By Mimosa Spencer
PARIS (Reuters) – Viktor & Rolf focused on suits for the label’s haute couture runway show in Paris on Wednesday, showing a collection of them in outrageous proportions before reshaping them into feminine silhouettes.
Transformation was the point of the Dutch design duo Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, whose eponymous label belongs to Italian fashion group OTB.
“We wanted something rigorous, something rigid, so we looked to men’s tailoring,” Snoeren said in an interview. “We didn’t just want to show an extreme silhouette, of course. We wanted a new silhouette.”
The show opened with age-old classic pinstriped, navy blue and white suits. The first jacket was slightly cropped and paired with pleated trousers, the next one double-breasted.
Then proportions changed, with jacket shoulders splaying out to the sides like shells floating around the models’ bodies. Some shoulders were bare, while other looks had collars up to the chin.
Models stomped down the runway in chunky platform heels to pulsating techno music in shimmery tuxedo jackets and trench coats and crisp, striped men’s shirts.
Halfway through the show, the music stopped and the designers attended to a lone model onstage, pulling out wiring from her jacket, gently replacing her heels with flats and turning up the extra fabric that became an upright ruffle.
“It’s important for us to show the power of transformation,” said Horsting.
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Richard Chang)
