Paris summer 2010 ready-to-wear off to light start

The City of Light's spring-summer 2010 ready-to-wear shows got off to a breezy start Wednesday, with British goth Gareth Pugh delivering a kindler, gentler version of the apocalypse, Rochas' seaside resort gear and a heatwave-ready wardrobe from emerging French designer Anne Valerie Hash.

Though these are still largely black times for retailers, Pugh was seeing gray. The angel-faced Briton, known for his love of leather and penchant for skintight trousers, delivered a sophisticated collection that spanned the spectrum of gray, from mousy to rich charcoal and included fluttering fabrics like chiffon and gauzy knits.

Millionaire fashionista Daphne Guinness _ one of several A-list guests who turned out for the show, including Rihanna and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe _ hailed Pugh's collection as "the future."

"I've been so sick and tired of the greatest hits of the last hundred years, and finally we have the future again," said Guinness, who was wearing a coat that appeared to have been made out of hundreds of little bits of rhinestone-emblazoned plastic.

At the storied but troubled Paris-based label Rochas, Italian designer Marco Zanini proved his raison d'etre with a chic retro collection steeped in rich jewel tones and glimmering metallics.

Paris' Anne Valerie Hash sent out a feather-light collection of Mediterranean holiday gear cut generously, so as to catch the slightest passing breeze.

Ample is hardly wide enough a word to describe the oversized volume on display at Limi Feu, whose designer _ the daughter of Japanese uber-designer Yohji Yamamoto _ sent out dresses as big as tents which, in a pinch, could have comfortably housed several of her waif-like models for a week.

Meanwhile on Monday, a judicial administrator for bankrupt French label Christian Lacroix said a sheik from the United Arab Emirates could save the house with an anticipated offer of ⁈lion ($102 million) in new funds. The offer, which is expected in a few days' time, would guarantee the continuation of all Lacroix's activities, from haute couture to ready-to-wear to licensing agreements, the administrator, Regis Valliot, told The Associated Press.

Lacroix, a fixture of the Paris fashion scene for more than 20 years who is widely considered among its brightest luminaries, bid adieu at a tear-soaked haute couture display in July. The label is absent from this season's ready-to-wear schedule, though if the deal goes through he could conceivably be back for haute couture in January.

Paris' collections move into day two on Thursday with displays by Balmain, every jet-setting party girl's favorite label, rising Indian star Manish Arora and cult American designer Rick Owens.

GARETH PUGH

Watching Pugh's show was like seeing moths break out of their chrysalis into a post-apocalyptic world of dust and ashes _ all doomed delicacy and futile fragility.

Models, their faces smudged in putty-colored powder, wore ankle-length gowns made from bands of chiffon that looked like a spider's web that had seen better days. A short charcoal-colored dress was covered in laces that recalled the texture of an insect's wing.

"It makes it so much different when you do it with something chiffon," as compared to leather, Pugh told The AP in a backstage interview. "It make it so much more luxury and feminine and ethereal."

Other leather-on-leather looks were more signature Pugh: Abbreviated biker jackets were worn over painted-on pants, and second skin sheath dresses with sharp shoulders were paired with leather leggings.

Extravagant headgear topped off the looks. Some of the models, who included a handful of strapping men among the rake-thin women, wore headbands bristling with oversized stegosaurus spikes that hung over their faces like visors. Others wore what can only be described as oversized mohawks made of feathers emerging, like Princess Leia buns, from their ears.

R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe said the whole thing felt "very manga and very bold, I loved it."

Asked whether he found it too apocalyptic for his tastes, Stipe replied "not at all. That's a bit where my head's at anyway."

ROCHAS

Models dressed like they were recovering from a wasting illness skulked the catwalk at Rochas, in a 1940s-inspired show fit for a seaside health resort.

The catwalk display _ the storied but troubled label's first since 2006 _ had the languid feel of a Visconti film set at a tuberculosis clinic. It was all sumptuous and beautiful, but with a lingering odor of musty mothballs.

"It was old-fashioned but new-fashioned at the same time," said Hilary Alexander, a fashion director for Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. "I found myself wondering 'how can clothes be chic and retro and bohemian and elegant all at the same time?'"

With its granny cardigans and nipped-waisted skirt suits, its straw hats and chunky platform espadrilles that were made for a brisk stroll, Rochas' collection was just what the doctor ordered for a prolonged, lung-cleansing seaside stint.

The silhouette was long and lean, with pencil skirts in translucent stretch with flower-printed paneling or high-waisted shorts worn with tucked-in cardigans. Paper flowers embellished the skinny belts that finished off all the looks, including the little boy tank-top-and-brief ensemble that was worn as a sort of leotard.

The colors _ odd and compelling pairings of burgundy and chartreuse, robin's egg blue and glimmering silver _ were ravishing, but recalled Belgian designer Dries Van Noten's hallmark color combinations.

It was the first runway display at Rochas by Italy's Zanini, who fielded his debut collection for the label at a presentation last season. Known for its perfumes, the Paris-based label has a long and illustrious history but has struggled in recent years to keep its ready-to-wear afloat and shuttered the line in 2006.

Zanini made Wednesday a strong case for its resurrection.

ANNE VALERIE HASH

Models in drop-crotched culottes and pretty, translucent blouses padded down the catwalk, looking so languid you would be forgiven for imagining they were suffering from heatstroke _ an appropriate enough affliction for a collection made for surviving sizzling summer temperatures in style.

The cute onsies and ankle-length dresses in metallic cottons were cut wide, so as to catch the slightest summer breeze. Blouses in featherweight broadcloth, which channeled a casual 1970s romanticism, couldn't look cooler. Hash sent out monochrome outfits in dusty hues of ivory, rose, peach and charcoal, paired with dyed-to-match Converse high-tops.

The strongest looks in the show were flouncy layered skirts and abbreviated dresses in whisper-light metallic polyester that shimmered like creatures of the deep seas. One model looked as if she had been swallowed by an oversized pink jellyfish. (She was actually wearing a miniskirt with pleats that looked like tentacles.)

In a backstage interview following the show, Hash _ one of several emerging designers who opened Paris' nine-day-long displays _ said getting a handle on the collection's airy fabrics was the hardest part.

"It's the fabric that mastered us, not us that mastered the fabric," Hash said.