Schiaparelli Couture 2015

It was another new start at Schiaparelli one recent morning, with Bertrand Guyon picking up the reins from the design team that worked on January's collection after creative director Marco Zanini abruptly left the brand. Guyon isn't a splashy choice for the slot, but he is a savvy one. Though he's little known outside Paris' haute couture ateliers, he does have years of experience: He was formerly at Valentino with Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, who sat in the front row, and at Givenchy he worked for house founder Hubert, as well as both John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.

During a preview at the label's Place Vendôme salon, Guyon professed to a long affection for Elsa Schiaparelli. Nonetheless, his mood boards suggested his wouldn't be a completely reverent adaptation, a criticism lobbed at his predecessor. Side by side with images of Schiap herself, pictures of Lee Miller, who was a Schiaparelli model, mingled with a bespangled Leigh Bowery, who most certainly was not. On the runway itself it was hard to detect evidence of London's famously flamboyant club performer. That's probably not a bad thing.

Instead, what we got was a taste for Guyon's tailoring, which is precise if occasionally weighed down by heavy brocade fabrics, and his flair for evening gowns. Those, in contrast, had an appealing languor, even in shocking pink chiffon. A black velvet number trimmed around its square neckline in thick rows of rhinestones was gorgeous, and the same stands for a burnished-gold velvet column whose rhinestone straps crisscrossed in back.

Nods to Schiaparelli's surrealist streak appeared in the form of a Cocteau eye brooch and a brass handbag in the shape of a manicured hand. Guyon also paid homage to Schiaparelli collaborators Bébé Bérard and Marcel Vertes with prints inspired by their work. Another evening beauty came in pleated organdy lavishly printed with a scrolling garden gate and appliquéd with cutout flowers that fluttered at the shoulders and hips.

(style.com)