Scene setting: For his third season showing on the PFW schedule, New York-born Paris-based designer Joseph Altuzarra held his S/S 2019 catwalk show inside the opulent and gilded rooms of the Hotel Potocki. The grand hotel particulier was once the home of the Polish Potocki family, and before becoming the seat of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Paris for the Île-de-France region, it was the home of Countess Emanuela Potocka, and visited by the likes of Proust, Reynaldo Hahn and Jean Béraud.
Mood board: Despite the opulent location, Altuzarra had more naive and youthful inspirations in mind for S/S 2019. The designer was fascinated by the concept of young love, looking to 1988’s Giuseppe Tornatore-directed Cinema Paradiso and Luca Guadagnino recent hit Call me By Your Name for inspiration. This translated into summery floral two-sets in fuchsia, lilac and lemon yellow; their forms shrunken as if left on the shores on a hot day, sunset-drenched suede coats and dresses patchworked together, and sheer dresses resembling fishing nets, clinking with shells.
Best in show: Altuzarra was preoccupied with breaking down a strict silhouette, and imbuing it with undone freedom. A series of spectacular sequinned crop tops and pencil skirts were tessellated to resemble abstract flowers. They jangled down the catwalk, their sound evoking the rush of the sea as heard in a shell, or the noise of sinking footsteps in the sand.
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