Paris Fashion Week Fall 2014 Round-up Pt. I

Paris arguably always delivers all the highlights of a Fashion Week season. This time around, Paris seemed to offer particularly strong collections. Admittedly, I am full of biased love for many of the designers presenting their collections in Paris every season. But I daresay I am open-minded enough to look at every collection with a critical eye. I almost always find things to love in a collection by a designer whose work I am not usually fond of. I almost always find things to dislike in a collection by a designer I adore. 

For Fall 2014 there were a couple of designers who wowed me with collections despite me showing little love for or simply never paying much attention to their previous work:

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen 

While I always had massive respect for Sarah Burton for following in the footsteps of the brilliant Lee Alexander McQueen, I never quite managed to warm up to what she did as the creative director for the label. Her vision seems to be somewhat limited and she she seems to be stuck creating designs around the same few silhouettes every season. Regardless, this season I fell head over heels in love with her Fall 2014 outing. Dark, atmospheric, whimsically cute (those adorable tacky costume-y boots!) and awfully intriguing. Yes, her designs are always full of lush details. But what usually strikes me as an attempt to add pomp to otherwise mediocre designs seems to be a genuine completion of the whole idea behind the collection this time around. The interplay of materials, details, accessories and styling is nothing but gorgeous. The beautiful set design is an added bonus.

source: style.com

Yiqing Yin for Léonard

Léonard is one of those labels that one may vaguely remember seeing on the Paris Fashion Week calendars before without having a clear picture of what their clothes actually look like. I can assure you, if you haven't paid close attention to their collections yet, you didn't miss much. Their clothes were mostly garish, in loud colors, the designs rather simple and sexy. Comparable to Blumarine. But not looking at the latest collection, designed by the newly appointed Yiqing Yin, would be unforgivable. Why? Because the whole collection is just effin' cool! 

source: style.com