Thomas Adamson

PARIS (AP) — Wednesday’s Paris Fashion Week was in full swing with high anticipation for shows by many fashion houses and a spectacular evening of fashion festivals at Balmain.

Here are some highlights from the Spring/Summer 2023 show.

Courrèges

For Courrèges, the circular sand runway is reminiscent of the Sands of Time, or the movie Dune, featuring a pillar of sand falling at its center. The out-of-tune and slightly unnerving musical rhythms of the soundtrack gave the show a hygienic and stripped-down spirit.

Courrèges has become a brand that touts a signature mood rather than a signature style. Designer Nicolas Di His Felice likes to infuse his fashion with flair.

Spring/summer fashion began with crisp white shirts, followed by voluminous shirt dresses that successfully incorporated a simple and sporty vibe. Models sometimes wore bare feet or nude footwear. De Felice took to the runway and put a fashion-forward twist on everyday pieces like her jackets, denim skirts and flared pants. Sporty vests, for example, are thin materials with a twist.

It’s an approach that works well with the generation-defining brand founded in 1961 by André Courrèges and his wife Cochrine, who have become synonymous with space-age aesthetics.

invitation art

The era of email and growing environmental awareness doesn’t seem to have had much effect on the fashion industry’s outdated invitation system.

Each season, gas-hungry couriers traverse Paris to personally deliver ever more elaborate and often handcrafted show invitations.

Top Maisons compete for the quirkiest and most imaginative ideas that often give clues to the themes of runway collections.

Loewe’s invitation came with a bright red tropical flower via a post that the dictionary of flowers identified as an anthurium. A state-of-the-art humidity capsule was attached to the bottom of the flower stem to ensure the longevity of the flowers during Fashion Week.

Saint Laurent’s invitation, on the other hand, was a chic black patent leather purse with metallic ‘YSL’ lettering across the top and a show card hidden inside.