Paris Fashion Week: Shocking Highlights
As Paris Fashion week came to an end last week, there are plenty of shocking highlights to recap on, such as step dancers, topless protestors, and a five-car pile-up.
As Paris Fashion Week 2013 hit the runway from Sept. 24 to Oct. 2, the spring and summer 2014 trends were a splash of daring colors, ocean themes, patchwork, and pleats.
While some things remain on trend, such as biker jackets and floral patterns, many new surprises strutted their way down the catwalk. These surprises included a step dance team that took to the runway at Rick Owens. Instead of having runway models show off his line, he decided to go with step dancers. Style blogger Susie Bubble was among many to respond positively, saying “Owens had made the most powerful statement this season. It is the show everyone’s talking about.”
More shows, like Céline, decided to diversify their choice of models, mixing in more African-American and Asian models. At Givenchy’s runway show, the models wore navy glitter masks with scarlet lips. A lot of critics are saying that this was to portray equality and color on the catwalk.
Over the past few years, the upcoming trends were safari neutrals or neon floral. For next spring and summer, be prepared to look beach chic with under-the-sea inspired trends.
Charlotte Olympia’s shoe collection for the season, Overboard, boasted sandals with diving mermaids for heels. Kenzo brought out the more serious side, with a surf-culture themed collection that includes a slogan T-shirt to raise money for the campaign against overfishing.
Besides water-inspired looks, Paris has changed the color of the warm-weather seasons. At London Fashion Week, the color of trend was buttercup yellow. This shade quickly changed to gold-foil sheen, or better described as “toffee penny” from Lanvin and Yves Saint Laurent.
To highlight some specific shows, here are some of the most memorable moments from Paris Fashion Week:
In Vogue, the runway became a dance floor at Jean Paul Gaultier’s show, where Coco Rocha gave us her best impression of Grease‘s Danny as she moved, and model Karlie Kloss vogued her way across the catwalk.
At the Nina Ricci show, topless Femen protestors stormed the runway, making it incredibly hard to focus on the actual fashion. Model Holly May-Saker claimed she punched one of the fearless ladies in retaliation. Saker said, “I punched her – I didn’t mean to but she grabbed my arm and I just wanted to get her off me. Thinking about it now, I wish I’d pushed them both off the stage because they ruined my favorite show.”
At Givenchy, a five-car pile-up created a smoking conversation piece for guests and viewers before the runway show ever began.
The most shocking news seems to be that Marc Jacobs could be leaving Louis Vuitton, meaning that this would be his last runway show with them.
Paris Fashion Week was surprising, to say the least. With all of the glitz, glamour, diversity and smoke, Paris Fashion Week 2013 was the most exhilarating yet. Let’s hope there is more shock and unique twists at the fabulous fashion capital of France next year.
