British Vogue - 08.2019

In Paris, Maria Grazia Chiuri opened

the week with a Dior show that

presented clarified, almost functional

dressing. “I think a dress has to be

wearable,” she said, “otherwise, it’s a

piece of art you can put on your wall.”

Chiuri pointed to the sporty ease of her

blanket coats, oversized knitwear and

slouchy trousers, much of it rendered in

everyday tartan. “You have to make

creative pieces for real life. If I buy

something, it’s because I want to use it

every day.” Real life? In the fashion

world, things haven’t felt very IRL lately.

But at Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia

was feeling the winds of change, too.

Turning his attention to Parisian chic,

he accessorised his collection with

normcore carrier bags reimagined in

leather, evoking a sense of commerciality

light-years away from the couture gowns

of his previous collections. “I thought

it was real. When I walk down the street

in Paris now, that’s what I see,” he said.

“It’s for people who actually love fashion

and go shopping.” At Celine, Hedi

Slimane staged a similarly desirable

return to bourgeois modernity by way

of the 1970s: culottes, ladylike blouses

and smart tailoring.

Meanwhile, in his final show for

Chanel, the late Karl Lagerfeld largely

stripped away the quirk that had often

played into his work, opening instead

with the bare essentials of the daytime

wardrobe: the mannish coat, the tailored

jacket and the positively sensible high-

waisted trousers. At Chloé, too, Natacha

Ramsay-Levi put on the kind of show

you felt yourself mentally shopping

straight off the runway: a taupe shearling

coat, the perfect bomber jacket, and

unassuming denim, tailored to precision.

“When we are oversaturated, maybe

there’s the feeling that we want

something simpler?” mused John

Below: the new-

season collections

run the gamut

from sophisticated

black to soothing

neutrals, and sober

tailoring to sparkles,

kaleidoscopic colour

and frothy silhouettes

VALENTINO

CAROLINA HERRERA

BURBERRY

SIMONE ROCHA

RICHARD QUINN

ERDEM

LOUIS VUITTON

MARY KATRANTZOUMARY KATRANTZOU

MOLLY GODDARD

Galliano at Maison Margiela, whose

show was an exercise in paring things

back. Even at Valentino, for all its

dreamlike splendour, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s

designs were rooted in purity and

simplicity. Crucially, there was an ease

to their sensational effect. A rather

uncomplicated approach to dressing.

What Piccioli calls “simple gestures”.

At Louis Vuitton, the final show of

the season, Nicolas Ghesquière

displayed a 1980s-inspired collection,

fusing everyday dressing with

eccentricity via magnified gilets,

statement perfectos and long-sleeved

dresses with jaunty flounces. All bases

were covered – and that’s a sentiment

that neatly summarises this season.

Maximalism or minimalism, or a

magical meeting of both, perhaps the

key to cracking autumn’s dress code lies

not in the silhouette or the hue, but

wholly in the attitude. n

CHANEL

TOM FORD

125

JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS

08-19-WellMood.indd 125 10/06/2019 13:21