SPLENDOR TO SPARE: The glory of Paris was on full display during the spring collections as designers exalted a number of the capital’s most picturesque attractions.
Olivier Rousteing of Balmain chose the Palais Garnier, outfitting its gold-gilded grand foyer with white wall-to-wall carpeting and parading studs and latex underneath the rows of baroque chandeliers hanging from 60-foot ceilings.
For Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello chose the Eiffel Tower itself as the backdrop, timing his open-air show to coincide with the monument’s hourly sparkle.
There was also nature, with real sunlight flooding the plant-adorned waterfalls built at the Grand Palais for the Chanel show. The vast glass-and-steel world exposition hall became an indoor rendition of the outdoors, built-in monumental proportions, in true Karl Lagerfeld fashion.
Lacoste actually took the show out-of-doors for its grand return to Paris. Emphasizing the label’s sporty roots, designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista built a stadium in the heart of the Tuileries gardens, leaving the sides low enough for showgoers to see the trees poking up around them.
Isabel Marant also opted for an outdoor setting, sending models down a runway built between the columns of the Palais Royal.
Nicolas Ghesquière dove deeper, taking the Louis Vuitton collection underneath the Louvre Museum, to its medieval moat. The Great Sphinx of Tanis sat on one end of the runway, a reminder of past civilizations.