Stefano Pilati's show for Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), held at the Pompidou Centre in Paris yesterday, demonstrated the Italian's designer's developing authority and confidence.
At the helm of a famous French fashion house which has been floundering, he is beginning to give it a new identity and relevance. He can already be credited with trends such as tulip skirts and slim, high-waisted toreador pants, not to mention the current vogue for tunics.
The opening sequence of roomy, grey city suits and voluminous, high-collared coats in stiff cocoon shapes and softened with sparkle knits, had a modern sculptural quality.
The collection offered chic attire, such as a mannish jacket of papery metal dressed with grey leggings, or a sharp pinafore over a hooded slate knit. The tuxedo, a YSL signature, was abstracted into an evening dress and a silk, shift-like wrap needed only a chignon sprayed with gold leaf for night-time drama.
At the Chanel show, paper snowflakes showered down over the crowd in the Grand Palais from clouds of billowing white tulle suspended over the ice-rink catwalk. Such is the power of Chanel that it staged two showings of its collection.
Styled with the usual streetwise elan, this wintry collection was longer and more linear than usual. Typical were chunky, ankle-length tweed coats sported with jeans, or little black dresses worn over skinny trousers. Detail and counterpoint mattered; back-buckled boots matched the fabrics, Perspex collars lifted a little grey shift, pearls decorated the Botticelli tresses of the models, and an overskirt of pleated black chiffon softened the hard glitter of a sequined dress.
Jasmine de Milo is a young designer with a growing Irish following who targets high- maintenance city girls. They turned out in force for her show, which featured glossy little dresses of corrugated silver and sexy coats of cling-film leather or creamy wool.