The Leftovers: Paris Fashion Week SS12

By the time I come to the end of each season, I feel as if I’ve said everything. Found every way to describe every trend in cut and color. That I will bore not just myself but that small pocketful of readers that I’ve acquired over the years. But then I look at the clothes and all of that doubt washes away. Because, in many ways, the clothes speak for themselves and simply picking those that best demonstrate the force and direction of the season can be enough.

Of course, I like to sprinkle a few words here and there to guide those just joining us and to remind myself a bit of what happened during those four weeks in the early fall.

Much like the past few seasons, Paris was once again about the falling apart of the story told in the other cities. The prevailing winds could still be felt, but they were all tempered in some way.

The neons seen in the previous three cities were present in a number of collections though their influence was lessened.

At Valentino

At Anne Valérie Hash

At Martin Grant

At Haider Ackermann

At Roland Mouret

They were joined by colors dampened.

At Louis Vuitton

At Akris

At Uniqueness

At Vanessa Bruno

At Yves Saint Laurent

And those imbued with a certain richness.

At Kenzo

At Dries Van Noten

At Yves Saint Laurent

At Hermés

At Yohji Yamamoto

The florals also made an appearance.

At Vionnet

At Alexander McQueen

At Chalayan

At Emanuel Ungaro

At Cacharel

At Jean Paul Gaultier

As did the short shorts that intrigued me beyond expectation.

At Carven

At Cacharel

At Chanel

At Balenciaga

At Balmain

At Louis Vuitton

And the peplum, my worthy foe all season long. Though here it was deflated, plucked, and deconstructed.

At Céline

At Giambattista Valli

At Limi Feu

At Givenchy

At Dries Van Noten

While the pieces from last season that didn't lend themselves to easy categorization favored the dark, this season they were filled with a lightness.

At Chloé

At Rick Owens

At Véronique Leroy

At Gabrielle Greiss

At Céline

At Valentino

At Chanel

At Giambattista Valli

At Valentino

At Alexander McQueen

At Louis Vuitton

White is one of those trends that visits us whenever the weather warms, so its reappearance after possessing such a stranglehold over the Spring/Summer 2011 wasn't unexpected. But unlike the reemergence of transparency in Milan, it never felt stale.

But one expects freshness each and every season in Paris.


Photos via