FASHION'S GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, THE PARIS COUTURE (c) By Polly Guerin

Karl Lagerfeld's Fantasy Garden Spring 2015 Collection

Paris haute couture takes a walk in the garden of fantastic delights for Spring 2015. Karl Lagerfeld, the master creator for Chanel, fashioned and Eden of Haute, a beautiful paradise filled with mammoth flowers in a bucolic stark white garden filled with stupendous floral and fauna that only our wildest dreams could imagine. Here's the scoop!!!
   The Grand Palais was the site of this extravaganza, which in a way, eclipsed even the fashions that paraded around the garden on a circular stage. Yet, as the models walked the white carpet a most extraordinary thing occurred. The flowers cranked open in full bloom to reveal the most enchanting colors---orange, yellow, pink and red. And then, the fashions replicated in those colors, came forth embellished with intricate laces, embroidered tweeds, plastered linens. Floral appliques emerged, such as deep borders on an orange coat, on the bottom of a long tunic and fashioned as cuffs on the sleeves of a jacket, while breathtaking sheer skirts with floral border hems sashayed around the runway
   Some critics say that such showmanship often overshadows the actual fashions on review, but Lagerfeld did not disappoint with youthful silhouettes that had fashionista appeal.
   Then, too, there was Raf Simons for Dior, who went on a different curve of interest and fused a

Raf Simons for Dior Spring 2015 Collection

powerful, couture collection, drawing on past eras in a modern revivalist extravaganza---evoking the Fifties' romance, Sixties' experimentation and the wild freedom of the Seventies It was a heady mix of familiar themes, even miss-matched motifs on a body suit---dots, stripes, floral, and geometric motifs juxtaposed together in an eye-popping print. .In sharp contrast, a bright yellow demure three-quarter coat, with neat school-girl point collar made a stunning classic entry.
   Ditto for Schiaparelli posted fifteen teenage girls from the choir, Les Cherubims, who stood in windows ringing the show and sang out with sweet voices to Ravel's Bolero. Thus paying homage to the legendary designer, Elsa Schiaparelli, who in her halcyon days partnered with the surrealist Salvador Dali and even Jean Cocteau in creating some of her avant garde fabrics and embroideries.. Elsa's famed trademark, shocking pink, drenched the show, with archive-inspired

Ditto for Schiaparelli's Green Silk Gown

prints with mirrors and colorful hearts on jumpsuits and femme fatale tuxedos. Other embellishments that Elsa would adore included ribbon embroideries, cascading stars and tiny feather applique. The dramatic entrance of a show-stopper green silk evening gown was printed with blue swirling ribbons and floating white lady hands, a la Schiaparelli, while other dresses came forth in other quirky prints and intricate embroideries.
For more on the Paris shows: see WWD.com/runway.
Ta Ta Darlings!!! I remember it well, haute couture is the quintessential fashion theater and the best show in Paris.  Fan mail welcome at pollytalknyc@gmail.com.  Visit Polly's Blogs on www.pollytalk.com and click on the Blog of your interest, just click the link  listed in the left hand column  for Blogs on amazing women, remarkable men and Polly's poetry.

CHINA, Through the Looking Glass, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute (c) By Polly Guerin

Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford 2004

The Palace Museum in Beijing, China was the setting recently where the Metropolitan Museum of Art held a press briefing about its spring 2015 Costume Institute exhibition, "China Through the Looking Glass," an exhibition that explores how Chinese art and film have influenced Western fashion design for centuries.
   This show is expected to attract a great Chinese interest in tickets so you may want to book your tickets early. It will open on May 7th,  three days after the Met's Costume Institute benefit. The gala evening is being hosted by Silas Chou, one of the key investors in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger who has extensive business interest in China, and actors Gong Li and Jennifer Lawrence.. Wintour has organized the Costume Institutes annual gala dinner since 1995 and last year the museum named the Costume Institute after her.
The Celebs in Beijing: Of course, Anna Wintour was there to celebrate the event and the Chanel-clad editor explained that the decision to unveil details in the Chinese capital rather than in New York, stemmed from a desire to acknowledge  the country that had inspired the exhibition. Wintour, the artistic director of Conde Nast and Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue was not alone on the trip. There was a  high-ranking entourage of delegates on the occasion, and what a prestigious mix it was, culled together, no doubt, as a sign to indicate just how important the exhibition is to the museum and quite possibly to the State Department. Dignitaries included Charles P Campbell, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum; Shan Jixiang, Director of the Palace Museum; Max Baucus, U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China; Andrew Bolton,curator in the Costume Institute. Wong Kar-Wai, Artristic Director of the exhibition also attended the briefing.

Roberto Cavalli gown reflects Chinese export porcelains

Forbidden City Fashion Andrew Bolton discussed how the exhibition will juxtapose Chinese art and historic costumes with high fashion to demonstrate the World's fascination with Chinese imagery. Wong Kar-Wai brought up the role of film in the exhibition and showed a montage of the film clips that will be used in the exhibition to illuminate the impact of the cinematic arts on Western fashion. For instance a Yves Saint Laurent dress by Tom Ford 2004 was inspired by the dragon robe  by Puyi (1906-1967), the last Chinese emperor for his inauguration in 1906; and there is a stunning blue-and-white Chanel beaded grown, by Karl Lagerfeld, 1964 and a show stopper, the Roberto Cavalli gown (2005) whose patterns reflect those on Chinese export porcelains.
China Through the Looking Glass will be on view in the Anna Wintour Costume Institute Center through August 16 and will feature more than 130 haute couture and ready-to-wear fashions juxtaposed with traditional Chinese masterpieces in jade, lacquer, chinoiserie, and blue-and-white porcelains. Andrew Bolton, curator of the exhibition noted: "From the earliest period of European contact with China in the sixteenth century, the West has has been enchanted with enigmatic objects and imagery from China, providing inspiration for fashion designers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent. Through the looking glass of fashion, designers conjoin disparate stylistic references into a pastiche of Chinese aesthetic and cultural traditions."
Ta Ta darlings! No, bless your heart, I did not go to China but received this scope  through the fashion grapevine.Fan mail welcome at pollytalknyc.gmail.com. Visit Polly's Blogs at www.pollytalk.com.