Dior sees blue, Issey Miyake looks to northern lights at Paris shows

PARIS — French fashion house Christian Dior is seeing blue for women’s wardrobes next winter, with artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri turning to one of the preferred colors of the luxury label’s founding designer for her latest collection.At Dior’s autumn/winter 2017/2018 fashion show held at the Paris’ Musee Rodin, models strutted down the catwalk in a color palette of different shades of blue — navy, midnight, denim — as well as black and white.There were navy belted jackets worn with cropped culotte trousers as well as taffeta pleated dresses, tops and skirts.Chiuri paired blue chunky knits with see-through chiffon skirts, and also presented dark blue velvet dresses and trouser suits, loose denim trousers, dungarees and overalls. There were also some dark blue and black check outfits.For the evening, Chiuri, who joined Dior last year from Valentino, added sparkling sequins, floral embroidery and moon and star motifs on dark velvet and tulle dresses.”The collection is a sequence of pieces that reconnect emotions, feelings and memories,” show notes said, adding the color blue was “among Monsieur Dior’s great favorites.”A Christian Dior logo appeared on the bottom of jackets as well as on underwear seen underneath see-through black dresses.For accessories, models wore berets, choker necklaces and bags slung over their bodies. There were also simple stiletto heels, flat and knee-high boots.Earlier, the northern lights, or aurora borealis, were the inspiration at the Issey Miyake show, with models wearing voluminous coats as well as plenty of the label’s signature pleats.The first looks nodded to the striking dancing green sky lights phenomenon, with the outfits’ fabric changing color depending on the angle it was viewed, according to show notes.There was also an array of eye-catching pleats in blue, orange, green, yellow, burgundy and black created with special baking and steam techniques, in billowy shapes. Paris holds the last leg of the womenswear autumn/winter 2017/2018 catwalk shows, after similar events in New York, London and Milan in the last few weeks.