneuve, and Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue, who braved the frigid temperatures and icy winds in a silk blouse, a pair of high-waisted leather shorts and fishnet stockings — signed YSL, naturellement.

KENZO

A bohemian spirit infused Kenzo, as designer Marras looked back to the early ’70s, when the label was founded, serving up long, light gypsy dresses paired with boxy menswear staples.

Marras delivered jumpers in oversized floral prints, vests that glinted with embroidered mirror-work, fur accents and maxi-sweater coats in the madcap stripes and polka-dot knits that have come to define the Paris-based label’s patchwork aesthetic. Airy dresses in sheer flower prints, with low waists and long flowing skirts, were worn with boxy pinstriped boyfriend blazers.

And because it was a winter collection, the looks were layered with printed scarves and crazy, cozy knitted scarves and shrugs — items the brand consistently excels at.

Models, decked out in oversized shades and fedora hats, ate up the catwalk with long, swinging strides of their extra-tall platform boots. They wove in and out of the set of wooden poles hung with tangles of raffia as a soundtrack of Rolling Stones and Neil Young songs boomed overhead.

The sober palette of plums, dusty browns, teals and grays, was pure 1970s chic, in homage to the era when the brand — which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year — was founded.

Marras, an Italian who also has his own signature line, said he was inspired not only by the aesthetic of the period, but also by its reigning spirit of freedom.

“This is about fashion with no limits, with inspiration coming from all different themes,” Marras told reporters backstage. “It’s the idea of fashion as a melting pot, which is the style that Kenzo was the first one to create,” he said, referring to the label’s founder, the Japanese-born Kenzo Takada.

Highlights of the ravishing collection included a vest heavy with silver flower appliques, a boxy blazer with sleeves in sparkling leopard print and an ankle-length tent dress in blood orange flower print.

If this is freedom, give us more!

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

Early sixties glamour lived again in Valli’s gorgeous coats and cocktail dresses in a patchwork of frothy tulle, feathers, fabric petals and fur.

Valli has built a loyal fan-base with his retro elegant silhouettes in wisp-light materials like feathers and silks, and though he didn’t break any new ground with Monday’s collection, it was still utterly mouthwatering.

Trapeze dresses with panels of sheer silk at the midriff exploded in a riot of beads and flowers through the shoulders. Drop-waisted cocktail numbers had a thick ribbon belt at the hips and a full skirt in embroidered tulle. Panels of leopard-print fur were paired with shaggy white goat’s hair to make cocoon coats worthy of a 1960’s screen siren.

Brooke Shields, looking curvaceous in her camel-colored knit dress and pearls, hailed the collection as “stunning and beautiful and inspired.”

“There was something ethereal about it,” she told The AP after the show. “Giambattista’s clothes always make me feel sexy.”

EMANUEL UNGARO

The brand’s trademark color is fuchsia, but its future looked black.

Designer Estrella Archs — the latest in a series of designers who’ve tried unsuccessfully to reverse the label’s fortunes — served up acollection that had some strong pieces — like the flamenco-influenced looks in emerald and toreador red and swingy coats in a clever polka-dots-cum-leopard print — but sadly consisted mostly of uninspired bustier dresses in ruched bands, no different than what can be found at any high street retailer at a fraction the cost.

Coming on the heels of the young Spanish designer’s disastrous collaboration with Hollywood bad girl Lindsay Lohan last season, Monday’s display was felt like a missed opportunity for Archs to shine.

Archs threw last season’s collection together in a matter of weeks following the departure of the then-designer, one-time wunderkind Esteban Cortazar, who reportedly quit in a huff after the label’s then-president Mounir Moufarrige informed him of Lohan’s appointment as “artistic director.”

In the latest chapter of the dramatic saga of the house of Ungaro, Moufarrige — a Lebanese businessman who has made a career of resuscitating dusty old labels — stepped down late last year.

Lohan, it was reported, remained under contract with the house, although news reports Monday quoted Ungaro’s owner as saying the label has no further ties with the actress.

The “Freaky Friday” star didn’t deign to attend Monday’s Ungaro show — although she did attend British madcap John Galliano’s riotous display on Sunday evening and the Kenzo display later Monday.

Last season, the Ungaro presentation culminated in a near-riot, as hundreds of journalists and TV crews descended on the backstage to interview Lohan, who waxed poetic about her taste in clothes and just how much the collaboration meant to her. Without Lohan, Monday’s was a very different scene, with just a handful of reporters sticking around to interview Archs.

If the brand’s revolving door of designers in past seasons is any indicator, Archs’ position at Ungaro — which has been bleeding money since the 2004 departure of its founder — looked anything but secure. Even with time on her hands — and evidently without any interference from Lohan — Archs’ performance this time around was disappointing.

LEONARD

The French heritage label fielded a lovely collection that, while not deviating much from the flowery aesthetic that has been the brand’s trademark for more than half a century, still managed to look fresh and of-the-moment.

Abbreviated cocktail dresses in muted taupe and turquoise flower prints were embellished with triangular suede panels, and tunic-style shirts had long sleeves in shiny black leather.

“We went back into the archive, taking old styles and giving them a new feeling,” CEO Daniel Tribouillard, who has long played a role in the label’s design, told The AP. “We’ve been selling our prints for 50 years and sales keep getting better and better.”

This season’s star print was a feather design with a cool seventies feel. And in a shout out to the brand’s Asian clients — Leonard does about 80 percent of its sales in Japan, Korea and China — a lacquer red jersey had dragons hiding among the house’s classic oversized flowers.

A kaftan-style dress in the dragon was paired for winter with a stole in what Tribouillard described as “fur from the impossible beast,” a patchwork of black goat fur and gray fox fur.