Every season, no matter what the economy is like, you can always trust Paris to offer the best, most forward thinking collections over any other city. This season there were so many good shows, it was hard to not add about 15 other collections to this list, but these four will really take our future buys to another dimension.
Nina Ricci(also pictured above)-It's sad to see that even ten years after he was first heralded as a gifted designer, Olivier Theysken's supreme talent has always been on unfortunately shaky ground. And what's even more unfortunate is the fact that nobody seems to realize that since Theysken's designs stand on their own hypnotically poetic ground and are so precious, they should and never will be for everyone. His complex ideas should not be burdened by the pressure to run a huge house, and his ideas should not fall plague to banality. This designer needs expansive freedom yes, but we think it's become a huge disadvantage for him to be caught up with the pressure of being so commercially viable. After all of these years, someone so precise, so divinely talented, really deserves the opportunity to just be. And if the house of Nina Ricci really thinks it has any room in an economy like today's, it ought to stop hiring such ambitious and highly coveted talents and wasting them away because what they did to Lars Nilsson was no better. This was by far Theyskens best show ever, one of the best shows of the season in fact. We loved that it was a very Parisian strain of sci-fi power chic with a magical Ziggy Stardust feel, that the girls proportions seemed to miraculously look seven feet tall and about 18 inches wide, yet it wasn't clownish, it was darkly romantic, sexy and hypnotic and everything had an appeal that was beyond cool.
Dries Van Noten-After weeks of boring so called "economy proof" basics and a drowning sea of black, Dries Van Noten triumphantly brought a fresh approach to classic, beautiful sportswear with a much needed optimistic injection of energetic, if not off-key, explosive colors, all beautifully coordinated. He proved once and for all that he is hands-down the very best at making sportswear feel contemporary while at the same time giving it a thoroughly fresh, intellectual feel and artful bent.
Givenchy-No matter what they say, we love what Ricardo Tisci has done at Givenchy, and this was another fantastic, hopefully less polarizing effort. It's remarkable that after only a few year's at the house, Tisci has ultimately created such a strong platform for himself that he showed what we think are his greatest hits. Hitting the mark once again with strong, moody-chic notes, pyramid studs, asymmetrical pleating, tribal influenced hair embroideries, a polished military edge, leather, body-con. It was all here executed with the best taste and a cool Parisian hand.
Chloe(also shown above below)- Like many of the older more established houses to make a comeback in the 90's, Chloe too has been struggling with the recent loss of powerful designer and has had a hard time retaining it's louche, youthful, Left Bank whimsy. Less than a month ago new comer Hannah MacGibbon had us puzzled with her pre-fall presentation that might have had some great updates to the classic sportswear of Bonnie Cashin, yet it was too spare, a bit bland, traditional and easy. And the Chloe we have grown up lusting after, would have never fallen victim to looking like another Adidas collaboration nor like an A.P.C catalog like it has under MacGibbon's watch. Yet her end result for Fall 2009 was in our book, one of the best, purest takes on the 80's trend that was everywhere this season. It was a fresh observation of that era's sportswear with a preppy hand that somehow radiated that sexy, if not quirky, classic Parisian cool. There was not one single look, one single item, that we are not coveting, from the oversize parkas to the leather shorts to the pants, everything was dead-on-the-mark.
Chloe(also shown above below)- Like many of the older more established houses to make a comeback in the 90's, Chloe too has been struggling with the recent loss of powerful designer and has had a hard time retaining it's louche, youthful, Left Bank whimsy. Less than a month ago new comer Hannah MacGibbon had us puzzled with her pre-fall presentation that might have had some great updates to the classic sportswear of Bonnie Cashin, yet it was too spare, a bit bland, traditional and easy. And the Chloe we have grown up lusting after, would have never fallen victim to looking like another Adidas collaboration nor like an A.P.C catalog like it has under MacGibbon's watch. Yet her end result for Fall 2009 was in our book, one of the best, purest takes on the 80's trend that was everywhere this season. It was a fresh observation of that era's sportswear with a preppy hand that somehow radiated that sexy, if not quirky, classic Parisian cool. There was not one single look, one single item, that we are not coveting, from the oversize parkas to the leather shorts to the pants, everything was dead-on-the-mark.
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