Paris (AFP)

"La Covid" adorned with a gothic black lace dress in a film: this is how the French designer Franck Sorbier presented his haute couture collection in the first Fashion Week without fashion shows, which did not conquer critics.

Franck Sorbier has teamed up with the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris to produce "Il medico della peste" whose 15-minute "prelude" was broadcast Wednesday on the last day of haute couture, an exclusively Parisian fashion event, entirely online this season due to coronavirus.

The idea is to "talk about the character who is very important in the commedia dell'arte, il medico della peste, it is a kind of parallel with what we have just experienced", explains the designer in a video on behind the scenes of this film.

Pursued by "the Covid", this doctor, behind his mask shaped like a bird's beak, plays with her.

The projection of the entire film will take place on September 21 in the church of the Museum of Arts and Crafts where the film was shot. It shelters a prototype of the statue of Liberty which one sees bandaged by "the Covid" in the film.

Romantic, almost all dressed in white, the models wander at night in a deserted Paris with designer Christophe Josse, images that evoke those of the French capital during confinement.

- Zebras, birds, bees -

Outfits are long, adorned with tone-on-tone embroidery and worn with flip-flops in this collection which claims "timeless modernity".

Jean Paul Gaultier had meanwhile bowed out in January with a grand show. But "in an inner world", the fashionable child decided to take advantage of Fashion Week to "open the doors" of his fashion house.

His film "The show must go on" takes the spectator behind the scenes to prepare a parade "which is not one", with a selection of archives. Japanese designer Chitose Abe was to design the Jean Paul Gaultier collection for this season, but this parade will take place next January.

For her part, the Chinese designer Guo Pei has dedicated her collection to the animals of the savannah: she judges in her film that the health crisis has changed "our perception of life" and the relationship with nature. We see her creating animal heads on the dresses by encrusting woolen fabrics on fabrics. The makeup takes up the theme with "eyebrows-zebras".

- Nostalgia for "good old fashion shows" -

Lebanese stylist Elie Saab reveals in an impressionist video - we hear birdsong and humming bees - a glimpse of inspiration for his collection which will be unveiled in September and will pay tribute to "the abundant beauty of the nature".

The Margiela and Valentino houses have also chosen the strategy of "teaser" their collections which will be revealed later.

A recognizable figure of John Galliano, artistic director of Margiela, with a hat and pronounced shoulders, appears against the background of orange and purple psychedelic images. This 45-second clip is supposed to introduce a collection, the following three parts of which will be broadcast online on July 11, 15 and 16.

Valentino will present his collection in a live performance in Rome on July 21 at the Cinecittà Studios, whose inspirations are revealed in his film which ended these three virtual days of haute couture.

An unprecedented experience, this Fashion Week displayed high artistic ambitions, but was not convincing.

"Digital still has a long way to go before it can replace the live show," comments online media WWD, the fashion bible.

"I'm entirely digital, but for me it's not good," said critic Diane Pernet, who also runs the ASVOFF fashion film festival earlier this week, to AFP.

For WWD, "These films were generally missing a fashion" wow "factor when a catwalk or a single dress takes your breath away."

Even the film shot by Matteo Garrone (Dogman, Gomorra) to present the collection of miniature dresses by Dior, the highlight of haute couture, "sometimes flirted with boredom", according to WWD.

© 2020 AFP