Paris (AFP)

After the jogging, the crinolines: Thom Browne, Dries Van Noten, Vivienne Westwood or Demna Gvasalia fell in love with the 18th century by devoting in the Parisian fashion shows the very feminine long dress as the fashion piece for the summer of 2020.

In overdose of "streetwear" or eager to escape a gloomy news, these creators with totally different aesthetics have sought refuge in fantasy and exuberance.

Even Millenials idol and streetwear king, the American Virgil Abloh, slightly rectified the shot by bringing to the star Bella Hadid a fuchsia pink dress to train while another model wearing a raincoat with zipper worn as a Cape.

Others went much further.

Beautiful gilded and silver dresses, adorned with giant knots, red, electric blue and black in the ultra-architectural form designed by the Georgian designer Demna Gvasalia closed on Sunday the Balenciaga fashion show.

"Exit the minimalist dresses, the trend is futuristic princess ball dresses", reacted immediately Vogue Paris.

They have removable crinolines and are therefore portable even outside the Academy Awards, "in a casual way with flat shoes", according to Balenciaga.

Just like Jonathan Anderson's dresses for the Spanish brand Loewe. Light and discreet baskets under layers in a transparent dress, a perfect outfit for leisure.

- Mozart and Madame de Pompadour -

Long live Madame de Pompadour! In the American Thom Browne, crinolines go hand in hand with sails on "skyscraper" wigs.

"If I had a perfumed handkerchief, I would brandish it right away," enthused a critic after the parade.

The famous English hatter Stephen Jones, in charge of headgear for this parade, believes that fashion is in need of ostentation right now.

"There was this idea of ​​practicality" during several seasons dominated by sport and streetwear, he explained to AFP. "I think that now people need fantasy".

Vivienne Westwood, the British queen of punk has always had a soft spot for the decadence of the 18th century.

Her husband and designer Andreas Kronthaler found an elegant and modern note for Mozart's "Rock Me Amadeus" collection.

Given that nightgowns and panties can easily be adapted to men and women, Kronthaler told AFP that the gender fluidity of the time was topical.

A trend that should continue with the exhibition expected from mid-October in Paris on the greatest icon of the 18th century fashion, Marie-Antoinette, the queen guillotined during the French Revolution.

- "No future" -

"Fashion is sometimes very mysterious - all those people who think the same thing at the same time is not for nothing," said Stephen Jones.

The Belgian Dries Van Noten, master of minimalist chic, has sought for his latest collection exuberance. For this, he appealed to the French Christian Lacroix, virtually absent from the podium for ten years to devote himself to opera costumes.

They presented in Paris a collection inspired by the universe of "Barry Lyndon", high in color and volumes. It is on the music of Schubert heard in Stanley Kubrick's film ("Trio No. 2") that the models paraded at the Opéra Bastille.

For the Belgian, it was a question of escaping in the face of a very dark political, economic and environmental news. "It made me want everything that would be radical, optimistic, flamboyant, inclusive and extravagant".

"No future". The planet has no future, proclaimed the Japanese Yohji Yamamoto, leaving this inscription on the back of his jacket at the end of the parade.

In a pessimistic mood, he responded, unlike Dries Van Noten, by a poetic collection but as usual almost all black, with long dresses draped sublimated with big waving hats and modernized by tennis.

© 2019 AFP