Victoria Beckham Spring Collection

Only one dress out of the 26 Victoria Beckham showed today featured a corset. That's groundbreaking news for a glamour puss who looks so pulled together in paparazzi snapshots you'd swear she wears a waist cincher to the gym. But as Beckham said while narrating the collection, her own style has loosened up quite a bit, and it showed in the clothes. She opened with a draped parachute silk dress in ultraviolet knotted at the torso, and included a few more variations of the theme, including a striking gown in black with jet embroidery at the shoulder. Kudos for expanding the range, though the irony is a weightless fabric like parachute silk hides nothing; as easy as the new silhouettes are, they require a flawless body.

Hollywood is full of those, of course, but Beckham's fans even those with last names like Diaz, Lopez, and Moore will probably gravitate toward the curving seams of the hourglass dresses she's best known for. Hard not to like the way they reliably hold everything in place. Among the best examples today: a shoulder-baring iridescent jacquard with ribbon straps and a Cadillac pink double crepe with an asymmetric neckline and a contrasting zipper in back. At the designer's request, Brian Atwood made the show's rose gold platform pumps to match her new Rolex. As for the new Victoria Beckham bags, they featured luxe materials and classically ladylike shapes, as befits a lady who knows her way around a Birkin.

Bluemarine Spring Fashion Collection

Blumarine's eye popping psychedelic leopard spot collection of last Fall pure over-the-top, ridiculous fun sold so well in America, the company was almost shocked. What would the follow up be the same sort of exuberant, sexy, borderline funny nailing of a current trend? To get to it, you need to flick to the middle of today's show, past the colorful tie-dye, glitzy hippie dresses and body-con knits, to the moment the camouflage hit. Military drab this wasn't. Out came the fluoro-splashed olive and green prints, camo print platform sandals, Rasta stripe bags, and finally a delightfully hilarious full-length army bustier dress. It was followed by a small laugh, rippling along the front row.


The exuberance of Blumarine is full frontal devil may care Italian. In its knowing, put-together, highly commercial way, it captures the Southern European attitude to holidaying in the sun (obviously, this season, in St. Bart's, Jamaica, and thereabouts). The range might be a little limited—there's only so much tie-dye the eye can take—but the energy of this well-priced line looks as though it's beginning to steal a march on the likes of Cavalli, Pucci, and even Versace.

Elie Saab Fashion Collection

It was back to the seventies at Elie Saab, as on so many other runways this season. The designer name-checked Bianca, Lauren, and Diane, and he attempted to conjure the wild nights of Studio 54 with a lineup that was long on jersey, chiffon, sequins, and the decade's requisite platform sandals. If it felt like a tepid reimagining of that heady era, especially in light of the disco-y decadence of Louis Vuitton a few hours later, that may be partly explained by the fact that Saab does such a big business with the Hollywood crowd. No actress wants to land on the worst-dressed list, which means today's red-carpet dressing only pushes the boundaries so far.

Saab's formula for Spring was best summed up by the closing dress, a blush-peach asymmetrical gown embroidered in tiny squares of sequins: a little bit of shine and a little bit of shoulder, with a glossy mane and lids lined in yellow shadow to match. Michel Gaubert's soundtrack of Rolling Stones, Blondie, and Diana Ross tunes worked hard to add some sizzle to the proceedings, but the green chartreuse, apricot, slate blue, and smoky white palette didn't want to comply. A close-fitting column gown ruched on the torso and a cocktail dress with the same draped detail down its back provided a couple of pulse-quickening moments. But you left wanting more of them.

Givenchy Spring Fashion Collection

At some shows in Paris, the seating arrangements are so cramped that you can physically feel the audience reaction in the body language running along a bench. At Givenchy, there was no possible doubt about what it was. From the very first look out—a geometrically striped black and white jersey jacket over a graphic, lozenge-fronted top and draped pants—everyone was on high alert, jostling and craning for the best possible view.


Indisputably, Riccardo Tisci has moved up to the elite group of designers who matter most in Paris. His work has editors pining to buy and rock stars' stylists competing for first dibs—and for Spring, that heat's only going to intensify. What he sent out was a fusion of Arabic influences, goddesslike draping, and, according to the program notes, the results of his new research into sixties Roman couture. If that sounds like nonsense on paper, in fact almost every garment had an intensity of proportion and detail that looked incredible: the graphic jackets; tiny kilts; attenuated drop-crotch harem pants; cool, multilayered, modernized tutus; and draped, wrapped, and swathed tulle dresses.

Travel influences often lead to banality, but Tisci's referencing of the kaffiyeh scarf was pushed into allover digital patterns in ways that almost took it into the realm of zigzagging psychedelia. The prints covered blouses, jackets, kilts, leggings, platform wedges, and bags. The silhouette, with its slightly raised waistline, had the effect of making the models look even taller and more impossibly leggy—the drama enhanced by the high, wrapped, wedge-heel boots. For day, the bondage-y footwear came in leather; at night, with the goddess dresses, it was smothered in white tulle.

This highly resolved series of looks could only have come about because of Tisci's experience in Givenchy's haute couture. If that sounds high-flown, it is, in a way—but the cleverness is that everything he's doing now has the heartbeat of youth. Even better: Tisci may be the rock world's new dream couturier, but in retail that also translates into accessible, surprising pieces that sell out the minute they hit stores.

Dries Van Noten Spring Fashion

He was coming off two hit collections in which he moved into the fast lane as a fashion influencer (his Bacon-inspired winter color palette all those mustard, shrimp, and beige colors has been replicated everywhere). That meant the anticipation surrounding Dries Van Noten's show was running high. Was he going to gift the world with a fresh set of ideas to get everyone thinking? As it turned out, no. Spring found Van Noten dropping back several gears and taking an ethnic route, which, though thoroughly in line with his house signatures, didn't forge ahead into any new territory.


Perhaps he judged it time to reinstate the print and pattern his customers love—which is fair enough, of course. After a couple of seasons of citified dressing, collectors of Dries may well be pining for his more eclectic, decorative pieces. If so, they'll find plenty of them: coats, soft boxy jackets, wrapped dresses, and sarong skirts in a plethora of fabrics and embroideries that looked as if they'd been sourced from a trip around the markets of China and Southeast Asia.


In among them, there were items like the silver lamé tank with a sheer back, the khaki shorts, and the sparkly jackets that will also allow fans to dip into trend without going overboard. Still, the extra twist of styling genius that has gone into Van Noten's recent collections was missing this time except for one thing. The incredible necklaces rich looking pearl chokers dangling geometric pendants set with large semiprecious stones and crystal made gorgeous viewing.

Bottega Veneta Spring Fashion Collection

In a serene and beautifully judged collection done almost entirely in shades of cream, Tomas Maier put the individualistic way we use clothes at the center of his thought process. "I think of it as a collaboration with women," he said. "The clothes are meant to be a backdrop, a blank canvas, so the wearer can play with color and accessories to change the look and make it her own." The concept of the neutral background came when he saw a group of children being dropped off at a karate class in Florida, where he lives: "I liked the look of the canvas, and that became my color card white, cream, straw. And the idea of the soft belt."



The relaxed sportiness surfaced in the second look: the karate jacket, made into a halter and wrapped over shorts, followed by a drapey fine gauge knit jogging suit and all-in-one. Yet his takes on simple sheaths, strapless dresses, a cotton fifties-flavored sundress, the corset, and an impactful evening dress were all securely melded into the sequence. At the core of the show was an impressive array of daywear that, as Maier promised, became the foil for outstandingly desirable accessories and the occasional splash of turquoise, green, and magenta.

Lightweight jackets and rolled-hem shorts, elegant T-shirt-cum-sack dresses, and tunics with asymmetrical raised seaming were shown with a sophisticated Bottega take on country-peasant craftsmanship: high wedge sandals with woven espadrille soles, delicate string macramé slingbacks, and an amazing translation of the house leather intrecciato bag into something resembling a soft straw basket. It was one of the best summations so far this season of the feeling for sport, pale color, and the textured aesthetics of humble materials—but with a surprise contrarian kicker. At the end, three extraordinary evening dresses in boldly colored iridescent polyester tissue walked out. Nothing to do with the rest of it, except that in Maier's hands, even the synthetic can become the epitome of sophistication.

Monique Lhuillier Spring Fashion Collection

"Welcome to the Garden of Eden," Monique Lhuillier joked, gesturing around the hotel suite, strewn with flower-decked dresses, that served as base camp before her Spring show. "We have the angelic side, and the naughty side." Of course, naughty chez Lhuillier doesn't mean bondagewear or black leather; she makes lush frocks for very lush occasions.




A serpent print among the blooms was the most devilish temptation although it was by no means the most decadent. That honor would go to the drop-waist ball gown with, up top, a nude corset bodice (overlaid with net embellished with raffia paillettes) and, down below, a full skirt of poppy-red organza strips dusted with sequins. It was only one of the knockouts that sprung up under Lhuillier's green thumb. For black-tie nights, magnolias were hand-painted on organza and woven into jacquard; for day, a chic pair of high-waisted candy-apple red pants was paired with an organza blouse with origami fans rippling across the front. Still, evening will always be what Lhuillier does best. Pray, like Cinderella, for an invitation to the ball.