Trendspotting in Paris: Fall fashion looks beyond the crunch

Vive la crise!” (Long live the crisis!) was the manifesto at the Pret-a-Porter Paris show for Fall-Winter 2009-2010. Said in true Gallic fashion, it was a vow never to give way to the morose atmosphere. The biannual congregation has always been a venue of experimentation for the international fashion trade, tracing out the route and charting new directions. With the current situation, its role is even more amplified, with the task of gathering together, anticipating and deciphering changes in consumption. There is definitely a new order so a new game has to be played. “A new way of life” is offered so that we can consume in a new way. This new form of consumption is based on the confidence in the New Gen, a batch of young designers who, from Stockholm to Tokyo and from Rio to Paris via Los Angeles, herald a new age of sunny tomorrows.

The New Fashion Attitudes

New attitudes are coming to life and new trends are being unveiled. Fashionistas are not afraid of paradox, inventing new codes characterized by desires of the moment but substantiated by lasting purchases and sustainable development.

On one end, there’s Ultra-Fast Fashion, where flexibility and reactivity is key. Renewal is rapid (every 60 days), with production in small batches and limited editions. There’s nothing like the luxury of new designs with the feeling of exclusivity because of the small quantities and regularly updates. The perception of the shopper is that the clothes are rare and unique as opposed to standard and run of the mill.

On the other end there’s ethical fashion or Slow Wear which has always been a Pret-a-Porter concern. Fair trade, recycling and organic are standards which are now adhered to by 80 brands, four times more than the 20 pioneers when the show embarked on ethical wear in 2006. Directly inspired by the Slow Food movement founded in Rome in 1986, Slow wear is the cross between the desire to promote clothing of quality by labels that preserve a heritage and a consumer philosophy that is in full ethical evolution. Today, more than just having an eco-product, there is a new way of behaving, a slower attitude.

Plus Lines: A Supplement of Luxury

If mainstream design houses have diffusion or bridge lines which allow more access to their world, creative labels are going the other way by inventing plus lines, second lines which are more luxurious and recherché. A response to the vulgarity of mass production, these collections target the upmarket through a more select network of distributors. A strong identity is forged with an emphasis on quality.

Pop-Up Store: Hip Shopping

Just like the Pret-a-Porter show, the temporary shop consists of selling one or more labels in a limited space for a limited period of time. It’s about the labels creating a “buzz” with unique pieces, limited editions and collections created just for the store or the event. Nike did a pop up store in a barge in Paris while Chanel set up a temporary shop in Dover Street Market in London. Replay, on the other hand, is touring its collection around China in a giant cube covered in bamboo. It’s definitely a novel form of distribution that’s both targeted and nomadic.

Sampling Mode

There is a need for fantasy now more than ever. From the streets to the Internet, art confronts us and adds color to our lives. Art has always been in constant dialogue with fashion: fashion questions art and art gives new meaning to fashion. In these trying times, there is an added joy to witnessing the links forming between the two, like when Damien Hirst converts a banal pair of Levi’s 501 jeans into a spin-painted work of art.

Trends For Fall/Winter 2009-2010

For the coming season, full fantasy reigns in the new movements decoded by Pret-a-Porter together with SAS, the Society of Alexandra Senes. These trends for the New Gen are exemplified by three types of women:

The Woman Writer

The writer is feminine in style, even in her masculine clothes. She breaks the codes and conventional language of fashion through a refined, dark style composed in the search for elegance. Alexandra Senes calls her “A daguerreotype dandy in black and white, building another timeframe in which she takes her time to write herself, to say what moves in her veins, an ink of blue blood.” Accessories include oversized bowties, men’s traditional top hats scaled down to a quirky miniature size and gunmetal chain and metal mesh necklaces to complement graphic black and white garments. The classic palette is more complex than at first glance, with colors like charcoal, slate gray and almost black, contrasting with chalk, invisible ink, vellum paper and a multistoried shade called “First communion of chlorotic girls by snowy weather.”

The Medusa Creature

Wrapped in mystery, the medusa creature lies in the edge of shimmering water, in an undergrowth made iridescent by the full moon. This supernatural girl hides beneath transparent veils and reappears in a flamboyant halo of magical flaming red hair. Dressed in velvets and taffeta with a puff-sleeved coat used as a cape, she exudes the regal air of a princess, mocking the rationality of down-to-earth fashion. Accents include collars of plumage from the enchanted forest, slithering python stockings in fiery colors, satin ballerinas, and jewels like the toad rings of Delfina Delettrez. Colors are rich, mythical and otherworldly: Explosive Dragon Red, Gloomy Witch Cranberry, Dark Nymph and Marshy Elf Blue, Lethal Antidote Lilac, Incandescent Firefly Green, Delightful Evil Spirit Beige, and the signature Devastating Medusa Grey.

2109: The Antediluvian Avant-Garde

The antediluvian woman journeys in time and space, uncovering the things indispensable in the pre-industrial era, while nibbling delicately on contemporary civilizations that have managed to preserve their traditions. In direct opposition to that, cutting-edge technology is employed, using futuristic fibers. Senes describes it as “a retro-futuristic movement, a second chance for a civilization that is conscientious, knows how to protect itself and preserves all types of styles, combining craftsmanship and ethnic in its ark, its computer, its eco-museum and its wardrobe.” Slick technical fabrics are mixed with handmade knits, ethnic patterns with futuristic motifs, and tribal designs with urban sheen. Accessories like hats fashioned in traditional African turban style come in vivid, sporty colors which are named after tribes, from Zulu Blue and Inca Yellow to Navajo Orange, Inuit Violet and the Parisian Gang des Postiches Off-White. The eclecticism of this movement seems to sum up what fashion has been evolving into all these years: a sense of adventure, a global look enriched by history and different cultures, steeped in experiences, and optimistic about the future. It could very well describe the modern woman of today, caught in the crux of a world crisis that will require a fortitude and a new attitude to survive the deluge.