The Best of Couture Beauty
She’s been one of the most influential and important fashion designers in history, who was behind the development of women’s wardrobe such as sportswear and evening dresses, paving the way for fashion business to grow.
The idea of the little black dress with a V-slit designed by Coco Chanel set women free from their Edwardian corsets a century ago and recut men’s tweeds and trousers to modernise women’s fashion wear.
The recent haute couture shows held in Paris, are important to the French capital, involving famous dressmakers and award-winning designers in bringing out the very best of handmade dresses through fashion parades, with sometimes thousands of hours going into the craft and that would only strike a chord with the richest women on the planet.
The spectacular runway shows featured fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld, 84, who is globally renowned for his aspirational and relevant approach to style and one whose name makes as many headlines as his clothes, took her classic silhouettes to the runway and turned the femininity dial up to sugar plum fairy.
There was nothing shabby about his uber-girly collection, however, which pushed pretty till it squeaked. Yet amid all the frills and feathers, the bride – the figure that traditionally closes Paris haute couture shows – wore trousers.
Lagerfeld put Dutch model Luna Bijl in a white tuxedo with a long white feathered trailing cape. The designer’s nine-year-old godson, Hudson Kroenig, scattered rose petals at her feet.
While rivals Dior make much of their feminist credentials these days under Maria Grazia Chiuri, Lagerfeld may have felt the need to signal that Chanel women are no pushovers either.
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As well as closing the show, rising star Bijl, 19, also led out the run of pink and green beaded tweed suits that opened it. They were matched with similarly beaded mid-calf boots with transparent wedge heels, with some models wearing edged leather gloves in a very Lagerfeld finishing touch.
If the set of a French formal garden complete with fountain was decidedly less overwhelming than Lagerfeld’s usual Grand Palais spectaculars, the flower theme was clear enough.
As well as Sevillian black mesh flower fascinators, bouquets of tiny embroidered flowers lit up a large part of the collection that glinted with crystals and acres of fine embroidery.
One bubble-gum pink flower-fringed bustier dress with matching pink crystal-encrusted boots skirted Barbiedom, but the veteran designer just about got away with it.
And there was a very early 1920s feel about a run of black and silver lace and organza dresses where Lagerfeld played up their slit pockets.
Others, including a couple of coats, were hooped and cut just below the knee.
While the front row was less starry than of late – British-Kosovanpop star Rita Ora rubbed shoulders with Russian actress and “Valerian” star Sasha Luss – Lagerfeld’s models included two of the catwalk’s new American teenager stars.
Kaia Gerber, 16, daughter of 1990s supermodel Cindy Crawford, who is working on a capsule collection of West Coast-inspired designs with the designer, walked with Cara Taylor, who is still only 15.
Lagerfeld defended his choice of so young a model when Taylor first walked for him in Chanel’s ready-to-wear collection in March, telling AFP, “That is ridiculous. Kate Moss and Naomi (Campbell) all started at 12, 13, 14.”
Taylor, a 1.8-metre (5-foot-11) volleyball player from Huntsville, Alabama, has been modelling since last summer, when an agent spotted her in an Instagram photo.
Out-of-this-world is a phrase often ascribed to haute couture, and Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato took the description literally by sending out some of his models in space suits.
