Daily Front Row

2012 September 26

Paris Spring 2013: Dries Van Noten, Alexis Mabille

Comments | | Print

Dries Van Noten Spring 2013
FirstView View Gallery

(PARIS) Dries Van Noten
If you happened to get a surge of teen spirit this afternoon, thank Dries Van Noten. Models sauntered down the runway clad in nineties-tinged grunge couture with an abundance of digital punky patterns from top to toe. Cue the Gen-X tartan button-ups spilling nonchalantly out of faded wallflower pajama pants. And where there's grunge, there's usually a hint of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. The one-time rock coupling was spotted in the slouchy, masculine-meets-feminine sensibility from sheer maxi dresses and elongated vests to Van Noten's real nirvana moment: a ladylike floral applique skirt combined with a patchwork plaid top and Cobain's beloved white shades.   

Alexis Mabille
Prairie chic? Maybe, in the case of Alexis Mabille's gingham and tiered skirting (sometimes simultaneously, ahem, look 12) for Spring. The occasional moment of kitschiness (shrunken, printed sweatshirts, gaudy Western flick inflected silver belting, possibly anything done in that bubblegum pink checkering). On the lustworthy end of things? Sheer noir embroidered overlays, laden with flora and capped with slightly flared and squared sleeves, tarted up the influx of gingham; those floor-grazing skirts got sexed up when inset with suede on a few variations; plus, the purely pretty quotient of eyelet-tinged little white frocks. Toughened-up twang? Why not.