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[Paris fashion week hots up: sex and la cite]

From leather garters to a subtler slinkiness, sensuality was explored

by Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen and more

Hussein Chalayan

Chalayan's stock in trade is to come at clothes from an esoteric tilt: flight paths,

solitude and kinship being some of his past starting points. So seeing him approach

clothes from the sex angle is a little disconcerting.

Not least because, like the convent schoolgirl who lets rip when she finally hits

boytown, Chalayan's attack seemed a bit full on, given that every other designer is

covering up and focusing on something darker and more serious than conventional

Result Wear. For instance, where others have used crotch-high leather boots as a

toughened-up, look-but-don't-touch foil to their micro dresses, Chalayan's waders

came with kinky leather garters and were worn over naked skin.

Then there were those lime, yellow, flesh or sky blue moulded breast plates and

buttock packs that he incorporated into stretchy mini tube dresses.

They're not going to make it to the stores ever, right? Even so, they set a certain tonefor a collection that was powerful but lacking in the lyrical beauty of his previous

work. Chalayan said this collection was about architecture and the earth (given past

form, you'd hardly expect him to say it was about going out and getting laid). The

earth accounted for the focus on the body - woman rising from the planet's core, etc -

architecture explained the extraordinary look of his sculpted grey micro dresses,

which came in a new synthetic foam fabric developed especially by Chalayan. It

looked like poured concrete. It might be a hard sell, but it was clever.

Sophia Kokosalaki

There has always been a dark, tough rock chick lurking not so far below Kokosalaki's

sunny Greek exterior. Now, when everyone else is playing this riff, is her moment to

emerge, and in the main she made a graceful appearance, with beautiful veiled and

semi-veiled black dresses and intricately embroidered or beaded leather biker jackets

that proved her to be a designer who can cut fabric as well as she can twist and fold it.

Kokosalaki made her name with complex, Grecian-statue draping, and yet this time

on the catwalk at least, her ivory silk draped tops and dresses paled next to her 

modern-looking cocktail dresses. Her talent lies in designing clothes that are quietly

intriguing rather than exhibitionist fashion moments. The best of her work makes you

appreciate its chic, edgy loveliness first, and ponder its construction later.

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It's not tricksy for the sake of it. Or not often. Stiff curlicues that looked as though

they might have been reinforced with wire snaked around the bodies of some of her 

chiffon dresses, serving only to overcomplicate. But when she kept it simple - or 

rather, deceptively simple, because it's fiendishly difficult to achieve a little black 

dress that's both elegant and as light as smoke - she sizzled.

Valentino

Taking over from a legendary designer can be like accepting a poisoned chalice, as

Alessandra Facchinetti well knows. Having been dismissed from Gucci after a short

stint following Tom Ford's departure, she was recently sacked as Valentino's

successor despite presenting well-received collections. Her replacements, Maria

Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, were accessory designers for a decade under 

Valentino and know the label's modus operandi only too well.

Showing their first ready-to-wear collection they pursued the softly, softly approach,

adhering to the ladylike aesthetic of Val's gals. Although that was mostly the problem.

“Lady who lunches” attire looks totally irrelevant in today's economic climate.

Rival luxury goods houses have learnt to adapt high society wardrobes to at least

incorporate some great skirt suiting for the workplace. Chez Valentino, the slub silk 

or the fox-fur-trimmed opera capes with surface embellishment were never going to

cut it.

While the opening of a series of fan-pleated dresses in emerald green, Valentino redand sunflower yellow were pretty enough, they were also rather uninspiring. So too

were those evening gowns in turquoise ombre shading. It's going to prove quite a

challenge, but Chiuri and Piccioli are going to have to come up with options for a

modern, increasingly picky consumer in 2009.

Lisa Armstrong, the Times (March 12, 2009)