
Louis Vuitton, Dries Van Noten, Marni
The most upbeat shows of the season were Marni and Louis Vuitton, both of them orgies of colour, print and texture. It was hard not to smile at the eccentric self-assurance of Consuelo Castiglioni’s and Marc Jacobs’ creations. You know how fashion authorities are always advising you to break up designer looks and make them your own by integrating an item or two into your own wardrobe? Well, what I perversely liked most about Marni and Vuitton was, in both cases, that I felt the clothes would benefit from being worn as a head-to-toe look—shoes, bags and jewelry included. Instant uplift!
Of course, I’m wilfully ignoring the price tag of that uplift come spring, but I’m thinking of these clothes as a diverting entertainment, like Busby Berkeley’s movies in the ’30s. Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta and Christopher Bailey at Burberry gave us a foretaste of the alternative, with muted, worn-looking, downbeat outfits that had the audiences at their shows talking about Depression chic.
By the way, the new fashion index is apparently the haircut. Markets plunge; hair goes short. Imagine the boulevards crowded with Jean Seberg wannabes as a harbinger of the Second Great Depression. At least things won’t look quite as bad as they are.
RUNWAY PHOTOGRAPHY, ANTHEA SIMMS; EDITOR, ELIO IANNACCI.
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