Paris’s fashion craze

Lola Saab continues her look at Paris Fashion Week’s autumn–winter 2012–13 season, examining in greater depth the collections from Allude, K11, Valentin Yudashkin, Basil Soda and Masha Ma

Above Allude. Below Basil Soda.

Valentin Yudashkin

Valentin Ambramovich Yudashkin certainly put on a show with his pleasingly simple and even slightly sophisticated designs. The Russian designer provides allure and poise to a woman’s grace and beauty, either with particularly feminine constructions or innovative masculine designs.

The Salon Aiglon at the Hôtel Westin in Paris welcomed Yudashkin’s flamboyant show within the hotel’s urbane walls. The eveningwear ranged from striking cocktail to classy evening dresses that embraced feminine curves. The designer also created a slightly tomboy look, sustaining a highly feminine effect, including an ensemble of a pair of black pants, a white dress shirt, a black jacket and a thin black necktie, looking more feminine than one would expect. The colours are simple—mainly shades of black. However, the designer uses detail and a play on fabrics to create original elements on the runway.

Masha Ma

Fashion is not only an artistic feature; it is also a poetic element that creates words using materials, textures and colours to tell a lyrical tale. For two consecutive years, in 2009 and in 2010, Masha Ma won the Best International Innovation Award in the CCDC Design Contest. Watching Ma’s new collection magnificently stride down the runway, we begin to understand how she has successfully earned herself such accolades.

Ma presented the first time in Paris at Hôtel Westin. Her autumn–winter 2012–13 collection revolves around Oscar Wilde’s beautiful yet somewhat melancholic story, The Nightingale and the Rose. The story rotates around the themes of love and sacrifice between nature and humanity.

Each ensemble has a sophisticated feature, with various constructions highlighting their modern appeal. Materials ranged from cashmere, silk, lambskin to Japanese cotton, all playing an important role in the collection. The main colour on the catwalk was pure white; it included dabs of blues and purples creating feather prints, symbolizing the nightingale. Looks in all black and touches of gold also made their way out on the runway, with long coats and lean dresses with ruffles along the waist, tightly embracing the figure. In-depth features including high fur collars, zippers and constant layering of pieces portrayed an extra dimension. The show was a spectacular sight with many forms, shapes and colours intertwined to tell an everlasting story.

Lola Saab is Paris editor of Lucire.

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Allude

Looking back on 2009, one can reminisce upon German designer Andrea Karg’s beautiful looks on the runway during New York Fashion Week. Fast forward to 2012, Karg takes her aptitude and flair under the luminous fashion spotlight in Paris at the Grand Palais.

The brand, founded in 1993, is highly recognized for its beautifully soft materials of cashmere and silks. The main material Allude revolves around is cashmere, used to create her first creation almost twenty years ago: a V-neck pullover designed in 15 different shades. The first piece having gone down in Allude’s history, the same soft material persists two decades later with the sense of feeling warm, comfortable and still staying chic. The designer is able to create sexy and flamboyant looks with stunning colours in lighter and darker shades, with a range of many stylish cuts still emphasizing an absolutely feminine look.

Allude’s collection is simply stylish with a sophisticated twist to feminine appeal. With the hair divided in the middle and straightened back, a face of simple beauty with slightly glossed lips is revealed, focusing our main attention on the pieces. They include large sweaters, short and long cardigans flowing as the garment underneath hugs the body creating a sense of opposition together in one ensemble; the knee-high skirts and dresses vary from simple to fabulously enticing. Accessories include chic long scarves which play a key role in many of the looks.

Basil Soda

The famous Hôtel Ritz located at the Place Vendôme in Paris was a spectacular place to welcome Basil Soda’s chic new collection, in a simple and intimate presentation. The prestigious venue, Salons d’Été, permitted the spectators to walk around the room and dissect details and forms that each piece had to offer. Ensembles were elegantly surrounded by open box-like structures as the luxurious chandeliers’ light gleamed upon each look, highlighting their taste and fragile appearances. From the Lebanese designer’s haute couture to his ready-to-wear collections, Soda certainly creates feminine designs with completely flawless features, almost reflecting a futuristic woman. His looks are red carpet-worthy, with amazing cuts, shapes and vividly flirtatious colours that accentuate the wearer’s curves.

Above Basil Soda. Below Valentin Yudashkin.

K11—Xiao Yu & Huishan Zhang

Le Pavillon Vendôme welcomed an artistic presentation surrounded by its majestic modern walls. K11 supports young talent and created a vivid ambiance, using profound art and culture with the theme of fashion. It is not haute couture, it is not even art culture, but art couture: as guests dive into this world, we immediately begin to understand this exceptional concept. The presentation consisted of lively music, dance performances, spectacular photography and, of course, chic designs artistically presented in a contemporary way.

The presentation’s theme was called Lightness of Being, derived from the philosophical novel by Milan Kundrea, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The two young designers, Xiao Yu and Huishan Zhang certainly had their pieces shown in the “light” for people to mesmerize upon and enjoy throughout the calm Parisian soirée.

Xiao Yu was born in Chongqing, China and paved herself a future into the path of fashion. She graduated from the Affiliated School of Sichuan Fine Arts Academy in 1991 and earned a degree in fashion design at the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University in 1995. In 2007, Xiao obtained a master’s degree in Fashion Design and Technology at the London College of Fashion.

Her début collection marked the beginning of her adventure into her continual fashion ordeal; in 1998 she presented her first fashion show during China Fashion Week and achieved the title of ‘Top Ten Chinese Fashion Designers’.

This season, Xiao provided spectators with a highly artistic fashion sense. She used the same shades of black and white and played with the structure and construction of each look, providing a highly artistic construction. A woman’s body becomes a sculpted image with ornamental designs across the midriff and the neck, to evoking stunning features on the runway.

From sculpted pieces to creative feminine creations, Huishan Zhang’s looks are just as innovative with a special edge and appeal. The young designer’s début collection includes sophisticated and fine pieces with a beautiful inspirational feature, deriving from his homeland China. Many artistically designed pieces portray detailed calligraphy, boldly reflecting off the soft and delicate material. Jackets, tops, and flirtatiously short as well as elegantly long dresses and skirts provoked femininity, with incredible meticulous features. The elegant mix of black on white creates an artistically marvellous ambiance that shines as the light is reflected from afar.