SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015

Zuhair Murad

Ralph&Russo

Any firsts? Alexandre Vauthier, a 43-year-old French designer who counts Rihanna and Beyonce among his fans, put on his first haute couture show since winning the right to bear the label, jealously guarded by the French gov- ernment and handed out to just 14 fashion houses. For Jean Paul Gaultier, it was his first cou- ture show since announcing last season that he was giving up on his 38 years of ready-to- wear garments to concentrate on this elite end of the market. This is a realm where imagination rules. Thus there was a dark and tropical para- dise in Elie Saab’s show, where a nostalgia for a glamorous Beirut of his childhood-and of his mother-came to the fore. Gustavo Lins put on a production evocative of his native Brazil. And Valentino stood out for a sartorial hom- age to the folklore of Russia and central Asian republics.

The real world? With the haute couture events over (at least until the next season’s showings in July), Paris’s fashion vibe can come down a notch. Taking stock of the situation will be the capi- tal’s hoteliers, who noted a “fairly big fall” of up to nine percent in occupancy rates in January because of the Islamist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, according to the consulting firm MKG. Ordinary shoppers, though, will likely see some of the fantasy optimism of the couture creations seeping through into their off-the- rack buys later on this year-a regular phenom- enon that underpins the whole fashion indus- try. — AFP