The venerable Le Smoking is a crucial element of French fashion, and one that Anne Valérie Hash has visited again and again, both in her ready-to-wear and haute couture. This season, she devoted an entire collection to it. But this was mostly a riff on tuxedo as motif. In other words, if you were looking to re-up on your timeless Yves-inspired classic, you'd be out of luck.
Hash's proposition was deconstructed and quite a bit slouchier, even as her fabrics—heavy mikado silks, metallic velvets, and satins in jewel hues—ran to the flamboyantly expensive and formal. The new jacket came with a rounded drop-shoulder construction in contrast colors that had the effect of a strapless dress, while pants were either tailored but nowhere near strict or veering into near-dhoti territory. Blouses in sheer crinkle chiffon were draped and shadowy, while a button-up version had a trompe l'oeil bow tie in two black triangles painted on its collar. Clever ideas all, certainly the kind of fresh and elegantly twisted pieces that Hash's fans adore. But on the runway the effect became slightly muddled, dragged down by heavy wedge boots. A soupçon of the quiet refinement you saw in the designer's pre-fall collection was the ingredient that would have made this recipe sing.
