Couture Du Jour: Spring 2022
Although fashion has taken on a brave new face after the pandemic, leading to more avant-garde and unusual looks being presented in ready-to-wear collections, couture is where it’s at if you suffer from fashionphilia and are looking for the innovative, fashion-forward, laboriously embellished, and detailed garments that exude such opulence and extravagance as to become wearable art.
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring 2022 Couture is the second collection for couture following the designer’s decision to stop producing collections, but returning under creative director Glenn Martens this season following Chitose Abe’s creative direction for the previous collection. The padded hips are further exaggerated by the stripe print, which inverts or distorts at the bust and waist, creating an optical illusion of a feminine proportion. Cable knit is interestingly reduced to a single cable stitch braided and wrapped about the torso in a deconstructed eggshell asymmetrical knit dress. Gaultier’s infamous corsetry is similarly given an interesting twist, acting to seam a portion of a skirt on a very muted peachy cream dress with a sheer-paneled corset bodice. Tulle is gathered and embellished atop silk chiffon in a black-veiled dress which is all about fabric manipulation. The iconic Breton marinière utilized by Gaultier throughout his career is transformed into a coral-encrusted dress.
“This is a celebration of Gaultier. I’ve stayed close to the woman Jean Paul created in the past—pure diva goddess beauty, hips, whatever, all that drama he loved. I’m building on that through what I think of his iconic Gaultier moments. This marinière…it’s so him, but I completely fucked it up with all the fake coral spikes. I’m reinventing those iconic moments in my own way.”
-Glenn Martens
While the emerald green silk taffeta dress exudes a confident regal air of extravagance and seems somehow futuristic and retro at the same time, similar dresses seemed a bit forced, uninspired, disproportionate, and somehow constructed in a way that feels amateur, lazy, or forced, although I am aware of how much skill and work went into them given one seems to be ribbons sewn to lace or chiffon. However, the peach pearl corded look appears to be a blanket- am I wrong? Critique aside, I feel like this collection is genius and representative of the house and designer’s legacy aside from those looks and commend the creative director, les petites mains, and designers for creating a unique, original, creative, and futuristic lineup which truly exemplifies the house and its history.
Christian Dior
Christian Dior’s Spring 2022 couture collection is neutral, reserved in its simplicity, and ornate in embellishment. The color palette is composed of champagne, white, light grey, black, taupe, and a light cool grey. Gowns are draped in asymmetrical one-shoulder bodices with full skirts, and shirt-dresses are cinched at the natural waist, the simplest of which being a black beautifully pleated midi.
Schiaparelli
Schiaparelli has been presenting interesting looks lately, for at least the past three seasons if not extending back to the time of Dalî. For Spring 2022, we seem to be graced by heavenly bodies, divinities, as well as their servants as halos, cross-bearing hats, and starbursts adorn the heads and wrists of models. What better way to enforce social distancing than in an LBD with goldenrod protrusions cascading about you? Now, that’s how you reclaim your personal space. Heads will roll: following ears, feet, and other body parts used as accessories and shoes in previous collections, we see a golden head used as a purse, paired with a very simple asymmetrical black dress. Cone-bras alla Gaultier are taken to a more sculptural level, again consistent with the last shows, but are now circled with rings which make them appear like weapons featured in an Austin Powers film. Literal gold palm trees stand upon the structured shoulders, similar to silhouettes of RTW shows, of a cream tuxedo jacket with gold embroidery and black lapels. One LBD has borrowed from Judy Jetson, and perhaps appropriately so given we’re currently in the year of her father’s birth. The embellished graphic print featuring an odd five horses leading a chariot driven by a figure aflame is ornate yet boxy… does anyone want to tell them four would be a more appropriate number for this collection? Saturn, Libra, the sun are referenced in earrings, embellishment of shoes, and purses.
Fendi
Rahul Mishra
Although I don’t recall seeing this designer’s collections before as I’m usually covering ready-to-wear, he is instantly someone I highly respect given the momentous painstaking undertaking this collection must’ve been considering every graphic detail shown is created from stitches. I’d be almost as impressed if it was stitch-painting on a machine or a graphic designer’s work executed by automatic machines, but this is couture and is inconceivably and meticulously executed. The color palette is vibrant, with hues of tangerine, marigold, salmon, red, sky blue, ballet slipper, cornflower, carnation, pistachio, mint, lavender, powder blue, indigo, lavender, and yellow.
Elie Saab
Embellished gowns with crystal beading, rhinestones, feathers, and sequins also exhibit the use of fabric manipulation using honeycomb smocking, with structure added to the hems using horsehair braid. The color palette features brilliant hues of Fuschia, magenta, violet, blush, and chartreuse contrasting nude. The fabric selection includes silk taffeta, silk chiffon, organza, and tulle. I appreciate the unusual silhouettes created using the nude organza- symmetrical and asymmetrical.
Antonio Grimaldi
I do love the curved lines of the hi-lo looks in this collection, which is composed of a Fuschia, chartreuse, nude, and white color palette in silk taffeta, tulle, and perhaps a silk crepe de Chine embellished in metallic bugle beads in a square pattern.
Ashi Studio
I found the use of androgynous male models alongside female models was something that drew an extra interest as at first you’re left wondering their ambiguous sex as you watch these gorgeous garments undulate in the halls of rooms with framed walls and floral bouquets hung about. A white floor-length sheer silk chiffon shirt bespeckled with ostrich feathers is paired with white culottes. The interlocking lapels of the white coat are the stand-out detail of this extravagant collection which really isn’t done justice in photos, but rather must be seen moving, which I suspect might be true of all couture- you have to scrutinize it to really appreciate it. The color palette was mostly white, with red and black garments thrown in, including a red ostrich overskirt paired with a corset top and red cigarette pants.
