Translated by
Cassidy STEPHENS
Published
Oct 2, 2023
Paris shone on the catwalks with unbridled creativity. On the seventh day of this Fashion Week dedicated to women’s ready-to-wear for Spring/Summer 2023, the designers stood out for their inventive ideas, each with their own vision. The creative vein was powerful at Y/Project, sophisticated but more accessible at Ottolinger, glamorous at Atlein and minimalist at Ann Demeulemeester.
After a monster show in Milan for jeans manufacturer Diesel, Glenn Martens put on another show of force in Paris with the collection for his label Y/Project. The Belgian designer pulled out all the stops with a versatile, theatrical wardrobe, packed with new ideas and innovations in the construction of garments and the treatment of materials, particularly prints and dyes. Everything was a pretext for innovation and experimentation.
The designer invited his fans, who turned up in large numbers, to a 1920s building made of reinforced concrete and bricks. A raw setting, perfectly suited to this experimental collection. The show opened with enormous hooded mackintoshes that looked like monk’s robes. Right from the start, the tone was set with sweaters and cropped tee-shirts with corkscrews that went into a tailspin. Denim skirts with asymmetrical slits. Cotton shirts crumpled to the extreme, balling up to form rosettes on the torso, while crumpled fabric like paper was used to create sumptuous sculptural dresses.
Elsewhere, coats and jackets seemed to split and shift, with a completely different satin fabric similar to that of the lining taking over the upper arms, shoulders and neck. The collection is full of pretence, with two-in-one garments and the use of press studs, creating fleece shorts layered over a pair of checked boxer shorts; Bermuda shorts with the front of trousers buttoned on top; a cardigan intertwined with a shirt; and a nylon tracksuit glued to a grey jersey model.
The trompe-l’œil effects are also apparent in the use of special prints. For example, in white ensembles with rusty stripes, denim pieces that look as if they’ve been sprayed with colour, for a stained, worn and faded effect, and in the lace prints on jersey dresses. But also through tight-fitting dresses, which seem to reveal the structure of the skeleton as in medical scans. In the accessories department, Y/Project knows how to make itself more desirable than ever with necklaces in the shape of pythons, which wrap dangerously around the throat. They should sell like hotcakes.
Energy and a profusion of ideas also emerged from the Ottolinger show, with edgy silhouettes driven by movement, made up of all sorts of practical, playful and often desirable pieces that are easy to match together. “There’s always a conceptual touch and it’s very deconstructed, but it’s easier to wear, it’s not complicated,” sums up Cosima Gadient, who founded the brand in 2015 with Christa Bösch.
In just a few years, the small, experimental label has grown to attract the attention of fashionistas and the market, winning over nearly 80 top multi-brands around the world, particularly in the United States and South Korea. Its shows are among the most popular of Fashion Week. And Sunday’s show once again drew in the crowds.
“This season, we wanted to follow the Ottolinger woman through the arc of her day from morning to night. The wardrobe changes, but retains its coherence and the spirit of the brand from start to finish,” explains the designer. The first looks featured loose-fitting garments, leggings and little tops, jogging trousers, soft, flowing skirts and dresses in cotton and linen knits in a grey palette.
She then moved on to a stronger lexicon in a grunge vein, with denim outfits featuring velvet for a textured effect, but also trousers, Bermudas and skirts made from khaki and beige canvas from cargos that had been broken down and reassembled, while gingham blouses covered in brown stains looked as if they had been burnt. When it was time for sport, Mademoiselle donned bodysuits and stretch swimming costumes with fleece-like skirts obtained by superimposing various fine-knit cardigans. Of particular note were the sneaker boots, the futuristic skin-tight jumpsuits and the bags made with Puma.
At work, the Ottolinger woman never loses her natural poise. She dons practical bodysuits with trompe-l’œil printed jackets and ties, banker suits revisited as mini-skirts, tops and Bermuda shorts, or patched with visible seams. In the evening, she opted for a bridal look, all white, lace, embroidery and crystals.
Draping, transparencies, bare skin, textured effects… Atlein’s collection for next summer once again taps into the glamour vein, oscillating between 1950s Hollywood cinema à la George Cukor, and Marcel Carné’s cult 1930s film Hôtel du Nord, starring Arletty. With her haughty bearing, her hair pulled back in a large, high braid that waved down her back, and perched on transparent mules, she was a femme fatale who appeared on the catwalk, dressed in elegant sheaths and sensual draped dresses.
“Fashion is transforming itself by moving closer and closer to the entertainment industry. We’re starting to get a lot of requests from celebrities and private clients, especially in the United States, wanting to dress for an event. That’s the idea that inspired me to develop the collection,” says Antonin Tron backstage.
This season, he introduced a host of new textiles, including muslin for transparent bodices. Jersey, his favourite material, is used in zebra jacquards that resemble lace, in fine pleats, and in buckskin effects for jackets and blousons. He uncovered the woman’s body in small touches, with off-the-shoulder tops, high slits in skirts and cut-outs on the sides. He also played with edgy knots to tighten a skirt around the thighs, tie a dress with a diagonal slit or close a jacket at the back.
Ann Demeulemeester’s new artistic director Stefano Gallici, who succeeded Ludovic de Saint Sernin who left after one season, took to the catwalk for the first time in Paris on Saturday evening. The show started an hour late at Porte de la Chapelle, in a darkened railway shed. The interminable catwalk was illuminated by a faint halo of light as the models passed by.
The 27-year-old designer, who has a degree in architecture from Venice’s Iuav University and worked in Haider Ackermann‘s studio, joined Claudio Antonioli, the Milanese entrepreneur at the head of the multi-brand chain Antonioli, in 2019, at the same time as Antonioli bought the Belgian designer’s house, where he joined the men’s design team before being promoted to creative director of all the collections.
In this first opus, he picked up the thread of the house’s heritage, bringing it up to date. Streamlined silhouettes lined the catwalk, in nonchalant elegance of black and white, with an unusual flash of electric blue. There were suit jackets and waistcoats, white shirts and long ribbons twirling around the body to the floor, typical of the neo-Romantic style for which Ann Demeleumeester is renowned.
The designer played with transparencies, notably in devoured fabrics, but also with the leather belt, which appeared in mulitiple versions, around a waist, transformed into a bracelet tightened on a forearm, widened into a bustier, floating in a thousand strips in an apron tunic, composing a clutch bag with long fringes. He also tried his hand at making dresses and trousers from old cotton sheets. New, more contemporary items, such as cargo trousers with maxi pockets or crumpled nylon overalls, were added to the collection
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