Chanel, a universe to welcome the future. Miu Miu plays with aprons
In his debut at the helm of the fashion house, as the third creative director in its history, Blazy marks a break with tweed to experiment in many directions
The Paris fashion marathon ended on Monday with by far the most eagerly awaited event, for the symbolic significance of the brand as well as the time, almost a year, that elapsed between the appointment of the new creative director, Matthieu Blazy, and his debut: Chanel.
At first glance, despite the time change and the night rather than morning fashion show, the sight is familiar: an immense set stretched across the entirety of the Grand Palais main aisle; black and mottled, it looks like the surface of a distant planet, dispersed amidst the stars that, brightly shining, revolve around it. Metaphor for universality? Probably. Certainly Chanel, like Coca-Cola, everyone knows what it is. Or, even, Blazy's childhood memory of visits to the Grand Palais planetarium.
Arriva la prima modella in passerella, e il cambio di passo è subito evidente: niente tweed, o bordi a contrasto, ma un completo maschile con la giacca sforbiciata all’altezza dell’ombelico. Da lì l’azione muove in molte differenti direzioni; moltissime. Come già nel suo Bottega Veneta, Blazy lavora per frammenti, non necessariamente interrelati uno all’altro, o uniti da fili labili. Lí erano i passanti in una piazza, qui la storia d’amore tra Gabrielle Chanel e Boy Capel, alla base stessa della fondazione della maison, e di quella predilezione per il maschile portato sul corpo femminile - Coco indossava le camicie e le giacche di Boy. La storia non è immediatamente evidente, ma regge il passaggio dagli allungamenti modernisti alle esplosioni petalose, dai tweed stramati alle giacche scultoree, dall’iperdecorativo al puro.
It's a lot, certainly too much - a bit like with Karl -, not everything but everything, but despite the variety, it bears a strong identity mark, Blazy's, linked to the materiality of making clothes, the orgasm of technique. Great study on bags and shoes, as on bijou. In short, if the aesthetic reading leaves one perplexed by the uncontrolled abundance of stimuli, the same stimuli are perfect to make the public of aficionados and customers salivate, who will certainly find something.
The space theme returns, in another way, at Thom Browne, who in a patrician mansion in the seventh arrondissement stages, in his own way, a peaceful arrival of creatures from outer space. They are hoisted up on towering wedges and wear Browne's entire repertoire of shapes - risque jackets, pleated skirts, little suits and assorted formalities - in various stages of complication and volumization. The exercise, as always, is amusing, but remains so, unimaginable beyond the catwalk and therefore vaguely onanistic.
