Fashion's "enfants terribles" show no fatigue
PARIS (Reuters) - They have been labeled fashion's "enfants terribles" for bringing politics, live animals or models splashed in fake blood to their catwalks.
And although they are now all beyond the age of 40, Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood showed no sign on Tuesday of becoming any tamer.
Britain's Westwood transformed her catwalk into a Stone Age cave, sending out models in high furry hats, wrapped in knitted cardigans, with bone pendants dangling from their necks.
The 65-year-old Westwood, who has kept her edge since her bondage-inspired creations for the Sex Pistols punk band in the 1970s, said she had been inspired by the image of a "cave girl."
"It's a political message. The cave girl has just opened her eyes," Westwood said ahead of her show.
"She doesn't know that human beings have a choice. They can become cultivated ... or become animals that destroy. We have become animals that destroy. The message is that there is no progress without culture," the red-headed Westwood said.
Westwood has not shied away from peppering her shows with eccentric or political messages.
She has presented tops reading "I'm not a terrorist. Please don't arrest me" to protest against draconian anti-terrorism measures. And invitations to her show last year featured a blue penis with wings, which she called a "good luck sign."
On Tuesday, the designer who is famed for using British fabrics such as tweed and tartan for her daring clothes, showed models in blouses with armour-like shoulder pads.
DANCING ACROSS THE CATWALK
France's Gaultier, the creator of pop star Madonna's famous cone-shaped bustier, picked up on the tartan theme on Tuesday, sending out models with feathers in their hair, wearing checkered coats with small ribbons at the back.
Emerging from smoke onto the catwalk, a model in a bright red jacket surprised editors at the beginning of the show as she kicked her legs and spinned across the runway in a Celtic dance.
"You don't have to be able to jump and dance like that to wear my clothes," Gaultier, 54, joked after the show, which also featured long velvet skirts and fur-trimmed coats.
"You must not even wear feathers. You can wear them in a much simpler and less spectacular way," he said.
The swashbuckling Galliano, 46, who has based his past collections on themes ranging from ghosts to geishas and goths, presented a collection for Christian Dior in the spirit of his Japan-inspired haute couture show earlier this year.
Models paraded out in lampshade-sized straw hats, wearing large-collared jackets with origami-pleats at the pockets. Actress Mischa Barton looked on as girls in jackets with tube-shaped shimmering sleeves strutted down a white staircase.
Fashion experts say eccentric designers give the industry an exciting edge.
"If you got rid of the strong identities of these people, the whole machine would be of no interest whatsoever," said Maria Luisa Poumaillou of the Maria Luisa fashion shop in Paris.
Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey said all three designers had a "great adventurous spirit."
