Paris Day Nine: Fashion Is a Kitchen, Not a Laboratory

PARIS — Fashion brands need a clear vision, even more so at this critical moment for the industry, and too often labels fail to communicate with clarity. But fashion is a kitchen, not a laboratory, and brands need recipes, not formulas, if they are to resonate with customers.

Anthony Vaccarello is unafraid to stick to a clear concept per outing. “A show is about image, about making an impact; I am not interested in pushing all the buttons,” he said backstage, commenting on a collection that was even more sharply defined than usual, iterating a wide-shouldered, to-the-knee, sack silhouette with a sash tied low at the waist from start to finish, with the surprise of low-waisted ball gowns, worn alone or with a perfecto, in the finale.

The design was so stripped down to one thing, the look so devoid of decoration, that all the talking came from the stretchy materials holding things up, the gorgeous plongé leathers and the hypnotic colour palette of burnt oranges, desaturated reds and purples. It was an interesting take on the 1980s, faithful to Monsieur Yves while channeling the architectural flair of early Gianfranco Ferré, with some risqué diversion into rubber-y flower prints and animalier. But Vaccarello’s focus was so unremitting that the results felt both terrific and monotonous.

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The success of Miuccia Prada’s vision for Miu Miu is unquestionable. She has created a recipe that ignites desire. A recipe, not a formula: Mrs Prada relies on very familiar ingredients, and yet she serves up new dishes every time, with stylist Lotta Volkova her sous-chef. Miuccia is interested in the how more than the what and that’s the secret to her hold on the imagination of those who truly enjoy fashion and the act of dressing. They can obtain the result even in DIY mode. Think what she achieved by chopping down mini-skirts.

Now, she’s suggesting scavenging grandma and grandpa’s wardrobes to pillage well-known signifiers of femininity, and masculinity — fur stoles, brooches, bras, tweed coats, you name it — to turn classicism on its head by combining them in ways your grandparents would find indecent, unacceptable, disorderly. Perverting tradition is something she always does well at Miu Miu. “There is a sense of tension and anxiety today, and of fear. This season, we really wanted to create an elegance with nothing — through the everyday, through direct manipulations of simple pieces,” said Mrs Prada. The show, with a multigender cast was underscored by cross-dressing and cosplay that gave the outing a dizzy feel, like stepping into an Untitled Film Still from Cindy Sherman. Sure, taking away the how, there was barely anything new, but the act of cooking a hearty dish with the leftovers in the fridge felt poignant.

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It would be too easy to slash the Chanel show — another studio effort ahead of Matthieu Blazy’s debut in the autumn — as incoherent or downright random. Chanel certainly doesn’t struggle to get a clear message across: the code is universally known, with the brand holding an unshakable position as a signifier of wealth and high class. In this sense, a mediocre collection isn’t particularly consequential. And yet, the haphazard way key codes — the bow, the ribbon, the pearls, the camellias — were displayed on the catwalk today, playing with proportions, was discombobulating. Pearls got blown up, ribbons and bows, too. In terms of the fashion, the action swung in too many different directions: transparencies, childish femininity, shiny flaps, knitwear dressing and even odd incursions into sportswear with denim-like pieces fading into airy chiffon. It made for a dish that looked like it was cooked up mainly to keep merchandise alive on the shelves until the much-needed Matthieu Blazy makeover happens.