Colour meets menswear, celebrities at the Paris Fashion Week

Here are the highlights of the fall-winter 2015 ready-to-wear shows including show reports from Mugler, Elie Saab and Vivienne Westwood.

Vivienne Westwood’s gender bending

If Yves Saint Laurent could liberate women by dressing them in men’s tuxedos, then why shouldn’t fashion do the same, and reverse, for men? That’s the question Vivienne Westwood explored in her bold and sexually ambiguous fall-winter collection.

A man in a huge billowing gold bustier dress came alongside a female model in a shouldered menswear ‘zoot’ suit — worn in the ‘50s as a mark of rebelling against traditions.

If women dressing in menswear is the norm these days, she seemed to say, then why is it that men dressed in womenswear still raises eyebrows?

The thing was the entire collection seemed to raise eyebrows — albeit in a very good way — for its anarchistic and sometimes unfathomable gusto and humour.

Tinsel lined the catwalk, like the debris left after a crazy ‘70s disco, mirrored by Hula skirts, as worn by Polynesian men. (Westwood described these as a “bisexual” element.)

Then fast-forward a beautiful Romantic shoulder-less dress printed with a rose, a funky giant Persian printed cloak, a Braveheart-style draped tartan, the customary peaked-shoulders tuxedos — and even an Irish Leprechaun hat, then you have a very distinct fashion statement from a woman who has nothing more to prove to the men in her industry. 

Mugler’s saleable fembot plays safe with a twist

It’s the second outing for Mugler designer David Koma — who riffed on the theme of the fembot for his saleable fall-winter collection. A figure hugging black uber-mini dress with a demure turtle neck sported myriad grommets that resembled soldering dots.

Elsewhere, geometric sheer paneling on another knee-length number was twinned with a fantastic choker made of vertical metallic strips, followed by flashes of printed gold circuitry.

Later binary code black-and-white looks gave a lift to a menswear tuxedo jackets, or a sporty-looking armless sheath.

It was safe with a twist. 

Elie Saab’s variations

It was a creative and varied show from the popular Lebanese designer.

To rousing military music, the first looks surprised the fashion crowd by how un-Elie Saab they appeared: constructed silhouettes with chic military buttons, lining a long slender coat or a military jacket in black. It was, at first, a welcome darker, more menswear vibe.

Following on from the forest-theme in the strong couture show, here the decor was of trees. This was mirrored in the catwalk show by a dalliance with an earth green button up shirt, pant or loose sheath dress, and later, in floral embellishments on a short, fitted A-line mini dress.

For those va-va-voom Saab addicts there was also must to be had — including the trademark silk column silhouettes, one with a nice halter neck.

The signature styles were, however, nicely broken up by some must-have individual looks like one crimson leather fitted jacket and skirt with an enviable wide zigzag pleat.