We’ve not yet reached the halfway point of Paris Fashion Week, and there have already been so many shows it’s hard to keep up. Rihanna was the guest of honour at Jonathan Anderson’s Dior runway on Tuesday, where the Irish designer went nuts for nature in Les Jardins Tuileries; Glenn Martens unexpectedly paid tribute to fellow Belgian designer Raf Simons by recreating his Dior AW12 couture show space, but for this season’s Margiela catwalk; Anthony Vaccarello hinted at a Saint Laurent swan song in a spectacular crescendo of golden garments and a performance by Charlotte Gainsbourg, while Gwenyth Paltrow’s daughter Apple Martin made her runway debut at Chloé this morning.
With not a second to catch our breaths, the schedule swept on to Balenciaga this afternoon, where Pierpaolo Piccioli presented his third ready-to-wear collection for the maison. Staged inside the historic Tennis Club de Paris on Avenue Georges Lafont, the space, that we can assume was previously reserved for racket sports, had been completely transformed by stark white walls, white wooden floorboards and two symmetrical oblongs of white benches. In the middle, standing out against the colourless set, was an imposing work by the textile sculptor Aude Franjou, a coral-like structure of curling red and yellow tentacles that almost reached the ceiling, made from winding layers of linen fibre. Piccioli had clearly enjoyed Paris Design Week last September – Franjou was invited to create an installation scaling the inside of the July Column at the Place de Bastille, the first artist ever allowed to do so. A year later, Piccioli has centred his show around that same work, and even named his SS27 collection, Les Coraux de la Liberté, after the piece.
Once guests had slowly made their way into the space and admired the sculpture – guests like Law Roach, Isabelle Huppert, Nia Archives and a surprisingly not-that-late Lauryn Hill – the soundtrack thwacked into life and Piccioli’s collection appeared. An all-white opening segment began the show, with a dramatic cape and intricate floral detailing. From there, the colour wheel exploded, with blouson jackets, high-collared shirts and tunic tops rendered in royal blue, shocking pink and glowing vermillion.
More standout moments came in the Tudor-style shoulders, the cocoon collar coats, and models wearing frogspawn-like collars which clearly referenced Franjou’s sea-inspired work. These high craft elements wouldn’t look out of place at a couture show – and that was exactly Piccioli’s intention for SS27. “Techniques originating in the 55th Balenciaga Couture Collection are applied to a spectrum of ready-to-wear clothing for both women and men,” read this season’s notes. “A wardrobe of prototypical ready-to-wear garments are redefined through studies of cut and construction, and their proximity to the hand.”
Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for the key looks from Balenciaga SS27
