SHOWDETAILS Women PARIS Magazine 2020

Excesses, whims, extravagances. Paris too witnessed the onslaught of maximalism currently taking fashion by storm, meaning that designers seemed to compete to see just how many different garments, styles or colours one could wear at any one time. Perhaps the ‘less is more’ ethos just does not fit with a cultural and historical moment in time that resembles a cauldron into which anything and everything is thrown. One’s very identity, not just individual but also collective, dissolves in a kind of liquidity, the only antidote to which appears to be going crazy with a kaleidoscope of views, tastes and attitudes translated into as many ways of dressing. No surprise, then, that one of the periods many designers looked back to was the ’80s – excessive, rampant, hedonist – from which they took maxi-jewellery, bright make-up, oversized shoulders, puff sleeves, high waist, surfaces dripping with gold and sequins, and a tendency to layer up and mix & match with the risk of bad taste never far away.Potpourri is all of this and more, amongst rococo frills and flounces, tailoring overwhelmed by patchwork and destructuring, streetwear and aristocratic looks that teamed denim with sumptuous upholstery fabrics and where even the colour combinations followed rules of their own. The punk movement also had its own rules, with its yearning for chaos and transgression; there it goes again, a sexy-sweet yet still raw kind of Neo-Punk, born out of another era, the ’70s, which has featured on the runways for several seasons. Created out of a refusal of the fashion establishment, punk has become a fashion itself, legitimizing such accessories as chains, safety pins, studs, fetish garments, combat boots and leather. The forerunner of the genre, Vivienne Westwood, reinterprets it every season, this time offering a rural version in shocking red, while others mixed it with menswear, military and/or sportswear. Checks and tartan are other must-have details. Those who have the possibility of delving into the brand archives do so with Revisitations of cults, at times staying close to the original and at others opting for a more courageous, personal interpretation, fusing tradition and contemporaneity – the latter represented by oversize streetwear, techno materials or jeans.