Phoebe Philo is a woman of few words and hugely influential designs. For next season she has been worrying away at the idea of changing proportions. Waists are higher and cinched in with basque-like belts to create pleated peplums. Trousers are shorter and platform heels have gained a Céline-endorsed stay of execution. Colour isn’t that important (although Philo nerds should know that the woman herself was wearing pink Nikes backstage) and print is out. Other designers were no doubt watching: echoes of previous Céline collections were seen elsewhere at Paris fashion week. Photograph: BUKAJLO FREDERIC/SIPA / Rex Feat
It was meant to be the season of leather sleeves and pencil skirts on the frow. Editors packed for fashion’s biannual travelling circus with this in mind. Then the weather happened. No one could talk of anything other than 40C heat and whether it was bad manners to ride on the draught of your neighbour’s fanning efforts. Netaporter sent out a crisis email offering to ship summer-weight purchases to Paris within hours. Out came the printed silk dresses and cool cotton shirts. An audience trend amnesty was silently agreed. Anyone seen with a knee-length wool cape or a leather sleeve was laughed at. Result? It is impossible to tell you what is the one Zara piece you need to buy this season.
Pictured: Rachel Zoe and the rest of the fashion pack keep cool at the Lanvin show. Photograph: PPB/Mandatory Credit: JSB / PixPlane
Will it be Jacobs? What does that mean for Louis Vuitton? When will we know? Snore. Snore. Snore. Label boss Sidney Toledano said that the announcement was due “in the coming weeks” and so the industry is no longer on high alert. But there was one interesting rumour. The theory goes that several designers were privately asked to produce a “Dior project” as part of their spring 12 collections. A visible yet surreptitious audition by the likes of Haider Ackermann, Peter Copping at Nina Ricci and Marco Zanini at Rochas. Who knows whether this was true, but working out who was auditioning was more fun than watching the dull if beautiful collection that the house itself produced for next season. Photograph: Joseph Kerlakian/Rex Features
If a look has cropped up in London, New York and Milan and then gets airtime in Paris, you have to take it seriously. It’s been that way with pyjama chic, paisley and sporty this season. Caveat: fashion sporty is not the same as sweaty sporty. Fashion sporty means fluid jogging-pant shapes and complementary tops: ie Lanvin’s snake-emblazoned “tracksuit”. Meanwhile, Stella McCartney’s ode to gentlemen’s silk pyjamas saw paisley PJs morphing into jumpsuits. Sporty silk “joggers”, slouchy tops and racer-back dresses ticked the sporty box – well, she is the style boss of next year’s Olympics, after all. Photograph: Rex Features/Rex Features
He isn’t a household name and he probably won’t get the Dior gig (too edgy). But that’s no reason to ignore Haider Ackermann. His was the collection to beat in the early part of the week. Silk jewel trousers, flat brogues, paisley robes and brocade jackets made for a beautiful collection: finally we saw what all the fuss was about. Photograph: CATWALKING.COM
Christopher Kane did them in London, Stella McCartney in Paris (pictured). That’s persuasive. Photograph: Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/WireImage
At Balmain (pictured), new designer Olivier Rousteing went all-out for the house’s trademark bling, but with none of the grungy rips and battered glamour of its previous designer, Christophe Decarnin. There were bejewelled bullfighter jackets, cowboy belts and leather knickers, country-and-western denim, crystal and fringing. It felt like a Gianni Versace moment. Versace’s upcoming H&M collection – worn by Anna dello Russo to the Balmain show – and the appearance on many a catwalk of Versace-style silk printed shirts buttoned to the neck sealed the deal. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
You may have heard about the kerfuffle at the Balenciaga show when several benches collapsed. Given that the audience generally considers a canape to be a full meal we didn’t see that one coming. More familiar was the mid-century couture crossed with modern streetwear on the catwalk. Designer Nicolas Ghesquiere handles this contradiction brilliantly. Silk oversized couture bomber jackets appeared with super-short running shorts. What with Céline’s slightly rounded shoulders too, there’s a theme emerging. Photograph: Rex Features/Rex Features
Yes, we’re talking about the much anticipated debut from Mr Kanye West. Rumours about which ghost designers were involved abounded – who were the minions taking creative orders from the millionaire newcomer with the audacity to show alongside Vuitton and YSL? Collective wisdom was that it had better be darn good and there had better be champagne. Alas, it was just shy of passable and there was no champagne; a front row filled with two Olsens and a Lohan was meek compensation for a show with too much sampling, not enough originality and badly fitting clothes. Editors played “spot the reference” – “a bit Givenchy”, “a bit Céline” – and generally gave him a mauling in reviews. Photograph: Dominique Charriau/WireImage
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