Best in Show: Favorite Shows of Paris Fashion Week S/S 2022

Miu Miu S/S 2022

The grand finale to an awkward but triumphant return to the fashion season was taken in the Final Boss of all closing ceremonies: Paris Fashion Week. Infested with celebrity, editorial curation, and influencer mania, the city of lights illuminated with a show stopping array of looks and designers who sought out to showcase why the prime capital of our industry was the strongest competition amongst her sister cities.

Virginie Viard of Chanel made true of her promise to the new Chanel customer and brought a medium of vintage and eclectic, The AZ Factory founded by the late Alber Elbaz brought out the best of artists who all lended a hand in the celebration of a man who influenced us all. Younger creative directors like Jonathan Anderson of Loewe and Christa and Cosima of cult favorite Ottolinger deviated to more sculptural ideas more of a way to see how the clothes can be their own person in some sense.

Down below, I review my favorite looks from the Parisian shows and what stood out and up. 

Chanel

I must admit, Chanel creative director Virginie Viard has been quite underwhelming in some areas- and that is being propitious. But this recent showing shut me right up. It seems as though Viard heard the solemn cries of teenage girls saying “I miss the old Chanel”. The pieces ranging from bralettes paired with transparent knitwear to tweed suit sets, all very much enlightened the new Chanel customer: young girls with money. The untrained eye say it was “basic” but it is inherently adapted to the new vision of Chanel that has not felt relatable in a long time. It was bouncy and simple, diverse for any wardrobe and easily sellable.

Mônot

One name that has reserved a small but limitless space is the brand Mônot, founded by creative director Eli Mizrahi. The label is austere in an image that feels like a Gen Z Alaia. This season, Eli stuck to his classic palette of black and white still playing with compositional linings that demonstrate the dimensions of a woman’s body.

Balmain

It seems implausible that we seen over a decade of Olivier Rousteing at Balmain. This season marked over a decade of his tenure at the maison which made history by naming him the first black designer to head a French luxury brand in history. The collection started off with sculptural notions to dainty straps, harrowed tweed, and leather fitted to the model. Soon it shifted into an urban safari enriched with suedes, golds, and crafty bandages. Eventually the looks crescendoed into a melody of Olivier’s greatest hits over the decade. An El Dorado of demi-couture referencing the faberge-eggs of F/W 2012 or the garments inspired the wicker chairs popularized by the Black Panthers. Tied with a bow by a monologue by the ultimate muse, Beyoncé, the show was celebration and an incredible act of reflection.

Miu Miu

Arguably the most talked about show in the catalogue, Miuccia Prada breathed a new life into the Miu Miu girl and shocked us all with a more grunge take on the boom of Y2K hypermania. The collection’s biggest hit was the ultra-mini skirt giving us all flashbacks to the naughty schoolgirl looks branded by the cult Latin soap opera ‘Rebelde’ with a mix of Russian pop-dou Tatu.

Cropped sweaters and ruched up blazers tied in with chest hugging tops all nodded to certain type of Lolita sexiness that is very unlike Miu Miu. Drop-waist skirts and embellished mini dresses hinted to an 90s type of homage, seeing as if Miuccia took some introspective unto her own catalogue and found herself in lieu of the Prada F/W 1999 collection. As well as taking heed from photographer and longtime creative partner, Steven Meisel’s cover editorial for the April 2010 issue of Vogue Italia.

Andres Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood

To be quite frank, I could not quite place exactly where this collection was going at most times. Ultimately, I sensed what could best be described as 'Balenciaga in the Middle East”. Turbans and layered drapery were a constant in both the menswear and womenswear, and the Demna influence seems to transpire in the presentation of broadly shoulders of jumpers and the more exaggerated take on everyday pieces like polos or track pants. The menswear seemed to be in trajectory with the booming new look if men’s fashion, imploring a more scantily and sexually ambiguous way of dressing. The classic Westwood corseted silhouette was there as always, shown in a more sculptural aspect, the dresses and bustiers seemed to be markers for the different stops around this globetrotting fashion expedition.

Rokh

Prolonging the convention of British designers making heed, the Central Saint Martins graduate Rok Hwang, looked to the aughts of the downtown Audrey Hepburn in this classic iteration of an American in Paris-type collection. The dresses were very clearly some type of backwards look into the unpractical glamour of the 1960s, seeing as if this was peak into the wardrobe of a heiress who spends her nights coasting through the Soho district of London.

Patent leathers and PVC hinted to a sophisticated take on erotica, the asymmetrical cuts laid out so diligently were both uniform but felt very in the now, as if it was constructed an hour before it hit the runway. The work also insisted a take on a more uptown version of the S/S 2000 Christian Dior collection, with some nodding to Margiela or even Alexander Wang’s versions of modifications of basic everyday items.

Schiaparelli

Daniel Roseberry has officially made Schiaparelli cool again. Who would have thought that the works of Elsa herself would make a comeback and be deigned the must have collection by teenage fashion consumers across the digital landscape ? Daniel’s trademark is honing in on the house’s namesake designers take on camp and the surrealities of fashion. Both new and old, the collection and Daniel’s overall eye, both lean into Dali and Gaultier, with hinge of old-school Moschino.

Di Petsa

Dimetra Petsa is a name you may not have heard of as of yet, but over the past year she has garnered an immense following due to chiseled wet look dresses modeling after a Grecian goddess sense of fantasy. Her looks especially went viral after being the go-to pregnancy looks for new moms Nicki Minaj and Gigi Hadid in their viral maternity shoots, Petsa’s work so effortlessly guides the eyes among the female body. The craftsmanship setting the illusion at a piece of art that carouses feminine energy and sensuality.

This recent lookbook was no different. The collection which loosely inspired the Greek tragedy, Odyssey, the models sitting on posing on rocks wearing tattered gathered wet garments seemingly fashioned after the Sirens which Odysseus meets along his voyage.

Dries Van Noten

I am obsessed, truly. Dries opted for the spring cliches in a totally new and dynamic redirection of what we have seen. Coming out of the pandemic, Dries wanted to throw everything to the wall, an explosive layering of prints and textures, submerged under neons and glittery pastels. Inspired by the missing days of music festivals, the collection mimics how fashion transpires in giant crowds and where the boundaries falter. The shoot, photographed by Rafael Pavarotti, gave me a nostalgia to the early 2010s ideal of American Vogue editorials done by Patrick Demarchelier while the garments took me back to Raf Simons at Jil Sander or old school Proenza Schouler.

Ottolinger

German designers Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient, have found a niche way to combine athleisure and nightclubbing appropriate garments. The presentation of such was one that stuck to the brand’s DNA while also gearing somewhat of a futuristic ‘hoe but make it fashion’ aesthetic with metallics and cropped jackets with disproportionate sleeves and buttoning. The collection then later grew into a Matrix vibe with structured blazers and a striking drama of a coat and eventually bloomed into wire constructed segment of dresses and two piece ensembles.

A.Z. Factory

In this operatic finale to Paris Fashion Week, the biggest names in the industry gathered in a larger than life homegoing celebration of Alber Elbaz, who transitioned this pass April from Covid-19 related complications. Over 45 designers took part of the collection which was curated by the Elbaz’s own team at AZ Factory. Each designer contributed a reimagined version of Alber’s past work, most notably drawing inspiration from his time at Lanvin, or brought forth an original design that payed homage to Alber.

Jean Paul Gaultier provided an artistic commentary on Alber’s work with a red corsets framed by 3-D hearts nodding to how much heart he put into his work. Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga measured himself into the current climate of his own work and offered a pink voluminous coat. Rosie Aussolin gave us a dress that was Alber’s classic look: a tie, suit jacket, white shirt, and huge glasses. What made the look even more sentimental was that is worn on the runway by his ultimate muse, model Olga Sheer. Creative director of Y/Project Glenn Martins and Tomo Koizumi took reference from his iconic Lanvin days and experimented with Alber’s love of ruffle and texture.