Fashion goes high-tech at Guy Laroche show

PARIS: Timeless classics on Wednesday got a makeover for spring/summer 2014 at Paris fashion week in a futuristic science fiction-inspired collection from Guy Laroche, marrying versatile high-tech fabrics with traditional silks.
White shirts and black trousers were “turned on their heads” with off-centerd collars and extra-high waists and double layers, while “surreal” cocktail dresses came with voluminous front box pleats.
On the second day of Paris fashion week, Marcel Marongiu’s collection aimed to explore “the tension between natural and artificial, man-made and high-tech,” the label said.
Marongiu’s sleek and streamlined collection drew on a passion for science fiction from — Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” to Andrew Niccol’s “Gattaca.
Looks that stood out included “curvy” trenchcoats in a “cutting-edge fusion of silk and (the high-tech fabric) polyamide” and skirts and shift dresses covered in fringes made from optic fiber.
Croatian designer Damir Doma, meanwhile, went for a less stark mood with the accent on the “lightness” of laser-cut, embroidered and sheer fabrics such as silk and linen.
“It started with the show that we did in Florence that was very feminine and light and easy and I wanted to push it a bit more elegant, and so effortless,” he told AFP backstage.
“The most important thing was the lightness that comes definitely from the materials,” he said.