Chloé, Stella and Sacai Make Clothes You Will Want to Wear
It is always during Paris Fashion Week that I feel forced to question who I am stylistically. For me, this city has become emblematic of tricks — how will I strike a balance that delicately demarcates my understanding and respect for French history and its implications: glamour, elegance, classicism that is completely devoid of what living in the 21st century means and the invariable truth that to get around while here is neither glamorous nor elegant.
As a matter of fact, it’s taxing and because it’s hot, it’s sweaty, too.
So whether I want to admit it or not, I have to be comfortable, and not just that, I have to prioritize it over, well, anything else. This often amounts to a whole lot of “normcore” but that’s getting way too tired. Thankfully, Sunday afternoon and Monday morning within the show venues proved that you can strike the specific brand of ease and comfort that I’m after without neglecting divine appreciation for a world that is not imbued with practicality and still retains the sparkle of sophisticated style.
Clare Waight Keller opened her show for Chloé at The Grand Palais with airy and tent-y white dresses that showed off a lot of the female form. They reminded me a little bit of the MacGibbon days at Chloé, but I probably would not have realized that had it not been for a 70s-style blazer and matching shorts that followed. The decidedly glorious selvedge denim jumpsuits, which could have been from Stella McCartney’s tenure, and mustard colored chiffon flowing blouses completely endemic to Waight Keller’s aesthetic and more burnt high waist shorts were almost nostalgic considering the recent passing of Chloé’s founder, Gaby Aghion. The clothes were expectedly made to evoke the unassuming French girl style Waight Keller has mastered. The shoes, by the way — gladiator short-heel wedges in pastel suede — informed exactly how the clothes are so easy. This was similar to the way in which Stella McCartney operated.
The shoes ran a gamut of flat and low-wedged knotted slides and thong lace ups that were paired with airy, wide leg pants, in milky whites and beige as well another nod to the denim jumpsuit straight from the needle of McCartney. There were cross-strap tanks, a group of athletic plaid light weight coats and jackets that could have been mistaken for ambitious sleepwear, and closing floral dresses — two mini and two shin-length — that did nothing if not underscore how much style you can emit using so few clothes.
What’s cool about Sacai is the utilitarian approach to something that can sound as platitudinal as modern glamour, but actually mean it. There were pocket-adorned gowns and green twill pencil skirts, pinstriped lace-up dresses and plaid bodices. The clothes were artful, but that didn’t detract from the “wear now” factor, and that they make you feel good. Good enough, at least, to appear as though you belong in Paris.
Images via Style.com
