PFW Day 2: Power Poses

Field Notes: pre-show shooting at Dior, and Alaïa Teckels.

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Field Notes

I went shooting at the Dior pre-show in the Tuileries Gardens to bring you blooming spring energy. All photos were taken by yours truly. And courtesy to the women posing for the 100 cameras in front of them, or chasing after them, literally. Fashion week really is the great outdoors.

On Tuesday, national TV news cameras, and this newsletter, popped out of the office to catch the spectacle that is Christian Dior. My fortune telling was right. A dichotomy of punk plaids and clean dressing germinated in the gardens. The Tuileries is a good temperature test for what’s coming next. 90’s cold shoulders were abreast. The belt was the accessory du jour. And fur trimmings made a comeback.

Plum tartans at Dior.

The universal little black dress with a studded bag.

Power poses.

Women posed. Camera shutters buzzed like beehives. This outdoor drama was a theater of its own staging. And the photographers were eating it up like delicious Sunday roast. As each press pool diverged, a new one formed with circus-like synchronization.

It was fabulous! Although the French police may have preferred the fans don’t climb on their friend’s back at the receiving line for a 5-second sighting of a K-pop star. The message was there.

If fashion can inspire a level of enthusiasm for the future so deep a woman almost fainted. What else could it do?