Japanese move to green beat at Paris shows
Fashion Desk

PARIS—Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake took to the Paris catwalk on Tuesday staying true to its experimental aesthetic with a series of disposable clothes made out of paper. Their design was a far cry from the 1960s heyday of paper clothing, when A-line sleeveless frocks were plastered with geometric designs and Andy Warhol prints, but designer Dai Fujiwara said the aim was to capture fears about the planet.
Fujiwara presented a series of dresses and bodysuits with paper stretched and ruffled so that it looked like blown glass orbs bubbling around models’ bodies. He said the theme for the show, set in the “Museum of Man,” overlooked by the Eiffel Tower, was life and death in the light of concerns about ecological crisis — a developing trend during this fashion cycle ending in Paris on Sunday.
Eco-warrior women starred at Vivienne Westwood, the grand dame of British fashion, on Monday, tramping down the catwalk clad in wide-shouldered velvet trouser suits, printed dresses, and faux bear fur capes. Also showing on Tuesday was Tsumori Chisato, who worked at Issey Miyake before setting up her own label. She is big in Japan and increasingly popular among the U.S. fashion crowd.
Chisato’s fall collection was in another voyage into fantasy land, but one of fairy tale, with its print heavy focus and playful style. Embroidered dresses cut on the A-line stopped just on the knee and were set off with colourful, zig-zag patterned tights.
The Paris fashion season, following on from New York, London and Milan, marks the final leg of the catwalk cycle that will establish the trends for next season and provide vital inspiration for the world’s biggest retail apparel chains from Zara and H&M to Marks and Spencer. Stand out shows in Paris on Wednesday are Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix and Givenchy.
Paris shows boast new designers Paris Fashion Week is feted for boasting the world’s oldest fashion names but the spotlight on Monday fell on a couple of newcomers — Phoebe and Euan, aged 7. The pair, from a primary school in England, were enlisted by Vivienne Westwood, the grand dame of British fashion, along with 34 of their classmates to paint bugs, plants and snakes all over her collection.
The theme? Ecological crisis. “It was just brilliant, and she was very nice and helpful,” said Euan Bonser about working with Westwood who erupted to fame in the 1970s fomenting the punk movement and dressing the Sex Pistols. Phoebe Ackroyd, seated beside him on the front row, also in her school uniform of green sweatshirt and grey trousers, said the experience of painting dots and dashes on dresses, jackets and a pith helmet left her wanting “to be a model.”
Fashion has always been a vehicle for politics for Westwood, who, most recently in 2005, joined forces with British civil rights group Liberty with a series of T-shirts and babywear with the slogan “I am not a terrorist” to draw attention to the preservation of civil liberties post-September 11.