Mood board: While Hedi Slimane hasn't strayed far from his initial propositions for the venerable French fashion house, he continues to supersede his own too-cool-for-school benchmarks. This season, the 77 looks (nearly one third were women's wear) resulted in a luxed-up Youthquake centered in, where else, Southern California. Think ripped skinny jeans, scuffed white sneakers, plaid shirts, baby doll dresses, choker necklaces, denim vests - all the stuff of 1990s grunge and thrift stores re-contextualised as a provocation on high-low dressing.
Team work: If Slimane remains ever elusive, his established practice of multi-tasking the invitation as a compact art catalogue offered a glimpse of his visual headspace. For this collection, he showcased artist was Billy Al Bengston, an 81-year-old American known for his soft focus, geometric paintings and associations with surf subculture and the famed Fergus Gallery. Slimane also enlisted The Swimmers, a Philadelphia-based rock group, to create an original soundtrack. 'Like Harry Dean Stanton' even had Lenny Kravitz nodding his head to the charged bass line.
Best in show: The jackets - whether hand-embroidered and tux-style, or highly embellished teddies - were unmistakably couture level as far as surface detail. Among the latter: a version that interpreted an artwork by Lucia Ribisi (daughter of actor Giovanni) as embroidery. Others covered in suede fringes atop beadwork, sequined confetti, animal print encrustations and tapestry revived the notion of glam rock.
