Runway shows offer all sorts of spectacles to complement (and sometimes distract from) the clothes. That can mean a surprise celebrity cameo, women wearing other women, or a fleet of voguers. But sometimes the clothes themselves are the spectacle. Like, for instance, water-soluble white lab coat-like pieces that disappear once doused to reveal elegant cocktail dresses underneath.
That's what Hussein Chalayan whipped up for his spring 2016 show in Paris at Palais des Beaux-Arts today. Two models stood on a raised platform for the first half of the show, wearing stiff-looking, collared overcoats. Then, after a (very chilly-looking) shower, the garments appeared to simply melt away.
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Underneath, the white dresses were encrusted with Swarovski jewels and intricate black appliqués; not exactly the type of frocks you'd want to get anywhere near heavy rain or a showerhead. Chalayan's follow-up to these surprise-ending dresses is par for the course for the unconventional designer. His first dance production, a contemporary piece about identity and displacement, will debut in London later this month.
Some of his past fashion endeavors have really delivered in a shock-and-delight manner. To wit: He's created a coffee table that turns into an A-line midi skirt, and while he was a student at Central Saint Martins, Chalayan buried his graduate collection of oxidized silk dresses in a friend's garden for months. (British retailer Browns promptly bought the entire collection.)
As Hurricane Joaquin tears through the Caribbean and the East Coast, we're a bit more fixated on rainboots and trenches than water-soluble getups. But maybe we'll watch the video below a couple more times to fully brace for a frigid downpour.