Top 10 Shows From Paris Fashion Week SS16

Paris Fashion week rounded up the big four shows this week in spectacular style. The big French fashion houses impressed with long flowing dresses in soft chiffons, flirty frills, flounces and fringing and sparkly embellishments. It also saw shorts making a comeback in a big way at many of the shows.

Colour and patterns were bold and the overall feel in Paris was very feminine. Here’s our favourite 10 shows from Paris this season.

Stella McCartney

Stella McCartney mixed delicate knits with graphic chiffons and monochromatic suiting to show a collection that takes it’s wearer from the boardroom to weekend drinks and then out for the evening. Suiting for simplified and deconstructed and most of the dresses were form fitting, all of which was very ladylike.

Saint Laurent

The boho queen – Kate Moss – seemed to be an inspiration for this latest collection. Fun, lavish and extravagant, you can these outfits just as easily in the VIP section of Glastonbury as at a celebrity party in London. We love that it’s the Beautiful and the Damned meets the Primrose Hill set.

Hermès

Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski showed a very French collection with a tricolour red, white and blue palette. Graphic prints and patterns stood out as did the minimalistic cuts and luxe fabrics such as leather, fine cotton and silk all which you can imagine on fashionable French women as they walk by the Seine.

Elie Saab

Elie Saab is loved by his clients for his beautiful, feminine dresses and his ready to wear didn’t disappoint. The romantic floral prints, bright highlight colours and delicate beading and lace will look at home on the French Riviera or wherever the jet set are headed this Spring.

Christian Dior

Raf Simons has the spring and summer season clearly in mind when he designed this collection. “I was thinking about the South of France—rainbows and the simple things,” he said. “There’s a bit of Victoriana: something of that film Picnic at Hanging Rock,” he continued. He left the evening wear out concentrating of fresh day wear with scalloped shorts and tops in soft colours punctuated with black.

Lanvin

Alber Elbaz’s use of bright coloured satins and scrawled signature prints make Lanvin’s SS16 offering stand out from the crowd. A variety of necklines and hem lengths demonstrated that he had a wide audience in mind in his “manifesto” show.

Balmain

Before appearing on the catwalk, Olivier Rousteing’s star models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner had already premiered items from the collection on a night out on the town, which helped to drum up nticipation for the show. Olivier used a limited palette for Balmain making a strong impact on the runway and with bejewelled macramé, flouncy frills, figure hugging silhouettes and cutouts.

Chanel

Karl Lagerfeld presented a jet-set collection for Chanel as he gave the runway an airport feel with boarding passes, checkin and suitcases. It’s not what most of us wear to fly, even in first class but “it’s the idea of how it should look!” Karl said. There were classic Chanel tweeds and bouclé suiting as well as abstract art inspired prints that resulted in a retro feel teamed with modern accessories.

Valentino

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli took inspiration from across the globe for Valentino’s spring collection. Flirty floaty dresses were contrasted with graphic prints, punched leather, Masai style beading and studding for a multi-cultural feel.

Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton’s frills, feathers and fringing combines with pretty florals and soft shades gave the collection a very English feel of a bygone era. “I wanted it to be believable, touchable, soft,” she said of her designs and she succeeded with pretty dresses that floated down the catwalk.