Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011 Pt 9: The Intellectuals - Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Hussein Chalayan & Givenchy

Alexander McQueen

The woman in Sarah Burton's show for Alexander McQueen began as a plain white canvas and was steadily reclaimed by nature: wrapped in embroidered fronds, in leaves of black leather, in a raffia-trimmed brocade, in the wings of monarch butterflies or an enveloping mass of feathers. A medieval and sometimes baroque 'Mother Nature'. The craftsmanship was startling—that monarch butterfly dress, for instance, or a gown with a breastplate of gilded cornstalks and skirt of pheasant feathers, or another gown of pleated organza that looked like an unfolding sea anemone.

Balenciaga

From houndstooth outerwear with a graphic punch (the pattern made from plastic-y faux leather) to sleeveless, backless button-down shirts spliced together from mismatched neon lace to the streamlined, comparatively simple tuxedos to quilted leather moto jackets to the closing pair of spare yet technically complex dresses:

Hussein Chalayan

With striking color-blocking in combinations like pink, olive green, and black; and the designer's now-signature blend of intellectual rigor and appeal to the senses, Chalayan's SS'11 collection was both beautiful and clever. Cotton voile dresses burst out from under tailored waistcoats, or pieces in a poplin so white it was practically clinical and that shimmered with inserts of translucent mesh; there were also brilliantly tailored pieces and an interlude of floaty floral dresses:

Givenchy

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