Few daydreams compel like the ideal, the idyll, the idol of Arcadia. Rural retreat, running through fields, still moments of congress with nature- it started with Virgil around 39BC, and there’s been no let up since. This utopia, this bucolic best, this neverland of nature spirits, is as compelling as it is fictional – but as a wiser person than me once said, never let the truth stand in the way of a good dress.
It may have been the hypnotic, pointillist-painted prismatics of the Parisian setting at the Musée Rodin, but the mood was early set with light magic.
Image: Dior
What could have been twee, seriously wasn’t – fields of flowers were taken into space via hallucinatory overtones; and given a deep, earthy sexuality thanks to slits, splits and sheers. (See: the tunic split that sent Tilda Lindstam down the runway almost naked); and that deep dark deep V in inky midnight blue velvet. And we haven’t even talked about the sleeves.
Raf refs were definitely there, echoes to his previous work for Jil Sander with those just-so clutched coats, but what struck me most was the new material: rustic nymphets on acid and the never-say-never mix of medieval miss and seventies starlet. The word 'contrast' finds its way into every fashion review, but here it seems just. The medieval references were armed as much as adorned: layered chain mail bodices compelled and repelled, light and heavy, and gave an otherwise princessy mood a backstage, back off feel. Walking to Pink Floyd, the 70s groupie was definitely invited to the party, but the overall mood was an altered state in which women feel simultaneously sexy, pure, earthy, spiritual, inviting and repelling, both pretty and avant garde. And aren’t we all?
The clothes looked best in movement: in the live stream, stuttering and starting over inconstant internet, glimpsing wide leg pants in mid-walk; diaphanous dresses and curled-up hems in mid-curl, witnessing the floor length velvet maxi coat in fluid, deep motion…
Runway images: Dior & Style.com
Writer, editor, coffee drinker.
No comments:
Post a Comment