CLUB 21

Paris Fashion Week: Alexander McQueen

These are not clothes for everyday wear. Not, by a far stretch, even for a show girl. But what nailed the autumn-winter collection by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen was its sense of proportion and the way it evolved into the kind of spectacle and drama the label is so famous for. Starting with bell-shaped dresses, models in blonde hair and sci-fi visor were frames on which the shapes grew organically into outfits that Tim Blanks of style.com so eloquently described as “anemones swaying in the tide”. From snow-white, the colour scheme segued into light grey, then black then pink and a voluptuous red series before closing with another black. Restrained but ever so refined.

Paris Fashion Week: Paco Rabanne

If last season’s debut collection from Manish Arora for Paco Rabanne was deemed closer in spirit to Thierry Mugler than the eponymous founder himself, the Indian designer, obviously heeded the advice of fashion scribes: Inspired by an image of chanteuse Francoise Hardy in the early 70s, Arora looked deep into the archives and delivered an autumn-winter 2012 collection that re-imagined past iconic designs for the present. For starters, he scaled back on the futuristic Sci-fi element and maximalist aesthetic of the brand – and that of his own – to come out with pieces that are architectural and sculptural. And while faithful to the use of chainmail, rhodoids and metal, synonymous with the house, these found their way onto the collection judiciously as inserts, panels and/or puzzles on pieces. In the brand’s signature palette, gold and silver, and newer shades like blue, white, cement and ash, the collection is flashy but not de trop, like last season’s catwalk histrionics.

Paris Fashion Week: Sacai

Chitose Abe is very much the consummate mixologist. Through her reimagining and reinventing of the mundane and the pedestrian – cut, fabrics, styles - into new and exquisite concoctions, the designer behind Japanese label Sacai has quietly gained a cult following for her classic-with-a-twist clothes. For autumn-winter, she continues to refine her vision and approach of splicing different elements to form a cohesive whole. Hard military styling were softened with ruffles and feathers; and tough bikers were matched with tiered skirt. Seductive yet conceptual.

Paris Fashion Week: Stella McCartney

What makes Stella McCartney – and fellow Brit Phoebe Philo – such a hit with women worldwide is that the two have the genius – by virtue of being the fairer sex themselves , perhaps – to divine what real women want to wear. For autumn-winter 2012, McCartney once again exquisitely trode the fine line between wearable clothes and fashionable chic. And the story is inspired by traditional Savile Row tailoring, English countryside and a softened masculine silhouette. Highlights include jacquard, which is textured, embossed, embroidered and layered in shades of bark, all white and midnight blue. Knitwear is hand tufted with a tapestry techinique mixing alpaca, mohair and silk, paired with short skirts. The silhouette is fun, flirtation and 100 per cent feminine. And unlike her peers, who are all dead keen to push a multitude of – sometimes, ugly – accessories, McCartney made do with only a few choice ones: overtly pointed heels with white tech inserts on a biodegradable platform rubber soles and Betty envelope bags with zips inserted and edged in mock croc. Sublime.

Paris Fashion Week: Issey Miyake

Paris Fashion Week: Haider Ackermann

Haider Ackermann has, time and again, reiterated the duality that informs his aesthetic: His clothes are meant to be like an armour, masculine in nature, protecting the soft feminine body. And it is this sartorial yin-yang that once again underpins the fall-winter 2012/2013 collections. Among his signature drapes, the cinched silhouettes, there were details – motocross ribbing on jackets and leather coats – that suggest that the Haider woman borrows from or rather share her partner’s wardrobe staples. And ever the superb colourist, Ackermann delivered the collection in the most sumptuous of palette ranging from pumpkin, petrol to oxblood.

Paris Fashion Week: Tsumori Chisato

Following spring-summer 2012’s tropical outing, Tsumori Chisato, literally, went the opposite way this coming autumn-winter. Aiming for the Alpine slopes of the Swiss Alps, where she recently returned from, the quirky Japanese designer who is weaned on kawaii culture came up with a collection that snowed out the audience with skiing references. Ski gondolas were intarsia-ed on knits and sequinned on dresses; even something as mundane as ski poles appear as prints on T-shirt-dress. It’s a cool, colourful and cute collection that will find fans off-piste in fashion la-la land.

Paris Fashion Week: COMME des GARÇONS

If the fall-winter 2012/2013 is all about colours and prints, COMME des GARÇONS’ Rei Kawakubo nailed this trend-arch perfectly. First came felt dresses with exxaggerated doll-like proportions in an assortment of delicious popsicle colours. Then prints – from Yayoi Kusuma-inspired polka dots to Marimekko’s naïve-flower drawings to camouflage and leopard – followed on tops and shorts. Even the rose motif from the men’s fall-winter collections was reprised here, alongside long evening numbers encrusted with sequins. It may not be the easiest of collections even if describing it is such. If anything, the show simply reinforced the Japanese label’s directional approach and, that in this digital day and age, where fashion has become more about disposable clothes than anything, concept truly matters more than sheer apparel or accessories.

Paris Fashion Week: Nina Ricci

For several seasons now, Peter Copping has been honing his vision for the esteemed house of Nina Ricci. Feminine elegance, insouciant Parisian chic, and polished, discreet sexiness are all part of the DNA. For AW 2012, he pushes the label that much further, delivering a collection that has just enough creative cachet and still deliver on the desirability and wearability indices.

Paris Fashion Week: Lanvin

Alber Elbaz celebrates a decade in Lanvin There were neither epoch-making, headline-grabbing silhouettes nor revolutionary innovations in fabrications on show. But in a show of tour de force, the fall-winter 2012/2013 Lanvin collection was an exemplary showcase of the stylistic evolution of one of the most ferociously-hip labels of the 21st century over the past 10 years. Almost like a compilation of the best hits the French house has ever done, Alber Elbaz reprised his signature looks that helped transform Lanvin from a dusty label to one where the gold dust has yet to settle still: candy-coloured dresses; lady-like numbers encrusted with statement-making crytals and cut-glass; sensuously-draped goddess dresses that celebrated womenly curves; and using fur like there’s no credit crunch in sight worldwide. Sublime and totally desirable, Elbaz is the answer to that eternal riddle of Sigmund Freud’s: What do women want.