January 27, 2023 |
“The unbearable lightness of being!” Karl Lagerfeld would say of his featherweight creations, nodding at a philosophical masterpiece. Months before the Met Gala dedicates it annual ball to the late couturier, his successor Kim Jones echoed that sentiment: ““Lightness: lightness in colour, lightness in fabric, lightness in layering,” he said in a preview for a collection that kept things light in every way.
Presented in a bright white oval structure erected in the Palais Brongniart, the show was directed by Baillie Walsh – Jones is a fan of his ABBA Voyage – who also worked on this season’s Dior men’s show. The production illuminated Jones’ frothy metallic confections, which he retained in muted hyper-feminine pastels, to focus on another Lagerfeld practice: “With Karl, you were looking at stuff and you didn’t know what it was made of.” The idea materialised in micro-beaded gowns that looked like varnished fabric, and in creations veiled in lace that was actually leather. Silhouettes with draping suspended from the hip were inspired by the statues that surround Jones on his trips to Rome: chalky, white and ethereal, but a certain, well, statuesque authority. Speaking of power women, Delfina Delettrez Fendi had created jewellery inspired by her love of climbing: sculptural silvery shapes adapted from climbing rocks and carabiners, “rounded to make them more feminine and organic,” she explained. Why all the lightness? “It’s nice to be light sometimes,” Jones concluded.
Photography courtesy of Fendi.
