Paris Fashion Week, Day 5

Metronomy at Karl Lagerfeld; helmets by Ruby at Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld sent out his latest musical discovery, three-man band Metronomy, whose Nights Out (Virgin) has been declared the best thing to happen in Electro Pop in years. Jean Touitou of APC gave me the CD a few days before the show. “They’re going to be in the front row at Chanel and they hardly know who Karl Lagerfeld is,” he mused. Lagerfeld’s girl is a luxe motorcycle chic dressed in a fur helmet from Ruby, the Parisian motor gear brand, which matches her square-shouldered fur vest. She wears charcoal gray satin warm up pants with a red racing stripe down the back and she’s got fur and beaded embroidery posed like small carpets over each shoulder of her after-five biker jacket.

Dries Van Noten showed his collection in a high school courtyard, but it looked like summer vacation because all the girls had on thick frame, 50s sunglasses. In a season of black, grey, and white, he’s working the most vibrant colors in town: dusty orange, saffron, raspberry and grass green mixed with cloudy grey and white python, and black alligator. Like Lagerfeld, Van Noten likes blousons-but instead of biker style, they’re city chic and minimally detailed. The sparkle came in colorful Lurex-a staple from 80s disco dressing currently in comeback mode-for bubbly sweaters and coats. 
 
We all sipped diet Coke with a straw from the new stripey Coca Light bottles by Nathalie Rykiel (designer Sonia Rykiel’s daughter and partner) at the shop. In the late 70s, fashion was a more intimate affair, and Paris designers showed their collections in their own boutiques. It was wall-to-wall gilt chairs. Sonia Rykiel revived the tradition at the brand’s Saint Germain flagship in the heart of the literary Left bank. In a store stuffed with editors, Rykiel had the models traipse down the aisles talking fashionable nonsense: “I stole my boyfriend’s jacket and I will never give it back,” or “I am the red fox,” to form a chorus of mostly Eastern European accents. The house of Rykiel is Lurex central, with multi-colored Lurex ruffles on slinky black stocking dresses and stripey leggings. Also shining this season: S.R. Swarovski crystals—big, hot rocks that give Rykiel’s sweaters the look of crown jewels. (LEFT: COLOR AT DRIES VAN NOTEN)

Looks from Sonia Rykiel, Givenchy

Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci is the darling of models and all the girls who want to look like them, and on Sunday night he didn’t disappoint any of them, showing a frothy mix of white marabou feathers and silk bows for fluffy powder puff collars on jackets and everything else. Boudoir femininity mixed with slouchy men’s trousers and complex game of hide and seek featuring jagged patchworks in gauze, colored silk and Chantilly lace. Tisci grew up in a family of girls and he knows all about how much women love old lace and so there were plenty of Victorian white blouses and antiquated little touches like gold metal hair bows and big, hot rock diamante necklaces.