Rather than playing it for laughs,designers were playing it safe.
The runway at Lagerfeld’s former stomping ground of Chanel opened with a series of black skirt and bermuda short suits,that were saved from being described as sensible by the occasional outburst of decorative camellia prints,collars and corsages.
At Victoria Beckham,where the former Spice Girl punctuated black basics with blue suits and bold red dresses,the designer sat front row with her husband,David,her three children,and daughter-in-law,Nicola Peltz,all in funereal shades,besides casual Cruz in Burberry denim.
Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli hasgiven us shows filled with Barbiecore pink and neon green,but black pieces dominated this season,offering a backdrop to playful explorations of white shirts which produced creatively collared evening dresses.
“A focus on tailoring,the pragmatism of day wear and a pared-back palette emphasises dynamism,activity and modernity,” the Valentino show notes said. Clever but not as cheery as hot-pink sneakers.
Valentino delivered a predominantly black show as recently as 2020,but that collection was filled with eclectic elements of fantasy while here,the playing field was uniformity. It’s a trend carrying over fromMilan’s back-to-business approach,which is wholesomely practical – not an adjective usually applied to the Paris shows.