![]() The ruffles on one dress looked like sea sponges, the iridescent streamers flying from another like seaweed. It was enthralling to watch the way he insinuated his underwater theme into this traditional Chanel lexicon. So there were boxy tweeds, drop waists, mille-feuille pleats, and an ocean of prettiness for the fans. Still, he insisted on something that was recognizably within the codes of the house. Lagerfeld's aim was nothing too "Chanel" because, he sagely noted, there are already so many other people doing that style. And Sam McKnight dotted pearls through the models' slicked-back hair, too. That was also why Lagerfeld strung pearls, instead of belts, around waists. They brought an iridescent mother-of-pearl shimmer to the collection-the lightness literally shone through. He'd used new fabrics even he didn't know how to define. ![]() Chanel hasn't been in existence for quite that long, but there was an impressive, graphic modernity shaped by lengthy natural processes (Karl's thoughts) in most of the 80 or so outfits that strolled around today's massive set. He'd been musing on the fact that forms as modern as anything designed by the architect Zaha Hadid have been shaped at the bottom of the ocean by natural processes taking millions of years. What the water gave Karl was the kind of acute overview that only he could turn into a dazzling collection. The Grand Palais was transformed by huge, blinding white sea shapes-corals, shells, sea horses, stingrays-and Florence Welch arose like Botticelli's Venus on the half shell to sing "What the Water Gave Me." It was a bravura performance all around. Curiouser and curiouser, as the decision on the Dior succession continues to dangle like a hanging chad.For today's Chanel spectacular, Karl Lagerfeld recast himself as Prospero, conjuring a magical underwater world from the raw stuff of fashion. Something else to consider: In its charmingly unfinished tentativeness, this felt like the sort of collection a designer might offer if he was laying out a blueprint for the future-this is me, this is what I can do and how I can do it. She's manufactured, but it detracts not a jot from her plangent allure. It was probably a coincidence, but the choice of pop ingenue Lana Del Rey as the show's musical accompaniment was perfect. That's because you're throwing a spotlight on the intangibles of creativity. There is a school of thought which says that mystery preserves the magic, but Gaytten understands, as did Galliano, that if you reveal the machinery, you can enhance the mystery. The same effect was realized a little more fulsomely with a galleon of a dress in Dior gray, its panniers exaggerating the billows of tulle. The mood carried all the way through to evening, where a one-shouldered black gown featured tone-on-tone embroidery and a random splatter of sequins suggesting a naïve effort to add glitz. On yet another, sequins traced a grid, like a pattern-maker's directives. ![]() On another, ostrich had been dissected into paillettes of skin, like a body map. On one dress, black crocodile scales were randomly picked out in patent. The black floral designs that were picked out on a flaring white skirt were like an initial guide for a master embroiderer who would fill in the colors later. ![]() Sheer layers exposed the underlying construction of garments. He x-rayed the craftsmanship of the Dior ateliers, and the riveting result was a show that dared to inject an unfinished quality into the most polished fashion arena of them all. Anyway, that's the way it played out in Gaytten's second couture collection for the house. Standing beside him at Christian Dior for 16 years, it was inevitable that Bill Gaytten would come to share the same preoccupation. ![]() John Galliano was always mesmerized by the inner workings of haute couture. ![]()
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