Paris Fashion Week on fire with Rick Owens, Gauchere, Rabanne, Isabel Marant

On Thursday, Paris Fashion Week Women unveiled another selection of interesting Fall/Winter 2024-25 collections. It notably featured a mesmerising show by Rick Owens, Gauchere’s elegant, minimalistic collection, Rabanne’s highly energetic one, and a hugely distinctive show by Isabel Marant.
 

Survivors from a distant planet, the heroines imagined by Rick Owens for next winter migrate as a tribe. There was something biblical about them, stooping under heavy throws, wrapped in ultra-long hooded capes, their torso swathed in voluminous scarves. An impression heightened by the fallen-angel jacket in pink leather, two wings spreading out at the back.
 
Stepping out to the poignant notes of Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, in a synthesiser version, the models seemed to have travelled from the distant past or a far-flung future, across deserts and barren landscapes. Owens offered these nomads a moment of respite, a soothing pause in the “savage times we are living in,” as the US designer said in his collection notes. He welcomed them in his home, in the familiar surroundings of his Parisian headquarters-atelier in place du Palais-Bourbon, as he did in January for the menswear week.

The collection exuded an urgent need for protection via its snug, enveloping outfits in recycled wool, alpaca and cashmere, and its silhouettes encased head to toe by hoods, gloves and imposing ogive-shaped rubber boots, which in some cases folded like an accordion, in others climbed way up the thighs. Some knitted tops with matching hood left the back entirely bare.
 
Knitwear was ubiquitous, with turtleneck bodysuits and long siren dresses with over-long sleeves and trains trailing on the floor. Space-traveller jumpsuits came in soft wool and in delicate hues, like pale aqua green. The ponchos, tunics, hooded dresses and coats were made with wool knitted and treated in a variety of ways, carded, felted and washed.
 
Huge coils of wool and soft leather, woven and rolled around the torso and shoulders, became bowl-shaped tops. Rick Owens also presented intriguing cage dresses made with thick sequin-scattered strips coiling around the body like snakes.

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Gauchere continues to articulate its uber-minimal, geometric vernacular with a penchant for neo-brutalist and Bauhaus construction, while adding subtle changes in pitch. A little delicacy has found its way into Gauchere’s architectural fashion, soft fabrics and more fluid shapes creating a cleverly calibrated collection caught between casual and tailored looks, the masculine and the feminine, structure and lightness.
 
“I have actually tried to render in greater depth a woman’s different facets and needs. She’s looking for a practical, contemporary wardrobe which also mirrors her multiple sensibilities,” designer Marie-Christine Statz told FashionNetwork.com. This season, she has notably worked on contrasting materials, using thick wool, flannel, leather, nylon blends and ultra-fine sheer jersey.
 
Austere pinstripe suits alternated with bolder looks, like the finely ribbed turtleneck bodysuits belted at the waist, worn under maxi overcoats or oversize men’s jackets, or like the long quilted skirt matched with a transparent top, and the flesh-coloured sheer tunic slipped under a black leather jacket. Soft mohair and brushed wool garments, like the captivating skirt-top ensemble in a surprising yellow gold hue, fit within a wardrobe replete with essentials, from ample suits to generous jackets and blouses, trousers, mid-length skirts, knitted dresses and overcoats.
 
There was plenty of leather in Gauchere’s collection, both luminously shiny faux leather and softer leather used to fashion tank tops, shirts, trousers and superb skirts in shades of maroon. Leather also featured in accessories, like handbags in the guise of pillow-clutches, a first at Gauchere, and like the boots cinched just below the knee, reminiscent of snow galoshes.
 
Statz also had fun adding a double layer to some garments, for example the jackets whose fabric extended and folded back as a scarf around the shoulders and neck. The same solution was used to lengthen the satin lapels in a dinner jacket-style coat.

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The mood was radically different at Rabanne, amidst an explosion of different styles, motifs, materials and hues. The models charged down the runway to a frenetic disco beat riffing on the notes of Tom’s Diner, the 1980 Suzanne Vega hit. Creative Director Julien Dossena had a field day concocting mix & match looks for daring young girls who just want to have fun, in which multi-coloured tights, their patterns in some instances enhanced with studs and sequins, added the final tweak to the silhouette.
 
The collection consisted of an array of seemingly very disparate items that could in fact be easily combined, giving the chance to endlessly assemble and disassemble new looks, putting together new compositions at will. There were small and large checks, tartan, houndstooth and gingham patterns, leopard and floral prints, polka dots and tassels, leather and wool, cocooning dresses and others instead made with glittering fishnet-like chains.
 
The secret lay in the art of the perfect match. Wardrobe essentials combined naturally with shimmering items. Like the shirt in black and turquoise lurex houndstooth fabric matched with rust-coloured velvet trousers, or the men’s herringbone jacket worn over an openwork metallic dress. Dossena handled the contrasts gracefully, with a keen eye for detail. Like the crystals set into a sweater’s thick turtleneck collar, looking like a diamond necklace.
 
For the evening, dresses with scarves or large tasselled gypsy shawls alternated with sleeveless silk dresses patterned with geometric motifs slipped over a marled wool sweater, and with sheer nightdresses decorated with rhinestones and sequins.
 

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The small bottle of Tabasco sauce on the invitation to Isabel Marant’s show promised plenty of colour. And as soon as the first notes of the show’s soundtrack began to vibrate inside the large marquee that, as usual, hosted the Parisian designer’s runway show in the Palais Royal gardens, the promise was kept. Her collection was infused with a resolutely Wild West-bohemian mood, featuring urban Amazons strutting down the catwalk clad in leather and tassels galore. A shark’s tooth pendant, suede shawls with long fringes, and leopard-print or lurex tights added the finishing touches to their looks.
 
“This collection is very much like me. We really had fun going back to the label’s roots. It’s about a genuine Isabel Marant girl, hot and spicy, with easy-to-wear items made in very luxurious materials,” the label’s eponymous founder and designer told FashionNetwork.com backstage.
 
The Marant girl’s uniform featured fringed boots, worn leather trousers, a cable-knit sweater and oversize shearling jacket, for a casual, easy-chic and comfortable look, completed by a cross-shoulder tasselled pouch. So practical. The Marant girl’s wardrobe consisted only of essentials she could wear time and again. Knitted dresses, leather jackets, aviator jumpsuits and a few bohemian floral dresses, the label’s signature item.
 
Isabel Marant’s palette for next winter is big on earthy hues, dark brown and khaki, with a handful of bright red ensembles. Leather was everywhere, used for biker jackets, trousers and shearling tops, very fine distressed suede jackets with long tassels, shearling gilets with pockets, snakeskin-effect trousers, tops in faux-leather and distressed leather with golden toggles, dresses and miniskirts, and even for colourful leather sweaters.