March 27, 2011

Native-Inspired Collections at Paris Fashion Week


This is a little bit late (delayed, of course, by my preoccupation with the Heard Market) - but I wanted to round out my review of Native-inspired collections at the various Fashion Week events held in New York, London, Milan, and Paris. A couple of the designers at Paris Fashion Week showed collections with Native American influence. I'm still reviewing the collections from MFW and PFW, but read on for a list of some of the shows that drew inspiration from Native sources.

Isabel Marant
About her RTW Fall 2011 collection, WWD wrote: "Her Native American riffs, meanwhile, were best in the watercolor feather prints on casual basics (slouchy sweatshirts and Ts) and the seemingly inside-out Navajo-pattern knits rendered slightly undone with loose, trailing strands. But that fringe motif didn’t work so well when it came to everything else. Marant had the stringy stuff cascading down suede tunics, tight-knit dresses and on the side of slouchy boots. It was too literal a gimmick and only boosted the somewhat haphazard vibe throughout." Click here and here for more information.



Hermes
In his debut collection for Hermes, Christophe Lemaire went slightly Native American: hooded, suede ponchos and dresses featuring dream-catcher prints in a palette of rich sepias, ochres, ecrus and taupes. Click here for more information.