Duel on the podiums! To present their 2025 collections, Chloé and Saint Laurent have resurrected the rivalry between two sacred monsters of couture. A nod to the first season of “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld”, the hit series released this summer on Disney+, adapted from the biography of the Kaiser by Raphaëlle Bacqué (ed. Albin Michel).
The rest after this ad
At the time, in 1972, without a permanent home but full of ambition, Lagerfeld, 38, dreamed of becoming number 1 and surpassing Yves Saint Laurent, who then reigned almost unchallenged over fashion. A sequence and an aesthetic that inspired artistic director Chemena Kamali for her second opus at Chloé.
The Parisian house even placed its new friend Jeanne Damas, who plays the character of Paloma Picasso in the famous biopic, in the front row: “The incredible strength of Chemena is to keep the codes with a collection resolutely designed for women and their desires for today. Like Karl in his time, she observes. It was good to see softness and freshness, a poetic interlude. I love this 70s mood. Chemena doesn’t follow trends. She remains faithful to her inspirations and her tastes. This is what makes the collection unique. »
Nostalgia was also maintained by Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent. Wearing big sunglasses, suits with shouldered jackets and ties, the models, starting with Bella Hadid, were dressed up as Saint Laurent himself for a show… on the left bank. Could it be otherwise?
“A French summer”
Fashion, the new time machine? Shoulder pads galore, red and black dresses: Olivier Rousteing at Balmain celebrates the stars of the 1980s. A retromania also assumed by Hedi Slimane for Celine. In a short film inspired by the novel “La chamade” by Françoise Sagan, his muse this season, entitled “A French Summer” and shot at the Château de Compiègne, the artistic director portrays the golden youth of the 1960s under crystal chandeliers.
The rest after this ad
Her heroines walk the garden paths with headbands on their heads, and type in pleated skirt suits, embroidered twin-sets and trapeze miniskirts. At Rabanne, we paid tribute to another fan of the sixties at the high mass of fashion. In this case, a gold and diamond dress, the most expensive in the world at the time, created by the couturier Paco Rabanne for Françoise Hardy in 1968.
Techno and streetwear amazons at Dior
Julien Dossena, artistic director of the brand for eleven years, brought this silhouette back to life by creating, in collaboration with Arthus Bertrand, an 18-carat gold bag… The most precious It bag of the week! Far from the pop charm of the sixties, Maria Grazia Chiuri and her techno and streetwear amazons hit hard with a foray into the 2000s. The Bar jacket goes well with jogging-style pants and sports jerseys. Sneakers play the thigh-high boots and jersey appears as the new noble material. References that seem far from Dior heritage.
And yet, already in 1962, Marc Bohan, artistic director of avenue Montaigne, infused the collections with pieces with a sporty look. With his Hollywood ballet created by David LaChapelle, Christian Louboutin, to present his Miss Z, a new non-slip shoe with a red sole, chose an aesthetic that could not be more 1950s.
A show inspired by Esther Williams
For this extraordinary show, “Paris is loubouting”, the Molitor swimming pool hosted the French Olympic artistic swimming team: “Esther Williams inspired me a lot for this show,” explains the shoe designer. A great actress, swimmer and performer, she has an incredible story. She was particularly celebrated in “The Mermaid Ball”, a reference film of Hollywood glamor of the 1940s, for her colors, her Busby Berkeley style choreography, all in the water. »
Would this “eye in the retro” side mask “zero inspiration”? Not at all, judging by the over-the-top creativity of Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, who parades, at the Château de Vincennes, modern princesses wearing crinoline dresses with boat shoes or sneakers that couldn’t be cooler. We’re definitely reviewing our fashion history lessons on the front rows. Valentino also inaugurated the Alessandro Michele era, summoning Martin Heidegger and Théophile Gautier in a ghostly setting of broken mirrors and palace armchairs covered in organza, to 17th century music arranged by the young musician Gustave Rudman.
In his “Pavilion of Follies”, we lose track of time, like in the cruel fairy tale of Yorgos Lanthimos. Between sequins, lace and turbans, the silhouettes are loaded with references ranging from the 1960s to the 1980s, three decades that Michele loves. A new writing for Valentino. Its creator, who since his Gucci years has given the vintage aesthetic its capital back, sums it up this way: “My dresses are deliberately old-fashioned. This is precisely what is contemporary. » In Paris, a city of history and spirit, the past has become the height of modernity.
Related News :