Paris fashion week

Louis Vuitton, Spring/Summer ’08
Louis Vuitton

Biarritz through the lens of 1920s photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue, was the inspiration for the Vuitton show held inside the Tennis Club de Paris, a collection filed with wide-ranging references like lighthouses (used on the invitation) and all the paraphernalia of life at the beach.

The lighthouse led to ‘spiral cut’ pants, that meant that one single seam wrapped around each leg (requiring six metres of fabric). The ‘parasol’ cut was another labour intensive process where seams fan out from the neck down, used on waistcoats, jackets and shirts. Flags faded by the sun and weathered by the wind inspired colours and effects that at first looked like pigment was removed at the seam. Straw hats came super-modern: as sculptured caps reminiscent of jockeys.

The transparent gauzy theme that has so far dominated the new season came as sheer fabric overlaid on a multicoloured parasol cut bomber (like the won worn by Kanye West in the front row). Gauzy wools used in tailored jackets were fine enough to give a hint of the bound reinforced seams on the inside, most noticeable when black showed through white, and extra subtle in the black or navy. The idea here was to echo the weathered and sun bleached seams of a sun lounger. It may sound all very complex but actually it was not. Most wanted were the trousers (spiral cut aside) in cotton, with a dropped crotch and relaxed fit, short enough to show off the fab sandals.