by Haute couture is for very few, which means that the fervor around the shows and the “trends” they can inspire can feel like a headache. (How can a dress that will exist in only one or two copies become a trend? Well, I’m sure the villains of fast fashion are cooking up plush lion heads mounted on polyester sheath dresses as we speak…) In the Spring 2023 season However, when the shows bring the glare of international wealth to chilly Paris, there is another possibility in mind: Oscar gowns.
Chanel, Armani and Valentino are major players in the celebrity dressing game, each of whom has shaken up the red carpet in their own way. Chanel conveys feminine French pleasures, and Valentino has made getting dressed feel youthful and vivacious. As for Armani, he practically invented the system of dressing for the red carpet in the 1990s, and last year I got a PR pitch saying that about 30% of Oscar winners expected their statuettes to be in Armani. . Is the dress good luck or does the brand just have good taste? (Maybe both: Michelle Yeoh, nominated for her role in Everything everywhere at oncesat in the front row on this week’s show).
These shows, for the season that concluded Thursday night, can turn us all into personal armchair stylists. You see the dress and you start dreaming about the talent. (I’ll admit, when I saw that wild chainmail two-piece at Dior, I immediately thought of Anya Taylor-Joy, who was sitting in the front row.) So let’s play red carpet fantasy league Oscars edition!
Chanel’s spring couture collection was lively and youthful, with lots of A-line shapes and mini dresses and skirts, displayed amid huge animals made of wood, cardboard, and paper by artist (and regular Chanel collaborator) Xavier Vielhan. . The text of the show noted that “the Chanel suit borrows its codes from the female uniforms of parades and shows” and what are the Oscars, if not a show? and one stop?!
As upset as the red carpet has become, actresses still tend to wait a long time for the Academy Awards. Still, Kirsten Stewart at the ceremony last year in Chanel shorts, and the cool soigné of the minidresses in this couture collection, made me wonder if mini might be best for a Chanel assistant. The gold sequin flared coat, or a sleeveless white sequin gown with a stunning tweed frontispiece that billows at the hip into a tulle cackle, would look amazing on Margot Robbie, for example, who starred in multiple nominees. Babylon. (Robbie, a Chanel regular, did not attend the show, though her stylist Kate Young did.) Even the final bride’s dress was a mini, emphasizing that it’s the texture and construction, not just the length, that give a dress its sense of occasion.
In the gown department, meanwhile, things were opulently effortless: a nude sundress draped in pops of ivory sequins and topped off with a white tweed wrap, and a strapless metallic truffle gown—essentially a Gold brocade minidress with a long, sheer, metallic low waist with bobbing polka dots on it. (Imagine Angela Bassett in that sleeveless dress and coat. Imagine!) The lightness of the fabrics (so much sheer silk, layered over gold and silver underlays) and the simplicity of the sleeveless or jersey-like silhouettes made that everything looked so casually attractive. And elegant, the kind of elegant where you pull your hair back and apply the perfect red lip, but the way you wear the dress oozes ease. One dress in particular embodied this elegance: a slip dress underneath embroidered with small leaves, finished off with a sheer drop-waisted gown with a ruffled sequin hem. The model smiled and had her hands in her pockets. Ahhh A dress with pockets! That’s confidence!
At Armani Privé, the designer was feeling playful. Giorgio Armani is thought of as the tasteful beige dress designer, and indeed he is (and thank goodness for that!). But the él Privé de él collections also show his subtle sense of fantasy; He still thinks of a black velvet cape dress from his Fall 2018 collection embellished with tiny gold beads in the shape of crossed arms. Imagine talking to her at a party – the urge to impress would be almost overwhelming!
The entirety of the Spring 2023 show was inspired by harlequins, who figure prominently in the commedia dell’arte, Renaissance Italy’s answer to Tinseltown. Always an Armani swoon point, the focus on beautiful jackets with big pants—here in a palette of pale sandy pinks, jewel blues, and harlequin prints—reminds us that this master of elegance knows how to make you laugh. But he does it with a mischievous smile instead of anything remotely meme-like, which is weird.
To that end, it would be refreshing to see women show up on the red carpet in a sequined bow bustier beneath an organza clown collar and perfect chic harlequin pants sprinkled with midnight blue beading. Or even the pale pink, turquoise and black silk satin jacket and matching double-breasted trousers.
But again! We must be realistic. Those are risque looks for the red carpet. And a milky pink, beaded long-sleeved column gown, with gorgeous pink beaded flowers at the neck and wrists, has “Oscar Winner” written all over it. The same goes for a dress that begins, at the neck, with a taut crossover pattern that slowly expands down the bodice in large-scale harlequin diamonds. With little sequin bows on the shoulders! Wow. What dress!
Now let’s loot Valentino’s loot. Pierpaolo Piccioli’s couture remains so popular with celebrities and salon fashion observers alike because it is expressive and intensely emotional while remaining classic. He’s also offered plenty of great short looks (and even some clown collars!), but his dresses are so sheer and gorgeous you’d be foolish to give them up.
I loved an aubergine taffeta gown with a ruched bodice and trumpet skirt and a large tomato bow on the shoulder, teamed with cotton candy pink opera gloves. (Any actress who wears this has to make the gloves! GET YOUR GLOVES ON!) Then there was a gold sequined t-shirt dress with a slit all the way up there (you gotta admit it’s so fun when attendees dress like the Oscars), and a ruffled pink polka dot strapless gown that read, “I’m just here to have fun,” which I wish was uttered more often on the red carpet.
I can’t end this article without talking about Haider Ackermann’s extraordinary haute couture show for Jean Paul Gaultier, which was as “pure” as promised. in our interview last week. Tilda Swinton and Timothée Chalamet attended, and I imagine almost everyone who obsessively tweets about high fashion is crossing their fingers in the hope that the stars will show up at the Academy Awards in Ackermann Gaultier looks.
Ackermann told me that he likes to be quiet: “it suits me better”. His show was a testament to purity, quality, technical finesse, and expertise, and the fact that it was so highly praised makes me wonder if the insider, someone hungry for information and gleefully snobbish about his vast knowledge of culture and fashion, is the new influencer.
Earlier this week I wrote about how amazing it is that Paris Haute Couture Week has space for both whispering and roaring designers. Ackermann’s masterful show, further enhanced by the models stopping at the end of the catwalk and putting on great faces, was a testament to the fact that those who insist on whispering can, in fact, roar the loudest. This collection was pure poetry.
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