Ms Coco Rocha: winner of the Best Brand Narrative Award at the TI dinner!

I was standing somewhere in the massive stone sprawl of The Louvre late last night when this American friend of mine, now living in Paris smashed one of the city's last remaining illusions into fragments. “You do know, don't you that a lot of Paris' architecture is faux. In the 18th century they made a lot of changes to the 17th century buildings. In the 19th they adjusted aspects of the 18th and today they preserve, preserve, preserve. But when they preserve and restore they use 21th century materials. So you're not looking at anything exactly the way it was. The whole core of the city is a face-lift.” True or not, what my friend taught me though was useful and it was useful for fashion. Because now as I sit a CDG waiting to my flight back to NY,( back to that all that restless, ruthless modernity that preserves very little), it occurs to me that a city can infect your creative process.
For better and for worse. The SS 08 season is over now and you know what? It was a very preservationist, archival and retrospective moment and the face-lift metaphor certainly is stuck in my mind, right this second. This conservative instinct to summarize and to rally themes familiar and tried on the part of the key directional designers , tells you a lot about where the Zeitgeist is pointing as we near the end of the Zeroes. It is not forward, but that's alright, especially in a city laden with the weight of so many monuments. It started at the Marc Jacobs with its shades of the Grunge and the Corpse Bride and Rei+Martin collections smashed together. And it may have ended at the Richard Prince referenced Vuitton show where Marc allegedly stuck his tounge out at Madame Menkes. Madame Prada who gave us full-on, in your face Prada hit Paris on the head with a provocatively unreasonable and unwearable Miu-Miu show. Speaking of unwearable, the revisionists are already back-tracking on the Balenciaga after seeing it in the showrooms. “Collector's item pieces that you buy for historic value but don't really wear” is the buzz I heard at a few of the endless dinners that marked the weekend. McQueen's tribute to Isabella Blow was a great greatest hit countdown, full of stadium rock spectacle (you had to love the giant electronic wings that fluttered faster and faster till the first model, Alice/Supreme burst out ). But it too was a rapid fire rewind through all the Mad McQueen collections that we have loved over the past decade. The backwards looking spilled over too in the model castings.
Paris SS08 was the season of the resurrected “cool” girl. Maria Carla stormed her way to a comeback, evolving into her full diva potential backstage. Kirsten McMenamy looked oddly apropriate with bleached eyebrows at Givenchy. Cryptic Colette P looked majestic at Vuitton also. Natalia Vodionova was everywhere, putting in a lot of fitting time for Valentino,Chanel, Balenciaga, Vuitton, Givenchy, YSL and Karl Lagerfeld. All that catwalk criss-crossing has led to speculation that the marathon Calvin Klein contract is over and Natalia is now a free agent with her laser focused blue eyes on that Chanel Collection SS 08 gig. And why not? A girl who doesn't need the cash ought to be Karl's cup of tea. The Comeback Campaign Queen trend hit its ne plus ultra with the Louis Vuitton (which was almost an hour and a half late in starting) when the power diva army of Stephanie/Eva/Rianne (?),Anne V/Carmen/Natalia/Angela/Isabeli/Karolina/Lara/Nadja and La Naomi came marching out in their chic nurse moment. There were quite a few editors who openly wished the show had stopped with those first 12 looks, because 70 looks on the Sunday of a long week is a lot of information (and a lotta lotta bags ) to catalogue.
But that's the lure of Paris, a city that gives off a very strange, very decadent and corrupt signal on the night wind. You find yourself only doing “what you want to do” and in a strange way I admire the solipsistic way each designer here wants to have only his agenda, his cabine, his vision articulated especially if it is at the expense of another show . Now I understand why “Self-Service” is called “Self-Service” It is why we were so grateful for the earlier mentioned TI dinner that Elite NA's Neal Hamil threw at Dave's. I was a little flustered at all the attention from 20 dinner partners but after one too many Bellini's that little red walled cocoon on Rue Richeilieu littered with pics of Anna and Leo and Claudia started to feel warm and protective. I love that Texas size blast of realness and candor Mr Hamil threw down in Paris. Revisionists were discounting him and they were undercounting him but having Karlie Kloss to the right and Daul to the left (in the maddest hat and the most peaked shoulders I've seen off a McQueen runway) was the testament to Elite North America's new will to power. And I'm not just saying that because of he bought me dinner. Ali Stephens and Karlie's bookings (Calvin exclusive NY/Gucci exclusive Milan) are their own evidence . I could say even more but you're going to have to read MDC for that serving of “more”! As MC of the evening's excess, Dave's affection you realized , comes from a true love of fashion folks and their insane dedication to a well cut piece of fabric. A certain Vogue editor whose privacy I will not disrespect was smalltalking with the girls, as was that casting director with the visionary tastes in discovering blue-chippers like Liya and Natalia. The next table over was jammed with a party from the House of Valentino who could not take their eyes off Daul as she hopped around the room with her flying saucer hat perched on precariously. I love girls in hats at night. Commitment is important! I'm not getting on a high horse because I was the ringleader in a game called “brand narrative”. Basically you name checked the labels you were wearing that moment and decided if it had an editorial authority to its mix. Mr Hamil's brand narrative was a Micheal Kors sweater and trousers with an Etro shirt and Hermes belt and shoes. Chanel opener, Coco Rocha of course killed... her story was a mix of “YSL shoes/Gaultier pants/Balenciaga top and Behati's scarf” Full Parisienne points to the girl with the best Irish folk dancing moves in all of fashion!...Apart from that, in a state of exhaustion soldiered thru an interview with IMG Paris' lovely Adina... Girl 1 at Prada SS08 ... before heading to the airport. Did you know this lovely young girl was studying to be a civil engineer. Very brand narrative!