etween 1987 and 1996, the Japanese
photographer Shoichi Aoki captured fashion
editors at Paris Fashion Week, striding across
cobbled courtyards in high-waisted long
black skirts and modest, matching jackets,
or sitting together, hashing out the collections
in smart peacoats and thick brown corduroy
trousers. Unstaged and unfiltered, the images
documented an industry that was indifferent
to our gaze, on the cusp of the pomp and
celebrity the digital age would bring.
Today’s around-the-shows looks are
knowingly bold and shamelessly brash.
Yet, while René Storck’s nubby grey wool top
or Dušan’s sinuous inky velvet tunic maystruggle for attention next to the orgy of
print and pattern on display, a new, muted
mood is gaining momentum. ‘If you
talk to a lot of people who have worked
in fashion for more than ten years, they
want to be more laid-back,’ says Canadian
photographer-turned-fashion designer
Tommy Ton. ‘Everyone is overwhelmed.’
A lot has changed since 2005, when
Ton launched Jak & Jil, an online diary
of photographs snapped at the doorways
to fashion shows around the world. Back
then, his lens zoomed into the fall of the
latest collar or the fold of an off-the-runway
cuff. He recorded the pageantry that seemeda reaction to the diktat of black neutrality
as the industry norm. It was a time when
neutral colours couldn’t pop from screens –
when e-commerce pioneers such as
Net-A-Porter pushed bold, energetic styles.
‘It used to be suggested that you couldn’t
sell brown online,’ says Elizabeth von der
Goltz, global buying director at Net-A-Porter.
But two decades since the site launched, our
LED screens have been replaced with OLED,
allowing for more depth of tone. The advance
of video technology has helped highlight
fabrications up close, bringing even the
darkest colours to life: ‘We are really backingtonal dressing as a trend, ensuring we offer (^) »
This picture, cardigan,
£1,930; skirt, £1,565, both
by Loro Piana. Tights, £19,
by Wolford. Boots, €650,
by Legres. ‘Roquebrune’
chair, as before
Left, coat; roll-neck top;
trousers; jacket (in hands),
all price on request, by
Dušan. Socks, £12, by Falke
B
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Fashion