By Canadian Press

Chloe sparkles as giant Paris fashion exhibit space opens

Feb 28, 2020 | 11:52 AM

PARIS — Chloe teemed with sparkling detailing at Paris Fashion Week Thursday.

The lofty Grand Palais, decorated with giant gold Grecian columns, had starry guests to match — including actresses Katie Holmes and Kate Bosworth — and added to the glint of the stylish fall-winter 2020 collection.

Here are some of the day’s highlights:

CHLOE GOES REGAL-CASUAL

Designer Natacha Ramsay-Levi clung to the floppy and boho house DNA forged in the 1970s.

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Long silvery organic earrings followed foliage-like necklaces, silver eyelets on collars, shiny rings and bracelets, gold handbag chains and buckles. The columns glimmered in the background.

But even though the French designer piled on the detailing — in the polka-dot gowns, contrasting textures, floral prints, giant long silk ribbons flowing down from the neck — it never veered into heavy-handedness.

Styles moved from the retro, such as one checked knitted sweater worn with loose leather pants in autumnal copper, to the ethereal: Silk lace gowns cinched at the waist with an almost Balkan-looking angular silhouette on the torso.

Chloe is credited with inventing the concept of ready-to-wear clothing, and this show impressively trod a path between the insouciant, indolent ethos that is the house signature and a quasi-regal style.

WORLD’S LARGEST FASHION EXHIBITION SPACE OPENS

Paris’ Musee des Arts Decoratifs — which is attached to the Louvre — inaugurated to the press Thursday a fully-renovated 1,300 square meter (14,000 square foot) wing dedicated to fashion.

The museum says that the so-called “Fashion Galleries” is now the world’s largest fashion exhibition space.

The landmark renovation, fruit of a multi-million private donation, is being launched with a show called ‘Harper’s Bazaar, First in Fashion’ that traces the fashion magazine’s history. It will run through July 14, 2020.

Spanning two floors, the multimedia exhibit showcases glimmering gowns by greats such as Schiaparelli and Vionnet as it takes the visitor not only through the history of the magazine launched in the 19th century, but the history of fashion itself.

Harper’s Bazaar was one of the first magazines to feature a bikini in 1947, and that garment is featured in the show. It prompted Diana Vreeland, the magazine’s fashion editor from 1937 to 1962, to proclaim that ‘’the bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb.”

ATLEIN

Atlein, a French brand committed to sustainable design whose name is inspired by the Atlantic Ocean, focuses on the body and energy and movement.

In this show, designer Antonin Tron again merged the Parisian fashion traditions of draping, ruching and wrapping with a casual vibe and sporty silhouette in gowns that allowed fluidity in movement.

This season saw him add more decorative touches to the minimalist esthetic — that was forged by studies in Antwerp.

Tron was also in a dark mood mood for fall.

Lashings of black, faux-snake and sensual lingerie-like trimmings graced many of the 33 designs, which the designer has said have no lining and are often made of jersey fabric.

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamson_K

Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press