“We always say that fashion is a reflection of our times,” said Dries Van Noten, giving a huge shrug. “Well, maybe that’s enough of that! Let’s do something optimistic, enjoy things—and really go for it!” Yep, the mood of despair, and general aghast-ness at the state of the news, is lifting from fashion in Paris. Perhaps it’s not so much full-on escapism as a healthy sense of resilience against adversity. Paris has lived through the worst of terrorist attacks. But should that interfere with a woman’s ability to see a pair of purple-and-silver brocade block-heeled boots, and fall in love with them?
There were multiple such delicious sightings, walking at a decorously unhurried pace under the chandeliers and the lofty gilded ceilings of the Hôtel de Ville: green and yellow brocade boots, rust and electric blue painted canvas boots, boots embroidered in orange sequins. Van Noten knows how to press all the buttons of his adult women. He reflects calmness, dignity, and self-possession. Chiefly, this season he made going a bit mad with color and glittery things look so simple and doable.
Buttons pushed? Show a nude slipdress to a woman who came of age in the ’90s, and she’ll be in an instantly friendly mood. Show her tailoring she can go to work in—even a blancmange pink trench—and she’ll relax. Break out the prints—silk scarves draped and fluttering on dresses—and she’ll be ecstatic.
And keep going with the variety. In an age of haste and shortened attention spans, Dries Van Noten is one of the few remaining designers who does much more than a quick-fire one-statement show. On this runway he offered different types of women ways to be themselves at night: a fluid, vertically striped silver and pewter pantsuit; a black tuxedo with an organza over-layer scattered with jewels; a sensationally simple little black dress with a diaphanous train floating from the shoulders. With the vintage-y crystal earrings, worn singly, and the genius touch of silver eyeshadow and glittery lips, it was all a total license to shop. Which is a really big thing to say when most women, past a certain point, have all the clothes they need. This collection proved the point: When designers are really good, they give us what we didn’t know we wanted. Spending money to get cheered up? Sounds like the very best reason to buy something in this climate.
