Inviting editors into the heart of the Maison Margiela Studio, the house hosted the Fall Winter 2010-11 Line 0 “Artisanal” presentation in their own atelier. The collection was a study in skins and leather, utilising vintage crocodile handbags, cowboy boots, leather beads and furs to create one-of-a-kind jackets, trousers and catsuits.
The Maison Martin Margiela held their haute couture week presentation yesterday in Paris, with an afternoon of audiences coming and going from an intimate curtained salon in the Maison des Métallos, in the 11th district. With an automatic curtain sliding across to reveal the eleven silhouettes, the Maison delivered a coherent theme of mid-20th century evening gowns reworked into hybrid silhouettes, or ‘garment morphing’ as they called it. Each look was announced by a deep resonating voice over loudspeakers, describing the deconstructed outfits and their original forms and fabrications. A white spotlight centred upon each piece, keeping the models faces in darkness, in the tradition of foundation couture presentations – focusing solely on the garment and not the beautiful models.
Since 1988, Margiela has been offering Line 0, an artisanal collection for women that takes vintage and used objects to construct one-of-a-kind unusual sartorial creations. Past pieces include a jacket crafted from a mirror ball, a dress from vinyl records, and a coat of artificial eyelashes. This season traded the wit and tongue-in-cheek innovation of seasons past, rather focusing on a tension between the original garments and their modern day re-pros. The idea of static frameworks contrasting with the flow and drape of silk and taffeta was key, with the skeleton of one tuxedo coat outlined with black pearls, and a layered ballgown reworked into a dramatic one shouldered bodysuit. In another piece, layers of mirror were sliced to create a 3-d mirror dress, and one outfit was entirely adorned with pearls from waistcoat to boots. Each piece took a minimum of fourteen hours to make, some needing up to sixty five hours for embroidery and detailed feather work.
See the video below, where the voice of the Maison announces:
“Number 6: Chloé is wearing a cocktail jacket and pearl-pants. Three cocktail dresses in taffetas changeant from the 1980s are dismantled and gathered into an evening jacket. The first one – a long gown – becomes an extra long sleeve. The second one hugs half of the bust to finish into a voluminous shoulder. The third one covers the other half of the bust and creates a ruffled sleeve. A pyjama pants is made of strings of black pearls.”
Jacket: 45 hours
Pants: 35 hours
Certainly an unconventional approach to couture, Maison Martin Margiela creates a most avant-garde concept for the most historically classic and rigorously structured week of the fashion schedule. With the sense of change in the air after Martin’s official departure, this presentation remained strong in it’s through-line, and although maybe lacking the humour of the past, wavered little in the vision of the house.
Riccardo Tisci showcased the most spectacular and luxurious of Givenchy’s yearly offerings last night, with the Haute Couture Spring Summer 2010 show at the Salon Impérial of The Westin hotel in Paris’s 1st district. With a hushed crowd of press, guests, customers and family and friends of Riccardo, the production was a contemporary vision of the rich history of couture at the house of Givenchy, and a glimpse into the highest echelons of the international fashion market.
In a true whirlwind of vibrant colour and opulent textures, Riccardo sent out twenty three looks in a slow and steady procession, a single walk for each girl through the two chambers and a final group walk to thunderous applause. The collection took cues from the decadence of 1970s disco culture, while maintaining many of the baroque references that have become signature to his aesthetic. Luigi Murenu gave the girls straight and middle parted hair, and Pat McGrath created an intensely hued eyelid of navy glitter shadow with a vermillion lip.
A tightly sculpted trouser suit opened the show paired with frothy ostrich and vulture feathers beneath, and was followed by a procession of sheer layered looks in duchess satin, hand pleated organza, stiff silk gazar or soft lace. Progressing through an elegant palette of nude, black and navy, these first looks rung true to Riccardo’s pedigree – albeit breaking new ground for the lavish embellishment in jet, crystal, and feathers. It was however the final seven looks that stole the show.
As soon as Hanne Gaby Odiele strode out with hands in pockets of a flared jumpsuit entirely covered in blue and black geometric sequins, the following minutes flew past in a kaleidoscope of sapphire, emerald and amethyst shades. Closing the show in a degradé fuschia gown with beige crystal bustier was supermodel Natalia Vodianova, in absence of Riccardo’s muse and close friend Mariacarla Boscono [performing in Rome].
Although a pointed departure from the gothic, bedouin inspired collection of last season, Riccardo has maintained the key codes, techniques and metaphors of his aesthetic – reinterpreted with his emotions of the season, optimism for the times, and a mastery of colour, light, shade and grandeur.