Haute Couture Spring 2015: Armani Privé

For many designers who deal in classic romanticised fashion, Orientalism is a force that holds an enigma that is untouched. Gargantuan shoots of bamboo pierced through the elevated catwalk and led the way for the models at Armani Privé in Paris evening, where the designer put on his couturier hat and sincerely delivered.

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Foretokening the kind of high elegance that Armani believes should still pervade throughout the industry, colours were soft yet statement and each and every fitting design created solely to flatter the female form. In a number of different ways it seems, because allure isn’t something that a swatch of fabric can simply materialise you know. Bamboo leaf prints, finely pleated silks and some scaled back kimono styling spoke of hazy exotics, junk boats and restrained decadence to a tee.

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Throughout, oddly graceful touches that included clunky jumbo-sized mock Jade bangles clashed superbly with the delicate jewelled embellishments on the feather-light dresses. A frontrunner for the most Couture looks in only one show, it’s a wonder that his Privé collections aren’t more tiresome, but no, each of his visions is more engaging than the last. By the time the gowns composed entirely of ostrich feathers had their time to shine, Armani was already onto a winner. From then on there was really no looking back, or anywhere else for that matter, when crystalline fine gowns left little to the imagination but in the most oh so comely of manners.

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Whilst Armani may well be taking a fair bit of artistic license when it comes to his cultural influences, this is what a designer is good for, drawing on culture to weave fantasies, and it’s by no means the most abhorrent case of this in the industry at all. Those who still defy Armani could probably underline his attempt to ply Asian markets with a collection as transparent as this, but when we are being presented with such an awe-inspiringly beautiful collection, who really has the time to muster up that venom.

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When the time finally came, royal blue was a divine choice to reel the collection in for its finale, amounting to a regal end to a truly sublime show. One that will undeniably be the best Couture will have to offer for this season.

by Liam Feltham

Images courtesy of Style.com