Haider Ackermann is back in sinuous mode. Last season saw him exploring a boxier, more masculine silhouette. Today, with Frank Sinatra crooning about "Autumn Leaves" to back him up, he was more interested in organic shapes. "I try to be pure," he said backstage. "But I can't help myself, I love to wrap." The waisted silhouettes that were the results of all that draping were the best he's ever done—a spot-on mixture of the sublime and the salable, and he's got the most sophisticated color sense of anyone in Paris.
He opened with a pair of looks that put a greater emphasis on salability than his reputation as a design iconoclast might suggest—the first was a trim, cropped jacket in sage green over a stretchy black turtleneck dress cinched with a blush gray molded leather belt, and the second was a silk blouse partially tucked into high-waisted, full-legged trousers. Leather coats and jackets with motorcycle detailing should likewise have the retailers calling.
It wasn't long, though, before Ackermann's inner wrap artist came out. Jackets were exuberantly peplumed and bustled below those new molded leather belts, and dresses were draped from a single point below the breastbone. Double-layer skirts in which the top layer was shaped like a simple leaf and split up the middle were deeply sensuous without exposing a hint of flesh. They may be too heavy in leather, but they'll be a hit in other, less weighty materials.
As for the colors, who else could pull off the pumpkin orange and marigold yellow mix of a tailored crombie and tapered pants? Or the cobalt blue of a cropped jacket worn over an oxbood vest, gunmetal scarf, and copper pants?
You can add this to the short list of shows this season that brought the crowd to its feet.
