Olivier Theyskens mixes raves and black-tie at sunlit spring fashion show in Paris
The displays capped a diverse week with competing trends. While some designers fell for bright prints and fit-and-flare dresses with full skirts, others drew from men’s fashion with no-frills tailoring in somber shades. Stars including musicians Kanye West and Courtney Love pressed into the Vuitton show, held in a tent in the courtyard of the Louvre museum where models paraded in flashy outfits inspired by U.S. artist Richard Prince.
American designer Marc Jacobs has propelled Vuitton to the top by asking contemporary artists to customize its trademark monogram bags. For next spring, he sent out totes and handbags featuring bleeding stains of color and sentences lifted from Prince’s work. Clothing carried on the dishabille theme that Jacobs explored with his eponymous line in New York last month. Sequined skirts mixed with gauzy layers of lilac, pink and blue tulle.
Panels were sliced from the back of masculine staples so that a trenchcoat revealed a saucy lilac girdle and a tuxedo jacket exposed a lacy pink bra. “I thought it was quite cheeky,” style icon Victoria Beckham told The Associated Press. “For me it was a very, very fun collection.” Photographers loudly booed before the Jacobs show began because it started more than an hour late. Backstage after the Vuitton show, the designer who completed a stint in rehab earlier this year was a jangle of nerves.
“I hope you weren’t out there complaining!” Jacobs said as he greeted friends, pausing to ask a collaborator for cigarettes. “I’m really freaking out here!” Jacobs said the outfits were inspired by Prince, who created controversy in the 1970s by re-photographing existing images. Jacobs himself has been criticized for copying the work of others.