Wild Elegance PFW....Fashionweekly...On Fow24news.com

IT'S A GANG of girls, all about independence, standing straight, with a kind of wildness and elegance - an antidote to what is happening out there," said Haider Ackermann, waving in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, emerging from angry black clouds outside......
In the rush of congratulations backstage from Janet Jackson, Marisa Berenson, and Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child, I could not fathom whether the designer was referring to the recent Paris terrorist attack or some more general feeling that women should be able to look after themselves.

If so, he gave strength and incandescent beauty to his tough-looking models, their names read out on a sultry soundtrackby film director Joana Preiss, famous for her 2006 movie Paris, Je T'Aime.Linked with the music of the Oscar-winning film, The Revenant, the show was torrid with atmosphere, as the models walked the floral patterned floor, their hair rag-rolled in multi-coloured velvet.Never can clothes for a harsh world have seemed so richly desirable, with tough leather at the back of super-skinny trousers, and velvet panels at the front.From this exceptional colourist came shades of grass-green as velvet pyjamas. Another jacket was approaching khaki, yet scattered, like the bronze trousers, with low-level sparkle. Magenta, fuchsia and deep wine-red velvet were other partners to the short, military jackets.The fashion master of clothes casually undone had a jacket slipping sensually off one shoulder; while in a sudden change of pace, a dress was geometrically patterned to usher in a different look of angular prints.

The nub of the show was its sensuality, moving the Haider woman from tough and tender to something slightly more raunchy. But always, from dreadlocks to pointy-toe, high-heeled boots, there were the rich colours and deep-pile velvets in which a woman's body could sink.