Inspired by Film: Lacoste Paris Fashion Week SS18

Sporty, funky, retro and fun. Those are a few ways to describe Lacoste’s Spring 2018: Paris Fashion Week show. It’s also the brand’s return to Paris after 14 years spent showing at New York Fashion Week. There’s a lot to say about the new collection. But perhaps the press materials describe it best.

So here we go:

It’s an anniversary hailed by a Paris homecoming for Lacoste, after 14 years spent on the New York runways. It’s also a clear statement for this symbol of French elegance.

 
Lacoste: Paris Fashion Week SS18

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That of its founder, René Lacoste, winner of the 1927 Davis Cup, whose charisma and creativity crystalized the sportswear DNA specific to the Lacoste house —comfort, chic, movement and innovation.

It’s a sports-inspired urban wardrobe, fit for all contemporary lifestyles. A timeless style, seen through a playful eye, for a new attitude as radiant as it is offbeat.

It’s a sports-inspired urban wardrobe, fit for all contemporary lifestyles

It’s with this legacy in mind that creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista has, for the past few seasons, been giving free reign to personalities plucked from the contemporary art scene, thereby giving rise to collector capsule collections.

The last guests to date are French artists and designers Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag from M/M (Paris). The outcome is a collection released in November 2017, as well as some of the original prints of summer 2018.

Their take on the logo endlessly repeating itself — the 7 letters of the
word Lacoste outlining the world’s most famous crocodile.

In a freer style painted with watercolors by Mathias Augustyniak, the mix of icons (crocodile, tennis ball, polo shirt and glasses), for a modern version of the couture scarf print.

To celebrate the abundance of diversity, Felipe Oliveira Baptista draws inspiration from French cinema, one of his first windows through which he peered into French culture.

Baptista draws inspiration from French cinema

The spring-summer 2018 collection, inspired by two antagonistic films of the mid-90s, freely combines the street codes of La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz with the “bourgeois” normcore ones of Eric Rohmer’s Conte d’été.

Their two worlds clash and intertwine inventing new attitudes, deconstructing and twisting the classics, all the while grounding them in their era and raising the question of what today is formal and informal, sport or sportwear.

The notion of play primes here. Felipe Oliveira Baptista no longer treats the heritage as sacrosanct and humorously mixes up the ‘bourgeois’ and sports codes adopted by the street.

Reacquires the iconic colors — navy 166, red 240, green 132 AND white 001.

Rediscovers the mist blue, flaming pink and anthore yellow, classic Lacoste pastels of the ’80s.

Stamps the crocodile on a loafer’s buckle or imposes it upon the golden buttons of a piped cardigan and those of a blazer cut from sweatshirt fleece. Has a new take on the double-breasted blazer for men and women, a favorite with René Lacoste, and rethinks the legendary 1930s high-waist trousers, with their front-pleats, folds and turn-up cuffs.

Transforms a boat shoe into a short-heeled court pump, bedecks the in-house handbag with a golden chain and reissues a 1990s sneaker model.

In order to better rock the boat, technical and noble materials rub shoulders, as seen with the nylon and suede windbreaker.

Or when the very chic cricket cable-knit is spotted on a cashmere tracksuit.

Windbreakers, pea jackets and XXL tracksuits with large brightly colored yokes, the go-to pieces the 90s youth, are re-released as high-tech version of themselves: materials breathe while fabrics are thermo-bonded and no longer sewn.

Hallmark of Felipe Oliveira Baptista, the intelligent garment is modular, like the shirt or cardigan grafted onto a polo shirt or a tank top, whose sleeves are tied, smartly, across the shoulders.

The beauty of the cuts brings about new freedom for the sportswear pieces made from openwork mesh nylon.

They slide over chiseled and bronzed bodies, undressing them, revealing a shoulder here, an athletic leg there, as if emerging from a chrysalis.

The Lacoste version of sexy is drawn from sport.

An all-natural sensuality, void of aggressiveness and far-removed from the clichés; a free body in motion.

The strapless yokes and off-one shoulder necklines emphasized by a ruffle bring to mind the radiant Isabelle Adjani in L’été meurtrier.

At the center of it all, the white polo shirt, a masterpiece created just 85 short years ago, has its second wind away from the tennis courts, and lends itself to bold proposals.

For men, it is worn oversize over a pair of jeans or then again, more classically, albeit with a slight twist. For women, it wraps itself around the body, slips off the shoulder or becomes an evening dress.

Thus heckled, its crocodile is forced to clamber up onto the shoulder, even as its button placket plunges all the way down.

A collection that rewrites with humor and inventiveness the house heritage, neither sanctifying nor freezing it, but quite the opposite, always keeping it in motion.

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Paris Fashion Week

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FWO

AALTO Paris Fashion Week SS18

(Represented by PR Consulting Paris.)

AALTO’s Spring 2018 collection, shown at Paris Fashion Week, was a show that raised more questions than answers.

Before the show even started, you could tell something was up, considering the invites had a VW car logo on them. Upon settling into their seats, showgoers faced a series of old static TVs individually broadcasting a letter, which spelled out “After Nature.”

 
AALTO: Paris Fashion Week SS18

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The overall message was highly political, and that says a lot considering the recent regression of U.S. President Trump, pulling out of the Paris Accord. The collection was tailored for those looking for meaning as we face climate change.

The clothes themselves had airs of high and low — a styling mechanism I’m convinced is here to stay. Then the balloon-like volumes contrasted some lax-body silhouettes, but bounced back to match YSL’s Spring 18 collection presented 18 hours prior. Though I’m not a huge fan of the summer gloves due to practicality’s sake, it’s a nice and refreshing touch.

There’s something to be said about suits here, as last season’s collection did.

Though less glamorous, AALTO had not only boy summer suiting, but a nice city slicker waterproof pant suit. Even a butterscotch high-slit skirt suit made an appearance, with traditional pleating. Gathers in irregular, probably inconvenient places, as well as handbags mirroring bicycle bags with a clip, easily attached to outerwear and jeans. A palpable streetwear infusion contrasts the ultra femme dresses, as well as a one-off burnt pink knit look. I still find that this brand shows in the wrong city, given its lack of interest in a uniformed or prescribed look. It screams New York to me.

The designer partnered with a Finnish collective to produce fake logos, it seems, to poke fun at consumerism, which I imagine AALTO stands against. The brand states that it’s a humorous way to promote inclusion and acceptance, but is this a bigger message against fast fashion? Possibly. The heavy-duty yellow bags sent down the runway were also from Finnish company Repack, which aims to reduce waste produced by online shopping.

is this a bigger message against fast fashion? Possibly.

The designer showed us a world of overuse, where we’re basically using the remains of a world we live in. The inconsistencies in the fabrics made me think that he used abused plastic, most noticeable in the handful of electric glitter pink looks. Is it a message to suggest that the path we are on in society is not sustainable? If we continue, that we’ll find ourselves in a place that is a fraction of what we are used to?

From the Press Materials

The working name for it, Anthropocene (gr. anthropos — “human” and kainos – “new” or “recent”), makes it clear in whose hands lays the planet’s future.

In other words, After Nature comes the epoch of the mankind. With it comes the realisation of the profound impact our actions will have on nature. The image featured on the invitation is a powerful testimony to this change of roles.

Our responsibility towards our planet has never been greater, and neither has our power to change it. This collection reflects AALTO’s faith that this change will be positive, and that with the right education and effort to raise awareness, the new generation can learn to cherish and care for the planet they inhabit.

In parallel to the geological reality we now own, we have created a second one, the digitalized version of everyday life. The internet with its overwhelming visual maze of information disguised as symbols, brands and logos has inspired the collection’s colours and graphical prints. As our attention online, the graphics (seemingly) lack focus—they’re a fun, witty mashup of all the colourful, unrelated, distracting images we come across daily, filtered through the AALTO eye.

With the information being so broad yet fragmented, the creative mind adopts a new unorthodox way of crossing references. The outcome is a collection mixing classic men’s tailoring, cocktail dresses, streetwear and strong graphical elements.

Emphasis in the collection is on loose-fitting yet feminine styles, including 30s inspired dresses in washed jersey and casual satins. Gathering, ruching and puffing techniques are used to create balloon-like volumes, accentuating the hips, shoulders and waist to enhance the feminine silhouette, in opposition to the now so street-embraced oversize fashion. All these items are treated in casual materials, and washes, to tone down the dressy-ness associated with traditional eveningwear.

The tailoring, and AALTO’s staple pleated trousers, are reworked for easy-going summer breaks in chino cottons and garment dyed, technical cotton blends. Sheer silks and English ultralight silk and linen blend in nude gingham check have served to make soft jackets, skirts and trousers.

Classic trench with slanted front opening is the go-to summer coat of the season, in declinations ranging from denim-like suede to lightweight nylon and soft cotton.

Colour palette is based on the classic mix of beige, black, white and light grey. Fuchsia and metallic pink are the most prominent colour accent, and the rest of the brutal RGB web colours punctuate the collection to uplift its optimism.

For SS18, AALTO commissioned Matts Bjolin, Antti Kekki and Taru Happonen from the Finnish GRMXXI collective, defying commerciality and traditional graphic design, to work on a set of humoristic “fake” logos. The graphical prints and patches originating from this collaboration decorate garments throughout the collection. The reworked logos transmit liberal values such as acceptance of differences, minorities and diversity.

After Nature, Fun, Bye Bye Baby, Play Play Play, Http, Grl Powa 4ever, Equal Virtuality and Flowers of Tolerance are among the logos placed, less or more discreetly, as prints, labels, plastic patches and stickers on pool shoes, knit jumpers and workwear overalls. The essence is the fun in it, and its immaterial irrelevance.

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Paris Fashion Week

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FWO

RIMOWA Hosts PFW Dinner Paris Fashion Week SS18

Represented by BPCM.

We’ve never owned a Rimowa, so we can’t speak directly to its charms. (Although we’ve looked at the new ones with the electronic tags, which are intriguing.)

But it was hard to not take note of a dinner held during Paris Fashion Week that played host to a who’s who of fashion notables including Carine Roitfeld, Karlie Kloss, Sidney Toledano, and Bella Hadid, hosted by Rimowa CEO Alexandre Arnault.

 
RIMOWA Hosts PFW Dinner

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(Other guests included Hailey Baldwin, Arizona Muse, Barbara Palvin, Taylor Hill, Olivier Bialobos, Bianca Brandolini D’Adda, aMiroslava Duma, Alexia Niedzielski, Elizabeth Von Guttman, Virgil Abloh, Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert, Laure Heriard Dubreuil, Sarah Andelman, Veronika Heilbrunner, Derek Blasberg, Olivier Zahm, Alexandre de Betak, Sofia Sanchez de Betak, Viola and Vera Arrivabene, and others.)

Held at Restaurant 1728 in Paris, the event marked the 80th anniversary of the RIMOWA aluminum case, a work in progress since 1937.

 
As the brand says, “throughout the years, it has evolved its shapes and iconic designs, while collecting the stories of its owners through records on its aluminum surfaces. For the past 80 years, our aluminum suitcases have been a record of our life in Cologne and although they’re made by our hands – with every bang, scratch and sticker — they’re defined by yours.”

Something to keep in mind if, like me, you like to spend a lot on suitcases and then keep them indoors for fear of them ever getting dinged.

Happy 80th to Rimowa.

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FWO

Paskal Paris Fashion Week SS18

Represented by PR Consulting Paris.

No one is creating ready-to-wear art quite like Julie Paskal.

For her SS18 collection, shown at Paris Fashion Week, “Head in the Clouds” is her metaphor or trope of choice.

Clouds become the main shape of the collection, as seen in laser-cut appliqués and the garments’ shapes. The color palette of the collection is inspired by the marmalade shades of sky: tranquil turquoise, juicy green, sunset pink, and white are replaced by black and midnight blue.

 
Paskal: Paris Fashion Week SS18

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A range of fabrics of different weights were used to bring a narrative to the collection, with weightless neoprene mesh layers with soft cottons gravitating to the heavy tech-crepe.

With innovative, on-point silhouettes and bold color blocking, Julie Paskal’s latest collection proves that she’s a top-tier, one-of-a-kind designer.

Paskal is a top-tier, one-of-a-kind designer

About Paskal

Paskal is renowned for delicate silhouettes and minimalistic shapes, which are reminiscent of innovative architecture and nature.

In 2013 architecture graduate Julie Paskal launched her brand PASKAL. 2016 was the turning point for PASKAL when Julie was honored to have her SS16 collection featured in the display window at Colette in Paris and she presented her AW16 collection at Paris Fashion Week.

PASKAL has more than 50 stockists globally.

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FWO

JOUR/NÉ Paris Fashion Week SS18

If Coca-Cola and JOUR/NÉ seem like an unexpected combination, welcome to the club.

We often feel that fashion week (or fashion month, really) is itself due for a bit of a makeover. Where others would see a less corporate fashion month, we would like to see what it looks like with some serious capital behind it … especially if it could somehow, magically, mean getting all of those ridiculous C-list celebrities out of the front row and back to waiting by the phone, along with all the Instagram selfie-takers who don’t know Balmain from Balenciaga. Fashion week for fashion enthusiasts? What a concept!

 
JOUR/NÉ: Paris Fashion Week SS18

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It seems unlikely that any of these thoughts were the impetus behind Lou Menais, Léa Sebban, and Jerry Journo’s latest collection (and what would we know, as we weren’t even invited to the show?), but it certainly wasn’t shy about announcing such a notable partnership to the world.

At the very least, with a title of “Secondary Residence,” the collection seemed to take inspiration from those never-had-to-work rich kids (who else would wear a tee celebrating Monday?) taking up valuable space in the front row.

Still, all-in-all, the Paris Fashion Week collection was bright, summery, and fun. Just the sort of thing you would expect from a COCA-COLA X JOUR/NÉ collaboration.

And the variety of models was also a welcome sight.

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Paris Fashion Week

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FWO

Wilfried Lantoine Paris Fashion Week SS18

Wilfried Lantoine continued to pay homage to the diversity of Parisian women with his COLLECTION 4, Spring/Summer 2018 collection.

By drawing inspiration from the diversity inherent to different districts of Paris and different generations of “Parisiennes,” Wilfried Lantoine offered a reinterpretation of the key pieces that shaped the French “garde robe” such as the trench or the mariniere. A nod to the past to look toward the future.

 
Wilfried Lantoine: Paris Fashion Week SS18

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(Photos: Justino Esteves)
 

With his new collection, Wilfried Lantoine tells the story of the new Paris, where multiculturalism mixes with classicism, resulting in a generation filled with contradictions and novelty.

Lantoine tells the story of the new Paris of multiculturalism

Key pieces include limited edition, one-of-a-kind numbered trench coats made out of recycled materials and a reinterpretation of the classic mariniere embroidered with song’s titles from Maud Geffray’s last album, a DJ with whom Lantoine collaborates with on this collection.

Wilfried graduated from the National School of Visual Arts of La Cambre in
Brussels before building up his skills working for Balenciaga, Matthew
 Williamson, Alexander McQueen, and Nina Ricci.

Special thank you to Plan8, Outlevel PR, and the entire team at Le Progres.

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FWO

Dior Paris Fashion Week Spring 2018

Revolution is, not surprisingly, again at the heart of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest collection for Dior. Not surprising because we are, after all, in a time of social upheaval unseen since the ’60s, although the changes are less about college campus uprisings than passion behind hashtags and furious keyboard clacks.

Say what you will about social media, its power as an engine of social change is indisputable, driving awareness of issues with hashtags from #YesAllWomen to #BlackLivesMatter, and making no mistake about what the population at large has to say about what is socially acceptable in a modern, pluralistic society. (Or, at least, the one we are all trying to create.)

But like any worthwhile artist, Chiuri isn’t content to rest on polemic. Art can never simply complain; its job is to convert that unease into something beautiful, or terrifying, or simply thought provoking.

art can never simply complain

So it is with Chiuri’s Spring 2018 collection, which asks, among other things, “Why have there not been great women artists?” (Originally the title of a 1970s essay by Linda Nochlin.) An odd question to be sure, in a world that’s been home to Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Berthe Morisot, Suzanne Valadon, Frida Kahlo, and “outsider artist” Niki de Saint Phalle, who formed an inspiration for the collection.

 
Dior Spring 2018

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Perhaps the question rests on what you consider “great.” Or — perhaps more importantly — who is deciding the answer.

Perhaps the question rests on who is deciding the answer

Unfair skewings are usually traceable to one group trying to dominate another, rather than allowing a free range of ideas, and offering a proper division of reward based on merit. This is why the issue of women’s rights has a larger echo, in the issue of human rights. A better, fairer world is — simply put — a better world for everyone to live in.

In the case of Chiuri’s latest Paris Fashion Week collection, although it may be less magical than her fencing-inspired debut of last year, it is imminently more wearable. It makes skillful use of the language of revolt, from military berets to sexy ’60s boots.

It makes skillful use of the language of revolt

Meanwhile, it incorporates late-’50s touches that almost recall Coco Chanel (no doubt also in reference to [erstwhile Dior creative head] Marc Bohan), with other looks making use of modern textiles and exquisite layering.

Or favorite elements, as always, are the tarot touches, that lend a necessary element of cipher: like a mystical portal opening to a better, fairer world to come.

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With love,

FWO