The Chloé AW20 Paris Fashion Week show proves feminists do wear frills

Feminists do wear frills.

This was the message at the Chloe show in Paris today as the female gaze defined all elements of Natacha Ramsay-Levi’s catwalk.

With a soundtrack of spoken word poetry voiced by British songwriter and longtime muse Marianne Faithfull - who watched from the front row this morning - a show space dominated by decorative pillars conceived by French sculptor Marion Verboom served as the perfect backdrop to showcase the Parisian designer’s latest message of empowerment.

Naturally, it was the clothes themselves which articulated the message most clearly.

Since her appointment at the house in 2017, Ramsay-Levi’s intuition for translating French chic and confident femininity into wearable clothes has made her the perfect fit for the fashion house often credited with the creation of ready-to-wear.

Accordingly, today’s collection was distinctively accessible, from fluid silk shirt dresses and camel coats lined with paisley to evening gowns worn with stompy hiking boots. Wide leg leather trousers worn with Argyle knits and delicate lace collar silk shirts also starred alongside padded coats and blanket scarves.

Backstage, the designer explained that as women we are “always questioning identity and what is femininity?” For her, this was an open question and one which can’t be answered in one fixed concept.

Instead, she sought to include several points of view in her offering. Among them, a series of garments and accessories painted with images of female forms by Hungarian artist Rita Ackermann which were just one of the collection’s highlights and worn with attitude by a diverse cast of personalities which included Londoner Pixie Geldof.

Renowned as the first fashion house to introduce the world to the concept of the It-bag with the arrival of the Paddington Satchel in 2004, today’s catwalk also served as a platform to unveil a new contender for 2020 in the form of a micro cross body bag. Expect to see a lot of it next season.