FASHIONJoseph BenjaminFebruary 21, 2023FASHION, Fashion week, Paris Fashion week fall 2020Comment

Remembering The Top Collections of Paris Fashion Week Fall 2020

FASHIONJoseph BenjaminFebruary 21, 2023FASHION, Fashion week, Paris Fashion week fall 2020Comment

Louis Vuitton

“Arguably, all of fashion is a synthesis of the past, but Ghesquière makes a closer study of it than most. He’s compelled by the anachronous; for spring 2018, he clashed 18th-century frock coats and the high-tech trainers of our contemporary period. Here, there was more in play: Jewel-encrusted boleros met parachute pants, buoyant petticoats were paired with fitted tops whose designs looked cribbed from robotics, and bourgeois tailoring was layered over sports jerseys. Ghesquière seemed particularly taken with the visual codes of distance and speed—be it race car driving, motocross, or space travel.” —Nicole Phelps

“Hedi Slimane’s passion for the dress codes of the Parisian bourgeoisie of the 1970s continued unabated into fall 2020. Shedding a rare chink of light on something personal, the enigmatic creative director dedicated the collection ‘a ma mère’ in his show notes. What did his mother wear when Slimane was growing up in Paris? Was it something like the idealized Celine collection he sent out this time? That wouldn’t be surprising, because everyone did back then. Slimane was born in 1968, the momentous year of the uprising of French young people against the government, and was too young to have participated, but he would have seen the style of the ’70s through the observant eyes of a young teenager—exactly the age of the boys and girls who roamed his runway this (and indeed every) season.” —S.M.

Chanel

“‘Freedom!’ declared Virginie Viard during a fitting in Chanel’s rue Cambon atelier on the eve of her breezy show. Viard explained that she was talking about the sort of wind-in-the-hair freedom that a horse rider feels as the steed bounds through the landscape. That idea of liberation translated into a collection of unforced, woman-friendly pieces that embraced the house codes at the same time that they reinforced Viard’s own pragmatic instincts for comfortable, insouciant, no-nonsense glamour.” —Hamish Bowles

Maison Margiela

“The difference now is the purchase this collection has on 21st-century reality. Galliano’s ‘Recicla’ label is a step on from the ‘Replica’ reeditions of vintage clothing that Martin Margiela originated at the house, making sure to print the date of provenance on the label. Galliano’s purpose in studying vintage pieces is different: He lops and excavates structures to discover new forms, often ‘freeze-framing’ work in progress. And so, with this collection, ‘instead of slavishly copying,’ he decided that studio-reworked charity shop finds deserve to be sold as they are. ‘Now I’m feeling a little braver,’ he said. ‘The idea is that this voyage of discovery supports this feeling of being inventive with a conscience.’” —H.B.

Alexander McQueen

“The thoughtful collection opened with the sound of birdsong and echoing children’s voices, and reverberated with the thud of sturdy boots or flashing knife-steel shoes against the stripped wooden floor. The McQueen warrior women marched relentlessly on, in sharply tailored frock coats and slim-leg pantsuits gripped by belts jangling with jewels that included tiny silver hip flasks and metal-bound notebooks; dresses that resembled leather blankets draped like tartan shawls over fitted cuirass bodices; and a finale of fairy-tale ‘bird’s nest’ evening dresses of frothing net and embroidery suggestive of medieval folk tales: powerful romance.” —H.B.

Saint Laurent

“What was new was the way Vaccarello chose to riff on the kind of taut yet lush sensuality that Monsieur Saint Laurent was such a master of, twisting it anew by focusing on all those bourgeois gestures in high contrast with his slicked-up leggings. And what else was new, yet very Yves: the uninhibited sense of color, with Vaccarello working his way through the classic YSL palette—fuchsia to purple to emerald to hot pink—and showcasing it his own way through that extremely non-classic latex. After the show, Vaccarello laughed and said he’d only gone so colorful because he was always being told that he only does black, and that it might be a one-season-only excursion. Let’s hope not, when it so readily sprung to life here.” —Mark Holgate

Joseph Benjamin