The Invasion of a Fashion Capital
The French try to fight creeping cultural invasions, but they’re losing the battle. They complain about their vocabulary being polluted by techno terms with English language roots, place quotas on American movies and decry the spread of inferior American fast food. While Paris is still a fashion capital, they cannot deny that its claim to that status no longer rests on French designers.
In the early ‘80s, avant-garde Japanese designers, notably Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcon, began presenting in Paris. They forever changed the city into an international showcase for serious creators with designs on a global audience. The next group of carpetbaggers to hog the spotlight was talented Belgians. A large dose of irony accompanied their ascent, since the typically xenophobic French are particularly condescending to their Belgian neighbors. They consider Antwerp as a source of fashion as amusing a concept as California producing drinkable wine.
Next came the Brits. Anti-English feelings die hard here, that nasty business of the Hundred Years’ War and all, but with the English holding the creative reins at such venerable houses as Dior, Givenchy and Chloe, even the most nationalistic Frenchman had to concede that the corps of home-grown talent wasn’t strong enough to inspire the confidence of French business owners.
This year, the invaders are American.
Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez and Michael Kors, who all design American collections under their own names, are the new crown princes of the largest luxury goods empire in the world, the French-owned LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Their debuts here for Louis Vuitton, Loewe and Celine are the most anticipated events of fashion week in Paris.
An American in Paris: Four days before his first show for Celine, the only sign that Kors was feeling any pressure was the steady chain of cigarettes he lighted and puffed. “The idea of doing something in Paris always intrigued me,” he said. “When I design my line, even though it’s sold outside the States, it’s for a woman who wants something that looks very American. For Celine, I can go more glamorous, design something more ornamental.”
Although he’s been in business for 16 years, in the past two years, the 38-year-old designer was deluged with offers from European companies. “Some of them made no sense,” he said. Not for Kors, who’s known for simple, luxurious, wearable clothes.
A professional marriage to Celine felt right. “They’re the only quality French house that was known for their sportswear,” he said. “This is not just a hype machine. It’s not a place where you design something thinking, ‘That’ll be a hoot on the runway, but who will want to wear it?’ They’re interested in real clothes that are expedient, comfortable, pragmatic and push the luxury envelope. That’s what I do.”
Celine offers a complete line of products, clothes as well as shoes, leather goods and scarves. “You can’t do that at home anymore,” Kors said. “If a designer offers 40 different products under his name, they’re all made by different licensees, and it’s impossible to control the quality. Everything Celine is actually made by Celine. I ask them, ‘Can you make this?’ And they can do it. This is so much fun for me, because the level of craftsmanship that I’m working with here is fabulous.”
