Paris Fashion Week: Stella McCartney / Valentino
- Filed under: Alternative Lifestyle, Beauty, Fashion, Fashion Week, Fendi, Kiss Bloggs, kissfendi
- Date: Mar 1,2008
Fashion and music intertwined at the Paris prêt-à-porter season yesterday as two daughters of pop-stars unveiled their collections for next autumn/winter.
On one hand was Stella McCartney, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney, whose hits are two numerous to mention, and on the other, Alessandra Facchinetti, whose father is Roby Facchinetti, the Italian Euro-pop-baron of the 60’s and 70’s, most recently famous for penning the theme tune for the Atalanta football team.
McCartney and Facchinetti, who was making her debut at Valentino, opened the schedule with differing viewpoints on how their upscale customers would like to look in the coming winter.
McCartney offered an ode to the modern medieval woman with long cloaks and cardigan coats in wool-felt, handmade by village artisans in Somerset, which were printed with heraldic symbols and faux coats-of-arms.
Blanket-inspired knits, in earth-toned stripes enfolded the body. Suits and coats with wide, kimono-sleeves were in the same wool-felt, in muted charcoal and metallic silver.
Long dresses in muslin, silk and paisley print, were reminiscent of a Maid Marion or Guinevere, and came in forest tones of sage, ivy, autumn-orange and leaf-brown, with off-the-shoulder necklines in hand-crochet and billowing sleeves, caught at the wrist.
Shorter, smock-styles, in sky blue chiffon, were cinched with wide-belts and accessorized with knee-high boots in hand-woven, shaggy-finish wools, while ultra-short, body-hugging dresses in heavy black and cream crochet or chiffon, detailed with silver, illustrated just how high hemlines have risen since the Middle Ages.
Alessandra Facchinetti, meanwhile, launched a new era in fashion with the first collection under the Valentino name which was not designed by the famous, eponymous founder of the house more than 45 years ago.
Valentino Garavani announced his retirement in September, 2007 - after the private equity firm, Permira, bought Valentino Fashion Group - and showed his final collection during the haute couture season in Paris in January.
The appointment of Facchinetti, 35, briefly the designer at Gucci after Tom Ford’s departure, had caused some disquiet in the industry.
But she wowed both fans and critics with a scintillating collection which was young in spirit, imbued with elegance and faithful to Valentino’s own ethos of beauty and style. /telegraph.co.uk
