By VANESSA FRIEDMAN, New York Times
PARIS — In the end, everyone made it. Despite the Air France strike entering its second week, by the time of the Dries Van Noten show, the first big name on the Paris spring calendar, air fashion was out in force.
At the end of the Van Noten show, the models sat down on the carpet — clumps of moss and succulents created by the artist Alexandra Kehayogloua — like a bevy of picnicking hipster nymphs. Credit Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France may be beating his breast and making noises about the negative impact of the refusenik pilots on the image of the country, but when it comes to the catwalks, the show goes on. One industry teeters on the edge; the other drives determinedly forward.
How to resolve the two?
For his part, Mr. Van Noten took the high road — or the low road — or to be most accurate, what looked like a green road, spotted by seeming clumps of moss and other arid succulents but that turned out to be a carpet hand-tufted by the Buenos Aires-based artist Alexandra Kehayoglou that Mr. Van Noten had commissioned to double as a catwalk.
On it, as bird calls began, strolled clothes of the most leisurely kind — drawstring trousers and tiered silk chiffon tunics and loose T-shirts and bathrobe coats — all in the richest of fabrics, from brightly striped sari silks to brocade sunbursts, jeweled chevrons, men’s wear stripes and sapphire Lurex fringe. Pre-Raphaelite met Arts and Crafts, and print was layered on print was layered on print until an entire visual universe had been created from the simplest of starts, and all the familiar shapes took on new shading.
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