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A roller coaster offering sees designers searching for effortless clothes with a difference as in Phoebe Philo’s Céline, a stunning revolution of pattern and texture from Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy and hypnotizing patterns from Kenzo’s Carol Lim and Humberto Leon.

The simplest things, like the asymmetrical double-breasted white buttons on the first black coat dress in Phoebe Philo’s show for Céline can pretty much tell the tale. There’s a certain ladylike gentleness, about these elegant clothes, often in hairy textures with edges left to fray, and worn with chunky sandals in a deleberately offhand way. Philo said she was thinking of women in the Dada and Surrealist artisitc movements in the 1930s and 40s, particularly a photo of Lee Miller bathing in Hitler’s abandoned bathtub next to her boots and khakis. This collection was full of new propositions: fur worn over the arm instead of a bag for example. Dangling earrings like a collection of charms, worn singly, a ribbed sweater tunic over matching loose leggings. Even the high waistband on a pair of pants was slightly loose, more about comfort than showing off. Funnel neck smocks; multi-slit skirts in bicolor, bonded fabrics; a cocoon coat in black on black gingham check wool and a warm collection of kahki browns, oatmeal bicolors and graphic black and white are self assured and supremely ageless.

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Butterflies, silk, and chantilly lace, what could be more ladylike ? In Riccardo Tisci’s hands these feminine staples take on monumental, fantasy proportions. Tisci began almost demurely with chiffon shirt dresses in a veined wing print with ruffled yokes and skirts, only the red patches at the sides of the model’s heads hinting at something deeper. Soon he unleashed python prints, leopard spots and butterfly marking patches in this garden. Odd tailoring in pale lime green over dark pants with enormous cuffed pockets in red looked like butterflies come to life. Mixed furs in bicolors give coats a blouson layered look. Tisci combines a supreme couture talent with a savage sense of style. He supersized the buttlerfly patterns for cut velvet dresses slashed with chantilly lace insets, topped a fur bodice with a 3-D beaded snake and floral neckline and ended up with feather-like beading.

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Did David Lynch inspire this mad mix of patterns at Kenzo ? Apparently so. Kenzo’s Carol Lim and Humberto Leon have been working with Lynch for their past three collections and the filmmaker designed the set for this in-the-round show bordered by black curtains with a screaming head sculpture and a soundtrack mixing pounding jungle rhythms and what sounded like a noisy cement grinder. Mixed metallic brocades in bouffante volumes and secondskin knits, zigzag psychedelic stripes for voluminous coats, leather covered with metallic copper patterns and bicolor ribbed knits striped with outstanding beading create a dense wall of design.

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Céline : 1, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 20, 23, 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, 36, 42
Givenchy : 1, 4, 7, 9, 13, 18, 21, 35, 40, 46, 47, 50
Kenzo : 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 21, 22, 23, 41