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January 26, 2014

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Subtle, vintage looks win day

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Delicate colors and old-fashioned elegance were stars at the 2014 Paris haute couture show for spring and summer. The brashness of Versace’s lineup, however, was an exception that proved the rule.

Armani Prive

The exhaustive 54-look-strong Armani Prive collection had a vintage feel with head silk wraps that sometimes glistened with embroidered jewels. But Armani also chose to go East this spring/summer. Flat Asian necklines defined silken jackets, as twisted Thai-style check belts and scarves and long pleated pants filed by. Deep indigos glistened in thick sumptuous jacquards.

Versace

Grace Jones, the iconic singer who often wore hoods, inspired Donatella Versace’s bejeweled couture show. Hoods in black, brash acid green and lilac blue came in satin silk or jersey or dripped in mesh made of tiny chains and crystals with the aggressive sexuality of the fiery Jamaican-born model. If there was any doubt as to the woman Versace was designing for the program notes said it: a “contemporary goddess.” But this is couture, not ready-to-wear, and it’s meant to make people dream.

Elie Saab

Elie Saab used the delicate colors of turn-of-the-century painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema as a starting point of his show.

It pushed the Lebanese designer, who’s better known for traditional red carpet traffic-stoppers, to produce an unusually subtle collection.

The designer’s display achieved a rare mood which evoked the progression of day: From the blush pinks of dawn, the pure white of high noon, the purples of dusk, and then to the resolution in midnight black.

Jean Paul Gaultier

If the irreverent French designer was aiming for design transformations on Wednesday, after recent lukewarm show reviews, channeling chrysalises and butterflies was not it. There were butterfly sleeves, peaked shoulders, leather evening gloves, see-through lace pants and conical bras. But the imagery of butterflies, on large hats and shaped in organza dresses was sometimes overused, cluttering beautiful silhouettes.




 

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