Paris Fashion Week: Midsummer dreamtime

The quiet murmurings between fashion people has been that we’d not had any big ‘moments’ yet this month. These arbitrarily designated moments can define the season and make sense of everything we’ve seen over the past few weeks - and Paris is usually the place to find them. We haven’t been disappointed so far. Three days of shows have already set the mind whirring with ideas. The scale of the presentations are big but it’s also the scale of creative ambition that has reached great heights. There’s a reason why Paris is still king of the fashion weeks: there are rarely dud shows. And even when they are duds, they still give food for thought. House rules Primary-hued Mondrian influences at Balmain (Source: graziadressau.com) Paris is full of maisons: brands with a rich legacy and a creative director who has to balance out the house ‘codes’ as well as push things forward in order to excite the press and the buyers. Balenciaga is one of the biggies, and Alexander Wang showed he was going to do things his way by switching up the venue and sending plumes of smoke through an octagonal-tiled, Perspex runway. The collection centered around basketball netting, and second-skin cycling gear was imbued with Wang’s knack for street-led cool, with sci-fi sunglasses and couture slippers turned into sporty flats. It’s a world away from the past of this Spanish couturier’s house but a step towards its future. Julien Dossena, who incidentally was an alum of Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquiere, is heading up the creative direction of another Spanish legend-turned-house at Paco Rabanne. He too went down the sporty route, cutting asymmetric, sensual lines on the body and adding movement to chainmail and metal embroideries. Dossena gives a much-needed lightness and subtlety at the house. Olivier Rousteing at Balmain is now pretty much free to do as he pleases. He has his ‘Balmain Army’ of models, superstar friends like Rihanna and a huge Instagram following. These became themes to his new collection as he drew lines on the body, in transparent grid, body-conscious dresses that sparkled in Mondrian-esque primary colours. Rousteing is expressing the power and va-va-voom that we have come to expect from Balmain but in his own language and with his own generational references. That will push a house forward. Moment in time

(Patrick Kovarikpatrick/Kovarik/AFP/ Getty Images)

Lanvin Spring/Summer 2015 - the French fashion house is 125 years old this year (Patrick Kovarikpatrick/Kovarik/AFP/ Getty Images) We wanted a ‘moment’, and we got one. Dries van Noten imagined a Midsummer Night’s Dream melded with the Summer of Love. His piece de resistance on top of his lush display of nature-inspired fabrics and prints was to have his models come down the tapestry grass runway and sit or lie down as though it were a meadow. It stopped us in our tracks, made us think and stand still (before resumingour social-media norms). It told us more about the collection than any other form of theatrics or performances. Rick Owens turned to tulle and beauty in a break away from his hard-edged tendencies. Women walked painted in white as though they were aliens. Magical, otherworldly and undeniably beautiful, Owens once again makes his world evocative and utterly convincing, even if it’s not a mainstream aesthetic. Lanvin celebrated 125 years in existence with a show that opened with former YSL muse Violetta Sanchez, followed by a slew of ‘oldie but goldie’ models like Malgosia Bela, Kristen Owen and Amber Valletta. This wasn’t about novelty casting. This was Alber Elbaz showing that he has made a name in dressing women of all types and ages; - so don’t go typecasting the Lanvin woman. Newbies in Paris

(Miguel Medinamiguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)

Newcomer Anthony Vaccarello’s thigh-skimming stripes (Miguel Medinamiguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images) First day of Paris Fashion Week and things already got interesting. Young Jacquemus had girls skipping down the runway in soleil-ready parasol-stripe dresses, endearingly referencing his upbringing in French suburbia. Anthony Vaccarello is not scared to flash the flesh, and for Spring/Summer 20 15 he created new erogenous zones in the thigh and the hip area as his asymmetric skirts were cut high on one side. New York young guns Hood by Air took us up the Tour Montparnasse, where they questioned the idea of nine-to-five workwear with provocatively dressed models looking menacing in an abandoned office. That old chestnut about Paris not bedding in new blood is fast becoming redundant. The city of light is glittering on all fronts. Also see: http://www.graziadressau.com/formal-dresses