October 4, 2020 |
A curtain of silver discs slinked around the stark white Paco Rabanne show space which was open to the street outside. Cars whizzed past, pedestrians stopped to stare, real life bumped right up against this spangled, space-age, metallic fantasia. That’s the Paco narrative and designer Julien Dossena, cleverly toys with the two ideas, finding inspiration in their tension. This is the house to go to if you want a perfectly cut pair of black trousers to wear every day or a once-in-lifetime sculptural fantasia.
For SS21, Dossena delved deeper into that dichotomy, opening his show with a metal mesh leopard print dressing gown, thrown over a pair of jeans and camisole top. Boudoir for day, metal made casual, look-at-me camouflage: it was completely counterintuitive but it worked. The designer talked about an extreme remix of the wearable. Drawn from life but far from normal, it included a fur-lined parka worn over a lace and mesh peignoir and a classic trench coat covered in clear plastic panels.
His excellently tailored jackets – pinstriped and longer in line – were styled over jeans and metal mesh camisoles. Moulded bustiers exaggerated the cup sizes of the skinny models, amping up the boudoir vibe. The show ended with three, head-to-toe, spiky metal flower assemblages which made the models look like spectacular alien flora. Out of this world.
Photography courtesy of Paco Rabanne.
