Paris Fashion Week Spring 2023

Paris Fashion Week was by far the best capital of fashion for the Spring 2023 season. Unfortunately, America or New York has fallen behind its European counterparts it fought so hard to prove it was equal with so long ago. I hope that will change- design houses or their corporate conglomerates must hire talented fashion designers if they want to remain relevant in fashion- or they can just continue making clothes… The Paris collections are full of joie de vivre, embracing the fashion-forward, avant-garde, original, and innovative design. They are elegant, modern, wearable, and vivacious. Even the simplest gowns have a unique touch- a structured geometric bodice, are beautifully draped, or have a unique cut.

Trends for Paris Fashion Week Spring 2023

• Body Suits
• Sheer
• Color Blocking
• Voluminous silhouettes
• A touch of avant-garde, original design details, and fabric manipulation.
• The man-halter neckline, which I don’t think is as flattering on the male form as it is on the female figure, was featured in several collections.
• Utilitarian: Cargo pockets
• Hooded dresses
• Just a touch of jodpers, shown in very few collections.

R.I.P. and Bravo to Issey Miyake

A farewell to the icon Issey Miyake, who will forever be remembered as a fashion innovator with his original pleating and knitting techniques which revolutionized the industry beginning in the 80s. I recall seeing an androgynous gay couple wearing Issey Miyake on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach near the Y3 store and thinking, “they look so cool.”

The collection featured unique knit designs which darted out from the figure to create interesting silhouettes, allowing different parts to contour to the body such as the sleeves at the wrists while adding volume to other areas such as the waist to create a peplum.

Botter

Botter’s Spring 2023 collection is full of originality, featuring interesting takes on suiting: double-lapel and facing suit jackets tucked into pants, heart-shaped keyhole cutouts, and zipper lapel jackets reveal a striped shirting or lining beneath for an all-in-one look…quite interesting and innovative. There are literal ice-cube bags and sneakers; abstract geometric prints; halter necklines in menswear; trenchcoats with open side seams allowing the sleeves to be worn or to drape freely about the back; interesting structural pant leg bottoms with curved hemlines that contour about the shoes in an oval; pants turned top-sy-turvy without looking kitschy;

Christian Dior

Christian Dior’s Spring 2023 collection features many of the techniques of fabric manipulation we saw in new york fashion week: smocking, pleating, ruching, and draw-string gathers. Beyond the ever-present cargo pants, the trending slip dress and nighty are also represented, but I doubt the hoop skirt will make a comeback. I love the cascade neckline of the trench coat with a drawstring waistline and sleeves. Floral prints on white and luxe floral embroidery on black could look less granny on the right cuts. Carved leather bags, strappy knee-high heels and boots in brown or black leather and canvas, Mary-Jane Combat Boot hybrids, black floral lace and broderie Anglaise contrast nude crochet,

Koché

Interwoven open-weave knit sweaters; burnout sheer sweaters, pants, and knit dresses reveal the models’ skin beneath varying shades of black, nude, and brown. Men’s perforated black leather knee-length shorts; bomber jackets; color-blocked shirting, jean jackets, and jeans; sequin and feather embellished crop top and mini skirt; hot-fix metallic stud embellished dress with a ribbon-cut skirt; a fuchsia cargo-short suit; and an LED striped garment lit the runway.

Roland Mouret

Roland Mouret’s simple yet elegant gowns feature just the right amount of draping and structure- not a single look appears to be over-designed, but rather evokes effortless elevated style. I love the circle-inspired structured geometric bodices, the elegance and simplicity of the draping and pleating, and the refreshing bold color palette of bubblegum pink, chartreuse, and mint green contrasting black and white.

Saint Laurent

Are we sure this is the correct collection? It looks more like a fall show given the color palette and fabric selection. Mustard, olive, pea, plum, raisin, currant, and black. The fabric selection includes black leather and silk chiffon, silk jersey, and wool. Asymmetrical draped hooded dresses, square-shouldered coats, and full-length hemlines characterize the collection,

Rodarte

The bold red and turquoise neon lights may be a bit overpowering for these garments, but they certainly are eye-catching. Slip dresses, spaghetti strap psychedelic prints and asymmetrical hemlines, and a gorgeous metallic floral halter dress segue into voluminous full-length empire-waist dresses and sequin numbers.

Rochas

A ruffle shirt-dress in blue and white stripes with black drop-waist cincher, another in white with a shirred bodice, windowpane suiting as well as hot shorts in black and white atop white sheer pants, a light blue skirt suit paired with cravat-evoking ruffle top, a deconstructed pagoda-sleeve mini-dress in black with white leaf pattern paired with matching tights in a smaller scale of the same print, black leather mini-dress with leaf embroidery over sheer pants with the same embroidered leaf motif, a bomber jacket, a floor-length black dress with organza flounce, and hoop-skirts made with boning which seemed either flimsy or meant to evoke different geometry. I love the layering and silhouette of the blue tiered dress with a keyhole paired with a long opera coat but wish the scaled leaf-striped-kitten prints mixed better- perhaps one should be scaled up or down.

Jenny Packham

Although these gowns are so simple they almost don’t merit comment, it’s the ornate beading sequin embellishment that forces me to include them.

Balmain

Is Balmain coming for Iris Van Herpen? If you had told me years ago that the little-known brand putting out simple American flag tops and pagoda sleeves would be transformed into this avant-garde house all due to a young creative director I hardly would’ve believed you. I simply live for the avant-garde, and adore the originality of the cage shoulders, spiraling sleeves and bust, accentuated waistline, and combinations of fabrics in the first look, not to mention how nearly it matches the model’s skin. The fabric manipulation, the adventurous hand of the collection, unique silhouettes, placement of the painting photo-prints, and muted color palette contribute to a collection that seems to foreshadow a fashion renaissance. I will say there appears to be confusion over what is couture, ready-to-wear, and menswear on vogue’s runway app and site.

Rick Owens

One of my favorite collections from Paris Fashion Week, as well as the season as a whole, is that of Rick Owens: he’s one of the few designers who are pushing fashion forward, even if it began with models worn as backpacks and penis-revealing cut-outs… Dramatic pagoda sleeves, bomber jackets, sheer fabrics, draping and twisting, tonal monochromatic looks, unique paneling, and pleating. A beautiful oversized and graduated windowpane print in raspberry and nude lends itself well to shirring in the asymmetrical high-low dress with train, which was also cut in sheer fabric and tiled with strips of vegan leather for a very modern alternative. Is a facing or lining too much to ask for when one is doing a vegan-leather train though? The styling, with thigh-high black leather and grey fur strappy boots, oversized visor sunglasses, chunky bangles, metallic cuffs, naked earlobes and fingers, adds to the modernity of the collection. The runway beauty includes slicked back and cornrowed hair paired with no-makeup makeup with an occasional dark neutral lip, and a dramatic yet understated eye makeup that extends into contouring of the forehead above the temples to the hairline; some of the models strut the runway browless. The color palette includes beige, bubblegum pink, raspberry, yellow snakeskin, white, tan, black, yellow, wine, watermelon, pearlescent plum and mint, and a brown and greige ombre.

Schiaparelli

I am much less fond of Schiaparelli’s Spring Summer 2023 collection than seasons past, as there are fewer looks that feel like the wearable art the house put out. Still, there are a few, such as the metallic gold palm prints on a bag, a nude body painted on a blue silk charmeuse dress, and gold embellished nude figure on a little black dress. The bra-graphic knit sleeveless top is quite on-trend with the undergarment motif of collections globally. I am drawn to the white front and black back dress with train, the cut of the batwing kaftan, and draped hooded capelet dress.

Loewe

I don’t care for a giant fake flower on a dress- do you? I do, however, find the structured peplum of the skirts rather interesting, but is the skirt now a tablecloth? Deflated balloons clump together on heels. Stripes are interestingly scaled up on the circle skirt of a knit polo shirt dress with cap sleeves in navy and white. Draped fabric is eerily floating due to some underlying structure…while this iteration seems haunting and perhaps not the most flattering thing at the hemline, I appreciate its originality and do believe it can become a technique used to further extend the silhouette in a braver way. I appreciate the pixelated print pants and top, which goes as far as to create a stepped seamline to match the pixels- perhaps they should’ve been styled as separates though.

Yohji Yamamoto

There is a sailor-collar take on the collar and revere, with interesting paneling in the bodice and an angular neckline, straight-leg and relaxed fit trousers, corseting, peak lapels that jet out horizontally, draped cap sleeves layered atop inset sleeves, floating shirt packets with inset charmeuse panels of a shirt-dress, a pleated bib-like yoke, wide-tuck shirtdresses with color blocking, and a deconstructed sleeved blazer revealing white and black print fabric beneath the tattered fraying of the sheer fabric. The color palette is predominately black and white with the exception of an abstract print.

Junya Watanabe

The flap welt pockets and tacking of the neckline or lapels and double-breasted capes mimic men’s suiting. Radial pleating, pleated collars extending beyond center front, destroyed denim, moto vests, pearls sewn between tucks as well as strips of vegan leather, and moto-cross-inspired dresses are sent down the runway. The runway beauty is bringing back the emo hairstyles of the early 2000s appropriately, paired with pearl-embellished unibrows.

Zuhair Murad

Interesting waving style lines, batwing sleeves, cutouts, flounce, lace panels and necklines, and volume-adding gathers and pleats characterize the Zuhair Murad Spring 2023 collection. The color palette includes black, beige, fuchsia, and an abstract print composed of fuchsia, yellow, black, white, and peach.

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Legit Knit:

The following two designers, CFCL and Melitta Baumeister, used knit techniques similar to those in Issey Miyake’s collection to add contour and volume, creating unique silhouettes, peplums, puff sleeves, circle skirts, and in the case of the former, using different stitching or yarn gauges to vary the opacity.

CFCL

Melitta Baumeister

In addition to the aforementioned knits, I find Baumeister’s use of boning and patterning of the sleeves in the green looks, as well as the white dress, to be quite fashion-forward…but can’t say the same for the inflatable chair dress! I wonder if it were popped if it might drape in a more interesting way.

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Rokh.

Cut-outs, paper bag waists, detachable hook-and-eye pleated skirt segments adding versatility, deconstructed raglan sleeves, pleated skirts layered over suit pants or connecting to a blazer, and trenchcoat-inspired skirts- one with a playful spiraling belt complete with buckles- give the Rokh Spring 2023 collection its unique touches while still keeping it wearable and salable.

See my previous posts on Spring 2023 for the fashion capitals of New York, London, and Milan, and subscribe to this blog and the Subversive Style Fashion Podcast.