Interview

I wanted to write a piece to close the Paris collections, but that's going to have to wait because all I can think about is the sofas, easy chairs, and a few floor lamps that showed up in several big Paris Metro stations (Concorde, Saint Lazare and two others) last Thursday courtesy of Ikea, and backed up by its ads that read, "Plus qu'un Marchand de Meubles" (more than a furniture store).  I have become fascinated by these fake castoffs that I pass by on my way from point A to B more than once each day.  After the first few days in their underground home, the soft seats (bright red, chintzy floral, chic black, random) looked brand new, or as my friend the stylist Haidee Findlay-Levin would say, "perky." But now they've been down there five days, exposed to careless but surprisingly not malicious treatment by passers-by so an accelerated, lived-in quality has begun to set in. I wonder if by the end of the operation (March 24) they will have reached the point of no return? Of course the definition of the end of a sofa varies. Then I thought about Ikea's slogan, "More than a Furniture Store," and I began to wonder why would a furniture store want to be more than a place that sells desirable tables and chairs etc.? Why more, when enough would be just fine?

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After Marc Jacobs' busting out all over presentation for Louis Vuitton yesterday, it seems that bosoms are back. The show, which again began precisely on time, created one of those awkward, exhilarating fashion moments where as soon as everyone stood up to leave, most of the front row suddenly looked like they needed an update. With all the veritage gowns Louis Vuitton showed, Pixie Geldof actually pouted for most of the show, while Daisy Lowe placed a strategic hand over her knees to cover up. Japan Vogue's Anna Dello Russo wore long, but then she's an editor with a lot of experience and no doubt was privy to pre-show info. To prove he means business, Marc Jacobs came out dressed in an almost baggy, banker's grey suit and tie that was somehow much more shocking than the kilt he was sporting last season.

Times are tough and Jacobs's LV show feels like an attempt to return to reassuring core values, the kind we had in the 1950s; specifically 1956 when Roger Vadim turned Brigitte Bardot into a star for the film And God Created Women.  The only problem with the reference is that Brigitte spent most of the film taking her clothes off and pushing up her skirts; this  wasn't exactly an ode to mid-calf, amplitude and bustiness. After the show I thought of  Summertime starring Katharine Hepburn as a middle-aged woman from Akron on vacation in Venice... but I guess Marc Jacobs knows better than to base fashion on realist cinema. In any case it was nice to have the girls back and I mean that in more ways than one. Laetitia Casta and Elle Macpherson made rare runway appearances and one hopes that they, and more of their womanly kind, will be back to inspire us all next season.

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If there's one piece of clothing that sums up everything that's new and desirable this season what would it be for you? No hesitations: It's Hannah MacGibbon's long , crossover camel coat  which opened the show for Chloé on Tuesday. MacGibbon  streamed beige  (taupe, camel, and all the variations) throughout  the show which included such long, lost wardrobe friends as turtleneck sweaters, high rise, wide legged trousers, double-breasted coats, scoop-necked smocks  and even bow blouses.  Okay, I will take a rain check on the bow blouse and the smock, but that coat!  There is a new, minimalist/realist school of thought in fashion right now and interestingly it's three English women: MacGibbon, Phoebe Philo (MacGibbon's former Creative Director at Chloé) and Stella McCartney (who was once Creative Director of Chloé assisted by Philo). It's been a long time since fashion in Paris has had a strong group of women take the lead. All of them are set to enter their 40s in the next few years; Philo and McCartney have young children and understand that combining work with raising a family is an ongoing negotiation. All of them love London and two of them (Philo and McCartney) have managed to establish their ateliers there while continuing to show in Paris. This is a different kind of London too. It's more tweedy than kinky; old school less is more and made to last.

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It's chilly in Paris, and it was even colder inside the Grand Palais yesterday morning as we  waited in sub-zero temperatures for the lifting of a gigantic, pristine white box to discover Karl Lagerfeld's latest surprise for Chanel. It came in the form of several 28-foot-high hand-sculpted glaciers; 265 tons of ice shipped in from Northern Sweden, placed on a shallow, blue lake stage. Fashionn breeds necessity. Girls in yeti boots and boys in yeti suits waded through the blue like some monsters from Where the Wild Things Are; even Karl was walking on water by the end of the show, but then almost everybody on the Chanel iceberg was wearing clear, plastic overshoes. And although the collection was all furry; every hairy bit of it was faux! Faux fur was basket woven into Chanel tweed suits and crunchy, patchwork knit tunic sweaters. Fluffy, white angora sweater dresses with a space-dyed baby blue center looked like figure skater pinups and the bag of choice is an ice cube stamped with the house's double Cs. Nordic folkloric patterns edged jackets while faux fur fringe turned up everywhere.  And Lagerfeld captured a new, furcentric silhouette by bordering a skinny leather jean jacket, and other coats,  with a wide piece of bearish pelt for a pan-like woman.
 

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