East meets West
Scherrer's fall-winter 99-2000 collection is dedicated to Asia, a region with which the fashion house maintains privileged relations. There were even two famous Asian personages on hand, Eriko Nakamura, a Japanese media celebrity, and Gigi Leung, a Chinese singer and movie star, to model pieces from the line. This new collection, designed by Stéphane Rolland, draws inspiration from the works of artist Max Ernst, the extreme Orient and the Balkans, while conserving a hieratic and spectacle-infused aura. For day, Scherrer beauties wrap themselves in gradated cashmere coats with sable borders, small short sleeve sweaters over lizard skin pants or double faced wool suits with net lace or chiffon petal skirts. There are many layered effects on the fluid silhouettes, togas over tunics and large pants or aprons over crepe skirts. The skirts, dresses and pants are very long, with numerous train effects and tunics with large back panels. Several perversely penitent dresses feature high, revealing slits or openings, one model being held in place with a veil. Contrarily, there is a very monastic hooded sheath dress. Pant ensembles with asymmetrical tunics are fringed with vegetal ivory, also found on the egg-shaped wrist cuffs. On a more spectacular note are the long feather-covered sheath dresses, a long asymmetrical dress in panne velvet with glass and metal decorations cascading down the back, a platinum-embroidered sheath with white sea urchin spines on the hems, a "sun" bustier formed from sheafs of wheat over a black crepe skirt or, the finale, an impressive gold metal mesh and crystal bustier. These same bursts of golden metal are used for a necklace and on a rolled bustier dress in glossy black bristle to create an eminently baroque statement.
Virginie Transon
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