The four-week international fashion season ended Tuesday with a great indie show by Meryll Rogge, on the last day of Paris Fashion Week, where we also caught up with an outer space in aspic collection from Pierre Cardin, and a sunny statement by Japanese label Ujoh.

Meryll Rogge

Last, but very much not least, Meryll Rogge ended the season with an unexpected, cool and pathbreaking collection that felt like a moment of liberation.

 
Presented inside a courtyard that blended, medieval, renaissance and neo-classical architecture within the Musée des Archives Nationales, an apt setting for this collection. Since the clothes mingled unusual lightweight tweeds, contemporary travel photos, bold costume jewelry and moody rocker moods.
 
Inspired by the cult biography of actress and writer Cookie Mueller “Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black,” the collection felt like a tour through clubland, bohemia beauty, and after-hours devilment.

Those of us who had the good fortune to grow up in the Lower East Side in the ’80s will always regard Cookie Mueller with a special reverence. To see her aesthetic waft through this collection felt very special. 
 

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Skimpy knits over pencil skirts; sleeveless high-gloss parka-dresses; or a beautiful white ruffled and layered faux wedding dress. The last inspired by Nan Goldin famous photo of Cookie at her wedding to Italian artist Vittorio Scarpati in 1986. Both of whom were to die tragically of AIDS three years later.
 
All told, a great collection by Belgian-born Rogge, who will debut her new nighttime job next February with her first collection for Marni in Milan.
 
A show and cast made even cooler with a fantastic selection of jewelry courtesy from Wouters & Hendrix, an Antwerp resource that had previously worked with Dries Van Noten.
 
Thinking back to those late-night hours as a young Irish ingenue in the East Village, when I would admire Mueller in all her glory in the Mudd Club or Pyramid Bar, I can only conclude that Connie would have loved these clothes, and its jewelry, very much.
 
Talk about an admirable manner to bring down the curtain on a unique runway season.
 

Pierre Cardin: Outer space in aspic

Space age fashion at Pierre Cardin, where a dozen towering models walked around pre-show in padded shiny body stockings, high heels and groovy visors. Intergalactic Valkyries, and lean super-heroes.

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Setting the scene for a show inside Pierre Cardin’s historic and brilliantly located boutique, smack opposite the Élysée Palace. The cast marching outside as scores of gendarmes and CRS paramilitary police smiled and applauded. President Macron may be losing prime ministers, but five years after his passing, Pierre Cardin’s brand keeps chugging along.
 
Designed by his nephew Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, the collection played with many house codes: futurist designs; studded finishes; graphic shapes.
 
Draping the collection over black, white, pink and green body stockings: pink one-meter diameter circles; Imperial Roman purple spaceship commander tunics; coral-hued padded waders. 
 
Lime green leaves were attached to hips; giant united bow ties hung from many necks. Sixties graphic shapes featured in waistcoats and soft harnesses. And in a bravura trick, Rodrigo hung scores of magnetic copper-hued toadstools off one model.
 

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Half-way through, four pre-teen kids toured the green carpet runway, like the adults posing and pirouetting on several raised daises. Over a dozen Cardin relatives are still contesting the will that gave Rodrigo control of the Pierre Cardin estate, in a case winding slowly through French courts. But on the runway, all was sweetness and light with this family.
 
In truth, the collection seemed caught in a time warp as if made for a sci-fi movie set in the sixties. Though one suspects that Pierre Cardin, who remained enormously proud of his designs in the 1960s when he revolutionized fashion, would have rather liked this show.
 

Ujoh: Summertime blues

One felt transported to a sunny seaside resort at the latest show by Ujoh, as elements of sails, fishnets, swimming togs and windcheaters, rippled through many looks.

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Staged in the Saut du Loup show space deep within the Palais de Tokyo, the show opened with loosely cut admirals’ blazers cut open at the side, worn with fishnet skirts. Ujoh’s design duo cut pants wide like those of Lord Nelson’s sailors and made others of fishnet lace or organza stamped with aquatic creatures.
 
Often the best looks were the simplest – like the sleeveless and belted trench coat dresses, or some easy-to-wear tunic dresses finished with huge matching ties. 
 
In a co-ed show, men wore technical cargo pants, and short sleeve sweatshirts with patch pockets, striped pajama shirts and some beautiful technical taffeta dusters; the latter of which, models wore with great pride.
 

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Founded in 2009 by designers Mitsuru and Aco Nishizaki, Ujoh is a brand on a slow build up, but an agreeable one. Next stop – bring on summer.