“Stop Terrorising Our World”: the message sent down the catwalk on the
first day of the Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday highlighted the lingering
trauma in the French capital two weeks on from the terrorist attacks it
suffered.
The slogan, worn on the torso of a male model, opened a show by Walter
Van Beirendonck.
The Belgian designer told reporters he had “to react” to the January 7-9
bloodshed by three jihadist gunmen who slaughtered staff at the Charlie
Hebdo newspaper and killed four Jews in a supermarket hostage drama.
Increased security in Paris, with thousands of armed police and soldiers posted
across the city and bag checks at the entry to fashion shows, were other
signs of the impact the attacks have had.
But fears that some VIPs and buyers might be too jittery to turn up
for the Paris
Fashion Week have proven unfounded, according to the Federation Francaise
de la Couture organising the event. Stephane Wargnier, head of the
federation, told AFP: “For the moment, everything is going well. Everybody
is here and we’re happy that the shows are going on normally. Because life
goes on.”
‘An idea of liberty’
The first few days of the Paris Fashion Week roll out around 50
menswear Autumn-Winter
collections for some 4,000 people — designers, buyers, celebrities,
journalists, bloggers, mavens and well-connected fashion fans.
From Sunday, an elite core will stay on when proceedings get more exclusive,
with five days of women’s Haute Couture for Spring-Summer by the likes of
Versace, Chanel and Christian Dior. So far, most of the other designers
have steered clear of making references
to the Paris attacks.
That was the case for Lucien Pellat-Finet, a French designer who exports most
of his high-end cashmere street wear imprinted with images of skulls
and cannabis
leaves. “You can’t let yourself be swept away by any sort of depression,”
he said. “Where there is life there is hope,” he added. “The message of
French fashion is that it’s an idea of liberty.”
22/4 Hommes and Y/Project, two other labels presenting their
collections, concentrated
more on bending the gender barriers in ‘menswear’, sending out a couple of
female models down the catwalk among androgynous male counterparts. Valentino
brought out a classic, sober collection with black, greys and natural
browns to the fore.
Freedom of expression
For Van Beirendonck, though, putting messages into the mix was what he
felt to be his artistic duty. “Initially I didn’t want to make statements.
But when you see what is happening in the world you have to react.”
After his “Stop Terrorising Our World” model, he sent others down the catwalk
in an eclectically styled range that used animal sketches, Picasso-style
abstracts and 3D-printed jewellery.
Almost all the clothes incorporated “butt plug” symbols — a nod to a
giant inflatable
sculpture in the same form done by an American artist, Paul McCarthy, that
was vandalised soon after being set up in Paris last October on the same
chic Place Vendome where the fashion show took place.
“It’s almost a homage to him (McCarthy). Because I know him, not very well, but
I know him… And so the butt plug is pretty much everywhere” in the
collection,
Van Beirendonck said. The succession of messages were exhortations for
freedom of expression, he said.
“I believe no-one has the right to tell anyone else that he can’t show
what he wants to. (Marc Burleigh, AFP)
Images: AFP
