Our Takeaways From Paris Couture Week: Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, and More!

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0:50This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mal. And we are recording from the Vogue Paris offices for a very special Couture Week episode. I am here in the flesh with Claire Thompson-Jeanville, head of editorial content at Vogue France, and Sarah Mower, Vogue Runway's chief critic. Welcome, ladies. Thank you. We are recording this on Wednesday afternoon. We have all just come straight from the Balenciaga show, which was on the opposite end of Paris. And this was a big debut of the week because Pierre Paolo has not done couture for Balenciaga yet. It's his third season at the house, but first couture show that he is doing.

1:33Claire, will you set the scene? Where were we? We were in the Cité Université, so on the 14th, quite a trek out on a very hot day, but well worth it in my book. It's kind of, I guess, it looks like France's, Paris's equivalent to like Harvard, I guess, you know, the old university. It's a very beautiful brick. Yeah, it was very gorgeous. And we're sort of in a round garden, official garden with the buildings around, the university buildings around us. And it was quite a spectacle. It was a beautiful setting. There was a very starry front row, Cynthia Erivo, Naomi Watts, Tiana Taylor, Lily Collins, Hudson Williams.

2:14Everyone was fanning themselves because it was really under the midday sun in a very hot Paris. But Sarah, tell us about why it's important to see Pierre Palo's debut doing couture. Well, I think that for all the years he was at Valentino, he really came into his own with the color and the structure and the emotion of what he did without couture. And I think we saw the continuation of that and the confirmation of that within the Balenciaga lens just now. Yeah. The color. He's such an amazing colorist. There's this intensity of the color that he uses. There was that one dress which was like three pom-poms on top of one another.

2:59Yes. Kind of real pink. But I felt like there was almost like a palpable emotion. and that's, I just, you can feel it, right? When in the flesh, like you can feel it when you're like, ooh, you know, and then the first looks came out and there's quite a long walk down to us. And then you see these, wow, this sort of reddy pink, I don't know how you describe that color and the volume and it was very poetic, you know? And he's got this, I think that's what we hope for when we see his shows is what he's really good at as well. I think he's very good at emotional dressing. And I found it quite touching at the end, he came out of the school building where everyone was exiting from, and he brought his whole atelier in their white work coats.

3:48And I always think it's very touching when people, when designers do that, especially for couture, which is such a puttima season. And, you know, as Claire said, there was this long walk out and around this circular runway, and it almost felt like birds descending because there was a lot of feathers. There were these very vivid, dramatic colors like you would see in sort of a wild birding expedition. Sarah, do you feel like this feels very different from the ready-to-wear collections he's been doing? I think so. I think at the beginning, you know, it's very difficult when you step into a house when somebody really significant has just left.

4:33And so I think that Pierre Paolo's been in ready to wear, finding a compromise between Devon's legacy and who Pierre Paolo is. But I think at Couture level, this was pure Pierre Paolo. So, yeah. Rewinding back to beginning of Couture Week, which was two days ago, we start with Schiaparelli, 10 a.m. Monday morning. What's the vibe at Schiaparelli, Claire? The vibe at Schiaparelli is me turning to the right and seeing Anna chatting with Bad Bunny and wearing, like, a golden, like, tie. I know. I love that. Straight off, like, you know, everyone was like, oh, my God, I was at Bad Bunny last night.

5:14And it was, like, so funny. And then he, like, turns up and him and Anna are chatting. And what I love about couture is also, we talked about this yesterday, is that, you know, there's a lot of the clients are at the show. So it's a different crowd than, you know, men's that would just happen or even Prêt à Porte. And everyone was really dressed up. There was a chrome runway. It felt very, some of the looks were quite aggressively couture. You know, Emma Corbin's hooks. Oh, my God. You know, it's to watch where you walk. I mean, talk about birds again wearing this very difficult to hug, almost bolero, feathered bolero with beaks.

5:58Were they claws or beaks? They were beaks, I think, yeah. No, Bad Bunny, I loved that he was wearing this hair braided tie. It reminded me of Victorian mourning lockets or mourning jewelry that would have sort of your deceased's hair. He came with his brother Bernie, which I thought I liked when people come with their family. I totally agree about the clients during couture. I think it's so much fun to see these women who are so, it's like the Beatles. They are fangirls for these brands and these designers. They love, and the Schiaparelli clients are so specific versus the Chanel clients, et cetera.

6:33And let's not forget, you know, we are in like, I don't know if you say Fahrenheit or Celsius in American. Fahrenheit. Right. So we're like, it's baking, baking hot here, right? And we sort of show up and trying to be cool in summary. And it's like the full looks, the full makeup. Like it's, you know, and I love to hear, I love to sort of listen after the show and not just run out and kind of hear what the chat is between the ladies. It's really interesting. Sarah, what was your Schiaparelli takeaway? Daniel Roseberry was talking about how he applied a completely different sort of method to this collection in that he usually goes and goes on a trip somewhere and, you know, I don't know, the historical research comes into it.

7:18But no, he said that wasn't working. And so he called it the abyss. It's like looking into the abyss of, you know, where inspiration might come from. And part of the answer was at a company that makes silicone babies. Excuse me? Yes. Okay, apparently. Say more. It's a role in the movie business that you can't have babies under three months. That's reasonable. I mean, yes, I'd like to see that age group sort of expanded a bit, perhaps. Anyway, these people make babies out of silicon. And Daniel said he went outside Paris and learned how to make these, mold these silicon forms with him. he described the silicone being poured and then that um that layer was put on top of the kind of very skin-like um breastplates and um and bolaro's um so that's a kind of accounted for that seamless kind of almost like yeah skin type of very futuristic there were some interesting anatomical concoctions as well that were placed on the back and things like that.

8:42It's beyond prosthetics. It's couture prosthetics. It's treating... I don't know. I was thinking, oh, is he thinking about the transhumanism? Is he thinking about, you know, what happens when the body fuses with technology in the future? Well, the pieces, the bustiers that lit up were controlled by Bluetooth, which I thought was a great sort of handmade meets technology moment. I loved the sort of tentacled piece that Lucia Richardson wore. And it took her 20 minutes to get into it. It was this latex tentacled top. And it looked so much like Fashion Ursula from The Little Mermaid that I really thought that was fantastic.

9:33And even as weird and fantastical as Daniel gets, his clients go there with him. They follow. It's not like it goes too far. They're so committed to the brand and his vision for it that they're really going to go and wear those corsets. I mean, three women at the show were wearing the same molded corset top that they had all purchased. It's really amazing to see that. And Zendaya wore a straight from the runway couture look to the London Odyssey premiere. So they must have got that right on the runway to Eurostar. But I liked the makeup. I mean, I liked that sort of fading out, like, how do you call it, a degradé of color.

10:18You know, they had this sort of silvery blue color going into the hairline. I think it was sort of really beautiful, feminine. It was slightly more feminine this time as well. Interesting. Slightly softer. I want to hear now, Sarah, one of the big shows of the week, always, Jonathan Anderson's second couture show at Dior. Fresh off Taylor Swift wedding dress, Buzz. What did you think about this show? it's always interesting hearing Jonathan talk about what he what he intended and this was um uh very much inspired by a collaboration with the American feminist artist Linda Benglis um but also you know there's so many different levels to it that it's also him working with the patrimony of um of Dior you know the the I suppose another word for it is the codes of the house There's always, you know, it's a national institution really, Dior, isn't it?

11:16Exactly. And there's such a respect and probably a requirement for a designer to tackle what they're going to do with the bar suit and look into the archive. I mean, all of the designers have done that. Jonathan was bringing, I think, through the work of Linda Benglis, whose work is about twisting and knotting and turning fabric into sculptures. And I think Jonathan found a way with her inspiration to make the collection more fluid. I like that too. I liked the sort of the soft nodding on pieces, whether it be the, there was one blue suit that I loved that had little nodding on it, sort of hanging off almost like charms.

12:01And then some of the much looser dresses that they had a great sort of sarong type knot, but a bit higher. And I thought that was really pretty and wearable. Yeah, I think afterwards I thought about it as sort of melting down the bar suit and turning it, you know, away from the corsetry and making things appear to be more spontaneous. And yeah, that suit, I don't know if I talk about the same suit. It seemed to be a black silk suit and it had a white turned up peplum and the skirt had a kind of turn up on it and it just looked, it looked very easy to wear. Yeah. What did you think, Claire? I thought easy to wear, easier to wear, easier to wear.

12:48And I liked that it was more, maybe slightly more kind of relaxed on the body. You know, it's interesting for Jonathan because, you know, we all, he's so like beloved, I guess, from like Loewe. And we, you know, he's really smart in terms of he continues his collaborations with artists that he's supported for a long time. And yeah, I think that he's, personally, I think he's doing a really good job. I think it's really each time you can feel it's him, you know, and he's kind of riffing off this like DNA that he's keeping trying to, you know, uncover and uncover. And, yeah, I mean, he was obviously I was at the men's show and then he'd done Taylor and then he was at Couture.

13:31So I thought it was interesting. I like the colors, the greens. And then the wedding dress, which had all the fern embroidery on it, because ferns were a big motif of the show and part of the set design, which you felt like you were in a lush tropical rainforest. But the finale was a bridal gown. A lot of couture shows end with clothes with a bride. And people sort of were, you know, whispering, is this what Taylor's looks like? And I absolutely don't think it was. I don't think Taylor's a wispy fern type of a gal, but I see more of a princess silhouette for Taylor, but I know nothing. I'm sure there was more than one.

14:15Yes, I think that's probably true. And I also, I always love Jonathan's accessories. I think that they have great whimsy and detail to them. The shoes with these sort of flopping blooms, I think, are always something I look down immediately when those looks come by. And the lily pad, sort of orb-like lily pad purse. A lot of orb purses this season. You know what I've spotted as a trend? It's like CEOs and bosses being front row and making quite a lot of noise. Did you see Luca De Maio at Blanciaga? And there was like quite the furore also of like the whole, all the Arno boys were there as well.

15:01I feel like Luca's always at all the thing shows. But yes. He definitely is. Obviously he's always there, but I don't know. I just feel like it's more of a thing this season.

15:13More from Paris Couture Week after the break.

15:23The countdown begins to the most iconic premiere of Project Runway ever. This season is bigger, bolder, and for the first time, 22 designers, the most in Project Runway history, will compete for a chance to make their fashion dreams come true. Fashion icon and host Heidi Klum is back and ready to own the runway on Freeform, Hulu, and Disney+. World-renowned fashion designer Christian Siriano will mentor, bringing out each contestant's unique flair. And every story, every style, every stitch will have you on the edge of your seat. Who will impress? La Roche and Nina Garcia return as judges. They're ready to challenge the best to see how far the designers can go.

16:07Nina knows fashion, and no one is above the law. And this season, supermodel and entrepreneur Tyra Banks joins the judging panel as a special guest judge. Catch the biggest season ever with incredible guest judges. Ice Spice, Sierra, Iman, Willie Chavaria, Winnie Harlow, Nina Dobrev, Nisi Nash, Sergio Hudson, Fausto Puglisi, and Kiernan Shipka. With 22 designers, who will rock the runway and who will crack under the pressure? Join Heidi and her team for all the high-style history-making. The new season of Project Runway premieres July 9th on Freeform. Stream on Hulu and Disney+.

16:56Yesterday was big morning, Mathieu Blaise's second couture show. Everyone had a lot of thoughts, mostly very positive. What, Sarah, what was your first takeaway from the show? I think he's making Chanel very intimate. I mean, the Grand Palais is where Chanel shows. But this is a salon which was created inside it, and it was covered in vines and huge, huge, huge flowers set. And, of course, his theme was fairy tales. He'd found a little book which the first model was carrying in Coco Chanel's apartment, which was an antique fairy tale book. And sort of opening that book, I think he started thinking about Jack and the Beanstalk, the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, which, of course, is a rags to riches story, actually, of perseverance.

17:52And I think he related that to Gabrielle Chanel's life because, of course, she came from nothing and changed life. But what I think is amazing about him is that he didn't actually stick that literally to the fairy tale theme. No, I think that's why it was successful. It could have been quite easily too precious with a fairy tale theme. And I think he managed to give it just light enough a touch. And the fairy tales were really quite hidden and subtle. I mean, all these beautiful techno tweed suits, the linings were where you told the story. There were silk foulard linings with illustrations of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puss in Boots, Jack and the Beanstalk.

18:40And we went to visit him before the show. And he has in his atelier these, for the past few months, has been growing beanstalks. And they were growing actual bean plants where they had harvested the beans from them and then had done close-up photographs of the beans and put them on his mood board. And that was the color story for the show, which was kind of amazing because beans are amazing colors. But no, I agree, Sarah. I feel like it was light enough with the fairy tale that it didn't overwhelm, but also had such whimsy and joy with it. Claire, will you tell us about the set? I think we said Jack and the Beanstalk and Big Flowers and in the Grand Palais.

19:22but what I was struck by was I was sort of sitting adjacent to the photographer's pit where in addition to said photographer was an illustrator oh yes who's normally seen at Roland Garros and I was looking at how he was sitting he had this like contraption that was held his legs apart to hold up his easel oh wow and I was fascinated because I was like how quickly can he draw or paint each silhouette like how's he going to do or has he seen it before um so that happened And then, yeah, I think it was very, you know, we're all like, I don't know, I guess we said this yesterday, but it's like we're of an age.

20:00I am anyway, my early 40s and similar age to Mathieu. And, you know, the music definitely hits right with me. Like, you know, there's a lot of nods to my youth. No, his millennial references really hit home with, you know, Dawson's Creek. And I don't even know what the song's called. He played Kiss Me for Sixpence, None of the Restor. Yeah. And everyone was, you know, the celebrities were sitting in front of a row singing along, Sarah Pidgeon, Alexa Demy. It was very cute to see how this sort of mass delight of watching that show. But it kind of feels like it's his thing now. Like, he did that, remember the first one with the Saturns and the moons?

20:37And, like, the music was, like, a big, was a main character in that as well. Now, a nostalgic track has become a bit of a signature for him. And I think he's smart, you know. Whether you're Chanel, whether you're going to dress like that is one other thing, but it's a certain woman that he's catering for. But I think that he's smart in that he does the little nods and winks, like the shoes. The shoes also, we have to say. Tell us about the shoes, Sarah. Well, they had sort of flowers and little sweet peas and things growing out of them. Yeah, I mean, I really, really love that whimsy. But I think for me, so as he was talking backstage, he was talking about, you know, about the reality of how women live.

21:25There was a voiceover from somebody who was a Belgian artist, woman artist, talking about the routine of the day and very, very minute detail. and I just think everybody you know we women or you know our shoulders go down we think oh you're really empathetic and and also you're making clothes which um are it sounds mad to say for every day because um but I think I think it's it's it's a bigger mission a bigger philosophy that's that's growing through um Chanel that he he gets he gets the mission because Coco Chanel through our corset she made she made clothes for every day for women to just feel great as they walked into a room without overstating it and so I think that's why the intimacy of of his designs and his I mean just his way of expressing it I mean Claire you talked about emotion you feel when a show is really amazing in a kind of atmospheric and philosophical way you feel it you know it's funny when you were saying that I was like that's a guy you know sometimes we say like oh it's designed by a man who doesn't like women that's a guy who likes women and i'm sure he's really close with his mother and his sister he lived with his sister until just recently there you go he's got it has a twin sister yeah you know because that's interesting because you know even and you're so right because when that track came on it's like put clothes on take things off wash dishes put just it kind of gave me anxiety but then it was like then it was like it made me think of my kids and what I was doing, what I had to do.

23:00But it was really, I loved that, actually. No, and it also, it tempered the sweetness of the fairy tale. So it opened with the fairy tale, and then it brought you to the everyday. And actually, what's amazing in those suits that were the sort of everyday suits in the middle of the show, he had the models write down to-do lists on post-its. So it says pizza in the fridge, do this tonight. And then he had them made in silk and embroidered and they're on the inside of the jacket. Stop it. It's unbelievable. And so each model had their own post-it in silk embroidered inside their jacket. And it's those kind of things that, and I also think that's the kind of thing that a couture client reacts to is that kind of detail and personalization.

23:48And he also said that a couture client told him after last season that it's the first time in her life as a couture collector that she's been able to pack couture in her suitcase. Fun fact. A fun fact one doesn't think about all the time. Well, yes, you just fold it up. Whereas a lot of other, you don't think of couture being easily packable. And also like what would be on the couture client's to-do list? Like number one, by Picasso, number two. It's not pizza in the fridge. She's not going to PCAR. There was something else which was really, it's intriguing. So at the end of every fairy tale, obviously it's the wedding.

24:33The princess gets married. Yes. But, and she did get married at Chanel, but she got married, there was a wedding dress, which was kind of like, you think, oh, that's it, that's the end. the wedding dress. And the dress wasn't a dress. It was a top and a skirt. Oh, really? Which I think is very interesting. You saw that in the studio. But then more came. Yes. Several more came. And I thought that was really interesting. He said that the last dress was the revenge dress. Yes. So it was, the last dress was a off-the-shoulder black dress, very beautiful, sexy back, lovely silhouette. and he felt that Gabrielle Chanel never married.

25:15And historically, Karl Lagerfeld would close the Chanel show with a Chanel bridal moment. And he just turned that a little bit. And I think that's what he's done so well, is take classic moments of the house, but just turn them ever so slightly to be his own. Yeah, and I felt like he was saying life goes on. Even when you get married, it's not the end. It isn't the end. That's the beginning. Marriage is temporary, divorce is forever. Nora Ephron said that once, I love it. I'm sure.

25:47I loved his casting as well. I mean, he's cast women of all ages and he doesn't make a big deal about it. You know, within his collection there's this tender whimsy and yet there's this structure where you know that, you know, as a woman, if you're going to a black tie event, you can just wear a tunic and a pair of married trousers. because everything else that makes it easy, and that's bringing back chic to me. Yeah. And simplicity. And it's true that even the casting, when it is the major women, female models, like Vittoria Chirretti, he put under a straw hat and in his sort of scarecrow outfit, and typically she's the bombshell.

26:28You had to look twice to see that it was Vittoria. That's like luxury, right? Totally. That's like the ultimate quiet luxury. Totally. Which Gigi Hadid was a similar way in Balenciaga. I know. It's a good thing. She looked like an owl with a feather hood. I mean, the most beautiful owl, but it is, I like that of sort of having these star wattage women and then sort of obscuring. Yeah. And then we all bopped over to Armani yesterday evening. And the clients at Armani are really committed. They were very excited front row, and there was even a tiny Pomeranian front row panting at every look. So that was love to see the women who are excited about all the clothes coming down the runway.

27:17And we'll be right back with more news from Paris Couture Week after a quick break.

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