PARIS — Neo-ethnic looks have emerged as one of the key trends for Fall 2014, with modern-day tribal accents surfacing across collections.
Pucci cited Native American and Inuit cultures among its inspirations, with creative director Peter Dundas reinterpreting the house’s iconic prints in tribal graphics — expressed in embroideries, studs and sexy, tattoo-style laser-cut dresses. At Marni, one of the industry’s major trendsetters, bodices came festooned with tribal-infused décor, including Dutch duck plumes that resembled dried grass.
Among the more subtle odes, black tribal graphics cropped up in the opening section of Isabel Marant’s show, enlivening cream basics. And Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz referenced tribal tweeds in a highly textured collection that was tricked out with beautiful beading and feather treatments. For his fast-paced show at the Trocadero, meanwhile, Rick Owens cast his inner circle — or tribe — of friends, employees and models to model his collection, based on an urban-edged primitive uniform in shades of stone, black and aubergine. Using skinny leather motorcross pants, headgear, gloves and armlets as the base, silhouettes moved from felt cocoon capes and workwear-style shifts in leather, fur and suede, to slim patchwork leathers with pleated inserts.
For her take on the theme, eco-warrior Vivienne Westwood folded a range of ethnic influences into her mid-nineteenth-century-flavored collection, including African prints, Peruvian ponchos, and eastern beaded headdresses. Playing the part, the designer took her runway bow in a burnt-orange tribal printed tunic accessorized with a bead and feather headdress, her red locks freshly shorn.
