Parisian confection and swing music met punkish metal spike studs on chokers, cuffs and shoes, and were beautifully plaited into the hair of models — some bent like twigs or indeed thorns. “We wanted to contrast and disturb the typical idea of dressing up,” Watanabe said backstage. His collection was rooted in the silhouettes of trees and stones, “transforming the basic shapes of nature into dresses,” he explained.
To a soundtrack that included the Chemical Surf version of "Feeling Good" and Johnny Mathis’ "Chances Are" (“chances are you believe the stars that fill the skies are in my eyes”), Watanabe delivered a highly elegant and never too romantic show, which played with the codes of haute couture now enthralling fashion’s ready-to-wear designers all over again. Watanabe, too, had been bitten by the finery bug, and the superior way in which he conveyed his sculptural and often complex clothing constructions made his take on evening glamour something quite special. Also rooted in nature, he’d borrowed nine of Marimekko’s distinct, bold motifs for decoration of said dresses, which eventually transitioned into camouflage. But it was those spiky accessories that made the show — an appropriate, uncomplicated and beautiful take on the volatile glamour, which is quite literally taking the season by storm.
This was glamour that bites back: nature’s alluring and unforgiving terrain, good versus evil and all the other things that fill the minds of fashion these days. "Look but don’t touch" - it could have been the tagline for Watanabe’s collection and for a glamorous season where thorns are hiding beneath the glitter. Yet, with the "Feeling Good" chorus reverberating in the Paris Descartes on rue de l’École-de-Médecine and those elegant dresses twisted and turning their way around models’ bodies and the zigzag runway, you couldn’t help but give into the optimism, at least a little bit.
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