Paris Fashion Week? Think of it as Project Runway on steroids. Which explains, perhaps, why it took me a few days to retrapper before writing about the experience.
Where to begin? Chanel built a barnyard for its fashion show, where his models were free to frolic in the hay. Alexander McQueen transformed his models into snakes, slithering along the catwalk. And over at Lanvin, lovable Alber Elbaz shuttled a tres dour Janet Jackson backstage before his show.
But for those of us focused on the season's big trends, the secret to dressing this season was divulged by Paris fashion's resident intellectual, Karl Lagerfeld. He declared, "there is not one fashion now!" That's pretty much what we suspected all along.
It turns out there is no "it" color, no de riguer length, no mandatory shoulder width or silhouette. Belted/not belted, skin-skimming or pouffed, you see it all in Paris, in its shops and on its runways. The City is what it always has been: the ultimate fashion laboratory.
In fact, for the last three years, Mr. Lagerfeld has told me, "this is the fashion of no fashion." And he is not the only Parisian of that free-spirited persuasion. Lanvin's Elbaz confesses his love for color, poufs, draping and fitted silhouettes came from all generations, all kinds of women, all of them in South America. (LOVE THIS MAN!! SEE VIDEO BELOW)
Translation: fashion liberation. Shopping our closets is fashion safe, and that's a good thing just in the nick of time. See, I was about to weed my closets out, jettisoning the Dolman sleeves, the Christian LaCroix-like poufs, all that gold and the '80's sequins, not to mention the removable shoulder pads. Instead, we all have permission from those in the know, to let loose our inner Ab Fab Edina Monsoons.