Haute couture in Paris Empresses of Fendi and multiculturalism in the spotlight
(Paris) Fendi staged powerful women on Thursday, embodied by an "army of empresses", on the last day of haute couture in Paris under the sign of multiculturalism.
Published on January 27 Olga NEDBAEVA Agence France-PresseIn a futuristic staging, the British Kim Jones, director of women's collections at the Roman house Fendi and also stylist for Dior Homme, celebrated the "ecclesiastical" aesthetic and “marble sculptures” with rigid silhouettes.
His “empresses” move forward as if suspended on platform shoes that stop in the middle of the foot, without a heel, and make several of them stumble in a universe that is a bit anxiety-provoking.
The statues outside the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, Fendi's headquarters in Rome, are hand-painted on mink and velvet.
The cuts are imposing, the colors saturated: black, midnight blue, red, mauve.
Warrior armor and royal trains: “my raison d’être at Fendi is to celebrate the power of women,” says Kim Jones in the note of intent for the show.
Slogans of Imane Ayissi
Cameroonian Imane Ayissi plays with slogans, borrowing from West African textile cultures.
The word "foufoullou" in the Ewondo language of Cameroon which means "mixed" and "together" is written on many of these dresses.
Another message is conveyed with the first look, a white dress that reads “No Fashion on a dead planet”.
In dresses that mix shades of green and pink, he makes sequins flirt with kente from Ghana or Calais lace with adire dyes from Nigeria.
Former dancer of the National Ballet of Cameroon and the company of Patrick Dupont, model for the biggest luxury brands, Imane Ayissi made history in 2020 by becoming the first designer from sub-Saharan Africa to appear on the calendar haute couture official.
A Balenciaga admirer, influenced by his years in the corps de ballet, but just as passionate about African textile heritage, he cultivates his cultural mix.
After the parade on Thursday, he was awarded the medal of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Manga and no theater by Yuima Nakazato
As for the Japanese Yuima Nakazato, he placed his show on Thursday in a world of no theater, populated by dancers and models with colored hair.
The contrast is striking between the dancers with bleached faces and in evanescent dresses who perform pantomimes, like ghosts, and the presence of women and men parading with their big Gothic-inspired boots, shoes rarely seen in high fashion.
With their asymmetrical haircuts and red and purple hair, they look straight out of manga.
The bright colors and psychedelic patterns on the kimonos and evening dresses stand out in the sober interior of the Oratoire du Louvre, a Protestant temple, where the parade takes place in billows of smoke.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Yuima Nakazato, 37, who had previously created costumes for singers, remains faithful to his theatrical and experimental aesthetic questioning the relationship between the body and society .
The Russian house Yanina Couture, which was showing for the first time as part of the official calendar, closed the week of haute couture on Thursday evening with a collection in spring colors with airy or frilly rainbow dresses .
Imagined as a bridge between the Seine and the Volga, the house founded by Yulia Yanina in 1993 combines French know-how and the heritage of Russian decorative arts.
