Costume National RTW Spring 2013 Paris Fashion Week

Costume National RTW Spring 2013  - “When I started in the Nineties, the message of minimalism was very innovative,” Capasa said backstage before the show. “Now we need another minimalism. More technique, more ‘couture,’ more elegant.”

Costume National RTW Spring 2013

Capasa overlapped and cut together different pieces of fabrics for looks like a tuxedo with a top that was half jacket, half bustier, and a short dress that draped around the torso and ended with a single pant leg. They were strange. Capasa largely worked in a black palette, but the few colored exits — particularly the fuchsia and red combinations — felt the freshest.
Source:WWD

Andrew Gn RTW Spring 2013 Paris Fashion Week

Andrew Gn RTW Spring 2013 - The show opened on a strong note with built-in shawls hugging the shoulders of sculptural dresses, and pearl-buttoned cardigan jackets that swayed over sleek pantaloons that Gn dubbed “taj pants.” They were chic and had a young spirit.

Andrew Gn RTW Spring 2013

Embellishments looked striking and delicate: metallic paisley embroideries dabbed on the edge of a black tunic, and tufted silk feathers drifted down the front of a pencil skirt.

Christian Dior RTW Spring 2013 Paris Fashion Week

Christian Dior RTW Spring 2013 

Christian Dior RTW Spring 2013- Simons opened with a series of smokings. Though they featured takes on the Bar and referenced his own couture collection in July, one might have read them as a tease thrown YSL’s way. The first three models out wore wide ribbons around their necks — an unfettered update on Dior’s use of chokers. Such were not the only archival references. Simons immersed himself in research and came away with a focus on pleats and on Dior’s Ligne A and Ligne H jackets. The latter turned up in a group of fabulous short coatdresses — he called them jacket-dresses — some waisted, others falling away from the body in that languid A-shape. Making them more than exercises in perfect tailoring: unexpected embroideries and flashes of iridescence in overlays or inset pleats.
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Lanvin RTW Spring 2013 Paris Fashion Week

Lanvin RTW Spring 2013 

Lanvin RTW Spring 2013 

“What is design anyway? What is the definition of design?” he waxed philosophic during a preview. “I think it’s how to translate or not translate, how to transform one dimension to three dimensions, to take a piece of flat fabric and give it a shape. You do it with darts, you do it with volume, you do it with drape. That, for me, is the work of design.” That, according to Elbaz, is the essence of design.

 “The whole world has become like one exhibitionist place. Every woman I know wants to look like a star.” -Elbaz suggested.

He seemed determined to facilitate realization of that goal, which at times made for uncharacteristic gravitas - and a whole lot going on. Never a one-note guy, Elbaz prefers to populate his runway with that increasingly rare sighting within a single show: options. Here he funneled them through a Saint Laurent-cum-Eighties lens, coming up with arch tailoring; endless shoulder action; single sleeves and half-jackets; sudden bursts of glitz. Some of it looked great. A sleeveless jacket with a single white lapel over pants had a glamorous bravura; a pair of short skirts with jackets in black and white oozed chic. Other tailored pieces, however, were just too laborious.

Elbaz was more consistent with softer looks - a swimsuit series including some paired with skirts or pants - and with his dresses.
Source:WWD