Culture Keeper: Paris Fashion Week #3

W H E N Asna and I left the Peachoo + Krejberg show we made our way through the (slightly-less) rainy streets. On a little side street beneath some trees we waited before a set of impressive bronze doors. They were sculpted in bas-relief with tribal images and when finally opened, revealed a completely different scene than the last show:

The walls were lined with bookshelves and mirrors. the air heavy with smoke. At the entrance we were handed glasses of absinthe and we walked over crocodile skins to find a spot in the crowded room. The staircase along the wall was choked with various 20-somethings but no seemed to notice each other. Tribal drumbeats filled our ears, punctuated now and then by woman singing a simple song with a guitar. The mood was electric. There was a woman dancing like a dervish. The models seemed to take hours to process from the back up to a stage/throne/altar. Each model carried with her a piece of fruit which she laid upon the altar before leaving again.

Asna and I were really impressed with the collection (or what we could see of it). Fitting with the theme, there were a lot of tribal elements, but there were some great knit pieces as well. In particular I liked an off-white sweater-dress, and the small, tasseled, purses. The designer, Pierre Antoine Vettorello, presented a solid collection that was playful, wearable, would be really fun to photograph.