creativity rules with Niccolò Pasqualetti, Duran Lantink, Ottolinger, Atlein

Paris Fashion Week Women is drawing to a close, but continues to feature interesting surprises. On Sunday, it showcased inventive collections by several emerging labels, all of them standing out this season for their ground-breaking research and increasingly sophisticated looks. Like those presented by Niccolò Pasqualetti, Duran Lantink, Ottolinger, and Atlein.

In his second show on the Parisian calendar, Pasqualetti confirmed he is a talented designer with a collection that was both chic and nonchalant, enriched by a couture touch. The looks had an extremely contemporary feel, and featured classic items reinterpreted via unusual constructions and impeccable cuts, each silhouette made more appealing by a special little twist.

Skirts, dresses and coats were made from roughly assembled fabric swathes, their edges often unstitched. But genuine couture expertise could be glimpsed beneath this apparent simplicity and improvisation. Everything fell just so, thanks to a painstaking attention to deconstruction and draping, to asymmetries and minute details. Pasqualetti harmoniously blended the most disparate materials.

A frilled leather doublet was matched with a skirt embroidered with glittering rods, the look elevated by a maxi fur stole. A grey wool sheet, seemingly balanced on one shoulder, morphed into an elegant minimalist dress, the model’s neck covered by a removable ribbed collar extending into a plastron, on which four crystal blocks held within a fine mesh acted as a necklace.

The trousers were ample, the sweaters soft and loose, the coats enveloping like throws. After an opening series of austere looks in total black, the collection was all light and purity, for example the sheer pearl tunics, and ended with a sequence of more experimental, unbridled items.

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Duran Lantink captivated his audience with an ultra-inventive, high-quality collection brimming with great ideas and amusing quirks, like the flesh-coloured silicone t-shirt reproducing a muscular chest with macho pecs, worn by the cute brunette who opened the show, and its female counterpart with big bare swinging breasts, flaunted at the end of the show by a young blonde guy to thundering applause.

The Dutch designer, a serial award winner at the most prestigious fashion competitions who is slated to become Jean Paul Gaultier‘s next creative director, surpassed himself as he transformed his wardrobe by introducing new shapes and constructions. Seemingly classic trousers and skirts overflowed on the sides, worn low on the waist and held in place by an astonishing technical feat.

In some cases, the trousers’ upper section was removable, being simply attached to the waist by a belt, leaving the buttocks bare at the back while the model’s legs were encased by the trousers from thighs to feet. The same principle was applied to pleated skirts that became double, one worn as normal and the other attached at the front. And to broad rectangular check skirts that were simply affixed to the front like aprons. Upside-down shirts, their sleeves hanging free, were also transformed into skirts.

This season, Lantink also featured a variety of printed patterns which he mixed and matched with gusto. Like animal-print (snakeskin, zebra, leopard and cowhide) and camo patterns. The collection did feature some of the label’s typical silhouettes, with rounded, burgeoning shapes obtained with padded extensions, but Duran Lantink’s wardrobe for next winter also explored trompe l’oeil effects with slinky jumpsuits hugging the body like a second skin, looking almost like body paint, matched with tonal oversize boots.

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A strident note sounded within the vast space home to the Ottolinger show. The models stepped across the hall with a determined stride, ready to face what promised to be a long day. They oozed vibrant energy in their spare, sporty outfits, whose garments, fastened and done up with laces and drawstrings in signature Ottolinger style, literally clung to their bodies to create skin-tight silhouettes.

The clothes reflected the mindset of women with an overbooked diary. They were functional and versatile, suitable for both private and public engagements. Hoodies, T-shirts and jersey tracksuit tops were wrapped tight around the chest. They were worn with form-fitting skirts and leggings made of Lycra and other stretch materials, all of the latter seemingly made using nylon tights in different skin tones.

Cushioned pads and rings added volume at the sides, belly or shoulders of these long, sleek silhouettes. A detachable pad nestled behind a model’s neck, tied like a hood by a simple strip of fabric, or attached to fasteners slipped into the sleeves.

Designers Christa Bösch and Cosima Gradient, both from Switzerland, reintroduced skinny jeans this season, but after their own fashion, with cut-outs for a distressed effect, and detachable pockets revealing a darker indigo print, notably on some gold-painted jeans.

The collection put the accent on practicality, featuring cocooning ultra-light neoprene jackets lined with felt, and business suits in stretch fabric. A more creative element was introduced by the lace tops, skirts and trousers decorated with prints of graphic works by Julien Ceccaldi.

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Atlein continues to broaden its range. The label’s founder and creative director Antonin Tron has expanded his vocabulary with new looks and materials. Long draped or gathered jersey dresses are still the core of his wardrobe, but Tron has shifted away from evening wear to also include tops, coats and trousers in a more urban sportswear mood.

“I really wanted to add to the wardrobe, showing the other side of Atlein. I took my time, but I now have a wider range of coats, cropped tops, trousers and jackets,” Tron told FashionNetwork.com. Yet, even with this outerwear and daywear register, Tron still painstakingly curated each garment’s lines and architecture.

The jackets and maxi coats with a wide woollen collar, cinched at the waist with a bathrobe belt, looked very attractive. The shearling faux-leather aviator jackets were cut shorter, to further streamline the silhouette. Suit jackets featured statement shoulders, but fitted tightly at the back through a system of drawstrings and gathers. Wool trousers rose high on the waist, tapering to a V where they fastened. A tracksuit top in a cotton and elastane blend took on volume and an almost couture-like shape.

Tron has found ingenious solutions to design looks suitable to all sizes and tastes, notably by creating a series of draped and gathered bodysuits, worn simply over a pair of tights, as a top slipped into trousers, or transformed into majestic evening dresses with the addition of a sheath skirt. For a small independent label like Atlein, managing to maintain this level of detail and quality in today’s tough business environment deserves the utmost respect.