- Title: FRANCE: Westwood takes fashion world to stone age cave
- Date: 2nd March 2007
- Summary: AUDIENCE MEMBERS DRESSED IN 'STONE AGE' COSTUME BEFORE SHOW
- Embargoed: 17th March 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Fashion
- Reuters ID: LVAPO5QXRQA7PY7KM2X77RUMUI9
- Story Text: Two very different collections from the stalwarts of the Paris fashion scene with Galliano showing a simple, immaculately tailored collection for Dior, sizzling with colour and Westwood sending out models in high furry hats, wrapped in knitted cardigans, with bone pendants dangling from their necks.
Neon pinks, yellows and oranges filled the catwalk at the Dior show in Paris on Monday (February 27), crafted into winter coats, evening dresses and suits.
Skirts were pencil-slim and softly draped at the back, worn with matching short jackets. Coats were generously cut and finished off with oversized fur collars and cuffs. Galliano's trademark theatrical touch showed through in the huge feather or straw hats and towering platform shoes, though the collection was more sober than his past shows, which have been based on themes ranging from ghosts to geishas and goths.
For evening, shapes were kept simple, with column and shift dress shapes embellished with sequin, embroidery and feathers. The couture influence was visible in the intricate tailoring and structural detail.
Galliano himself made a typically flamboyant appearance on the catwalk, wearing a beret, flanked by four security guards and stopping to pose with his models several times.
Meanwhile, sixty-five-year-old Vivienne Westwood, who has kept her edge since her bondage-inspired creations for the Sex Pistols punk band in the 1970s, said that her show on Monday (February 27) had been inspired by the image of a "cave girl".
"The political message here is that we just need to go back to the Stone Age, wake up and start all over again," Westwood said backstage ahead of her show, as make-up artists were applying thick layers of silver-sparkle eye shadow to models' faces.
Westwood, who is famed for using British fabrics such as tweed and tartan for her daring clothes, has not been shy to add political or extravagant touches to her collections in the past.
The show was full of deconstructed tailoring. Models wore blouses with armour-like pads attached to their shoulders and trousers made of two parts, connected by strips of fabric. Some dresses featured large air pockets at breasts and hips, making the skinny models look more shapely. Corsets, which Westwood has made one of her trademarks, featured heavily, making a feature of waists.
With their over-knee boots and mini-skirts, models looked far more stylish than TV culture's best-known representatives of the stone age -- the fur-clad Flintstone family.
Long considered an "enfant terrible" in the fashion industry, fashion experts say eccentric designers such as Westwood, France's Jean-Paul Gaultier or John Galliano are helping to give the entire industry an exciting edge. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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