Controversy, frivolity mark day one of Paris Fashion Week
FirstpostThe pioneering Black performer Josephine Baker — who left the United States to find global fame in Paris in the 1920s — was Dior’s muse for an old school spring couture collection of archetypal classicism. Here are some highlights of the first day of spring-summer haute couture displays: Dior’s Baker Lining the perfume-scented interiors of an annex inside the Rodin Museum gardens were giant images by African American artist Mickalene Thomas of Baker alongside other female Black American icons. Williams called coming to the show “such a dream,” in part because she has just played Dior’s sister, Catherine Dior, in the highly anticipated Apple TV drama series “The New Look” — which centers on the bitter rivalry between the couturier and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. Iris Van Herpen Goes Digital Against the grain of Paris Fashion Week, which is turning its back on digital, Dutch Wunderkind said of her latest couture offering that she “is proud to announce that… instead of a traditional runway show, the brand shows a digital presentation that allows for more creative freedom and storytelling.” An in-person presentation accompanied the collection film “Carte Blanche,” in which she teamed up with a French artists called Julie Gautier — exploring how female beauty can be used as a form of control.