After a wet and windy start, the first week of the French Open threatened to fizzle out. Players complained of the cold, grumbled over inhospitable living conditions, and laboured out on the heavy courts with their slow balls, in front of a drastically curtailed number of fans. Paris was in the throes of a second wave of coronavirus.
At least the US Open had served as something of a novelty, with a deserted Flushing Meadows providing the backdrop as Grand Slam tennis made its comeback. On the other hand even the return of Rafael Nadal, Simona Halep, and Elina Svitolina, who skipped New York for health reasons, could not mask the lack of frivolity in autumnal France. Then on Wednesday, Serena Williams withdrew from her second-round match citing an Achilles injury, taking with her one of the tournament’s major talking points as she strives to tie up Margaret Court on twenty-four Grand Slams.
Other seeds fell by the wayside, notably number two Karolína Plíšková and number four Daniil Medvedev. But Plíšková lost out to Jeļena Ostapenko, French Open champion in 2017 when Plíšková reached the semi-finals, while Medvedev has never reached beyond the first round at Roland Garros.
The likely contenders – Nadal looking for an unprecedented thirteenth French Open title, world number one Novak Djokovic seeking to close the Grand Slam gap, victor in 2018 Simona Halep, and Dominic Thiem, the newly-crowned US Open champion who has twice finished runner-up in France – progressed flawlessly. Home favourite Gaël Monfils and US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka went out.
Then on Friday the clouds lifted and Court Philippe Chatrier, still limited to just 1,000 spectators, seemed to grow in magnitude as the volume turned up a notch. In the match of the tournament so far, France’s own Caroline Garcia came back from a first-set thrashing to beat Elise Mertens 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, buoyed then hauled over the line by a rapturous smattering of locals.
A stormy first week also saw an epic five-setter between Andrey Rublev and Sam Querrey, while at the end of a bad-tempered encounter with the feisty Sara Errani, a victorious Kiki Bertens left the court sobbing in a wheelchair. The French Open picked up the pace over the weekend, as Italian newcomer Jannik Sinner blasted past a sickly Alexander Zverev, while the talented Polish teenager Iga Świątek saw off top-seeded Halep in straight sets. Danielle Collins battled past former champion Garbiñe Muguruza, and French wild card Hugo Gaston gave Thiem a scare.
* * *
With travel restrictions once more en vogue across Europe, Paris Fashion Week arrived at the end of the spring-summer cycle as an unusually localised affair. Just as the Milanese kept to Milan, so the Parisians held Paris, with the usual glitterati and paparazzi from far-flung Asia and America confined to their sweatpants and laptops as they watched proceedings from home.
Paris of course remains the fashion capital of the world, and while designers remained reticent in New York and London, even stellar shows in Milan from Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, and Prada gave way in the French capital to some hearty Gallic flair. France had planned for a largely virtual show, but as Paris Fashion Week drew closer, designers eyed the runway with a sense of devil-may-care.
Kenzo, Balmain, Chloé, Hermès, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton were among the fashion houses opting for in-person presentations, with the grand opening of Paris Fashion Week the preserve of Dior. In front of socially distanced pews and stained glass light-box installations, as twelve a capella singers recited nineteenth-century Corsican mourning hymns, Maria Grazia Chiuri reworked the iconic Dior Bar jacket with long-flowing gowns and strapped tunics, in navy blue and amber-hued paisley and floral prints.
At Kenzo, the environmentally conscious Felipe Oliveira Baptista drew inspiration from the Macedonian beekeeping documentary Honeyland. Models wore sunhats and hoods draped with protective netting, and guests received pots of honey from nearby Sacré-Cœur, all in the surrounds of an inner-city rose garden. At Balmain, Olivier Rousteing opted for big shoulders, Swarovski crystals, and washed denim, with bursts of neon and navy as the brand navigated the greyscale. While guests huddled and thronged in the smoky backdrop, a virtual front row featured some of fashion’s heavy hitters, from Anna Wintour and Jennifer Lopez to Cara Delevingne and Milla Jovovich.
Through slick hair and earth tones, Natacha Ramsay-Levi styled out a wardrobe of bohemian essentials for Chloé, as models emblazoned on big screens wandered the banks of the Seine before congregating at the Palais de Tokyo. At the Palais-Royal, Isabel Marant evoked the discothèque with clubwear and a stomping remix of Donna Summer.
Yohji Yamamoto, a mainstay of Paris Fashion Week, was one of the few designers who made the perilous trip from Japan, while from sporty Benelux beaches to the Lebanese mountains of Faqra, Dries Van Noten, Elie Saab, Rick Owens, Loewe, and Issey Miyake opted for home deliveries from faraway shores, mostly by way of digital presentations.
For Hermès, Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski focused on block colours, scooped sides, and long trenches, blending the austere with the sensual in front of digitised Greco-Roman ruins and sculptures. With ‘Sunglasses at Night’, Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga offered a sustainable take on post-apocalyptic techno culture. Finally bringing the weekend to a close, boosted shoulders, fishnet vests, oversized bags, and an abundance of metal and leather made for hyper-luxe streetwear in Matthew Williams’ Givenchy debut.
* * *
Perhaps nothing in the realm of fashion could have successfully diverted eyeballs from Paris so much as the second season of Savage x Fenty. The fall 2020 collection of lingerie by Rihanna premiered exclusively on Amazon Prime on Friday.
Filmed inside an empty Los Angeles Convention Center over a few days in early September, Savage x Fenty Vol. 2 emerged as a neon-clad ode to body positivity. Inside tunnels draped with fabric and bathed in light, against green-hued factory floors and psychedelic woodland and jungle settings, Rosalía, Miguel, Bad Bunny, and Ella Mai performed while Cara Delevingne, Bella Hadid, Lizzo, Normani, Gigi Goode, Irina Shayk, Laura Harrier, Rico Nasty, Demi Moore, Soo Joo Park, and Lyric Mariah were among the diverse cast of models.
Behind-the-scenes documentary footage, interviews, and personal reminiscences interspersed the heightened sensuality of the clothes and livewire musical performances, with dancing choreographed by Parris Goebel. And there was an added focus this year on men’s undergarments, with loungewear, boxers, and form-fitting trunks designed by Christian Combs, son of the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy.
* * *
If the wet weather and surging coronavirus wasn’t enough to put a dampener on Paris Fashion Week, the fashion world was rocked on Sunday by the death of Kenzo Takada. The founder of Kenzo fashion house, famous for his oversize designs and cross-cultural inspirations which made bold use of floral and ethnic prints, led a Japanese revolution in the French fashion industry.
Against the wishes of his family, Kenzo had switched studies to become one of the first male students to enroll at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo. In 1961, his designs won the Soen Prize, awarded by the prestigious women’s magazine, and in 1964, compensation he received for the demolition of his apartment ahead of the Tokyo Olympics allowed him to travel to Paris.
Kenzo sold sketches and worked briefly as a stylist until in 1970, he managed to acquire space in the Galerie Vivienne. Creating a collection largely out of cotton, painting the walls in wild florals inspired by Henri Rousseau, Kenzo opened his first boutique, which he named Jungle Jap. Soon his exuberant designs splashed on the cover of Elle and inside the pages of Vogue.
From loosely structured trousers and tunics, youthful waistcoats and dungarees, and capacious dresses with wide armholes and billowing shoulders to knit throws and silk shawls styled around folk themes, Kenzo proved popular among the fashionistas of Paris. By 1976 he had opened his flagship store in the Place des Victoires. Revolutionising the fashion show with a penchant for theatrics and models who bounced and twirled down the catwalk, in 1978 and 1979 Kenzo held shows inside a circus tent, with the designer himself riding an elephant.
In the eighties Kenzo launched menswear and jeans lines and branched out into fragrances. In 1984 he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Then in 1993, Kenzo sold his company to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, remaining as the creative director until 1999, when after thirty years at the helm he took a step back from the world of fashion.
Kenzo subsequently designed costumes for the opera and the uniforms for the Japanese team at the 2004 Olympics, before turning his hand to homeware and furniture collections. In 1999 he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon by Japan, and in 2016 he was elevated to Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Kenzo died on Sunday at the age of 81, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine from complications after contracting coronavirus.
* * *
Political figures from sixty-four countries this week signed a Leaders’ Pledge for Nature ahead of the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, which was hosted virtually from New York. The figures include presidents, prime ministers, and other government representatives from across six continents, from Albania to Uganda, from Justin Trudeau, Imran Khan, and Jacinda Ardern to Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, and Emmanuel Macron.
Recognising a state of planetary emergency in the face of unprecedented biodiversity loss, the pledge sets out a ten-point plan of urgent action which hopes to put the world on a path to recovery by 2030. The pledge includes commitments to reduce pollution and deforestation, and to ward off alien species while preventing against habitat loss. It aims to protect land and marine ecosystems with the participation of local communities and indigenous peoples, and to boost international efforts towards the sustainable production and consumption of food.
Realising that the global coronavirus pandemic necessitates a green response, the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature vows to put biodiversity at the heart of policy decisions and investment strategies. Its goals were backed at the Summit on Biodiversity on Wednesday by David Attenborough, who called for strong leadership. On this point however the pledge contains an implicit warning, as major polluters including the United States, China, Brazil, Russia, India, and Australia have so far failed to sign up.
* * *
The César Awards sought to overcome recent controversies this week by appointing Véronique Cayla as the new president of the César Academy. With a long background in film including stints as the general director of Cannes and chair of the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Cayla recently stepped down from a management role at Arte France. She will be joined at the César Academy by Éric Toledano, with the popular co-director of The Intouchables set to serve as vice president.
A tumultuous year for the Césars began back in January, when the academy blocked feminist filmmakers Virginie Despentes and Claire Denis from attending an annual dinner gala. Simmering tensions over the opaque actions of the board came to a boil when Roman Polanski’s latest film, An Officer and a Spy, was nominated for twelve awards over impassioned criticism.
Four hundred industry figures published a letter in Le Monde, advocating for an overhaul of the César Awards, while the twenty-one-member board, including longtime president Alain Terzian, announced their impending resignation from the academy. The producer Margaret Ménégoz had taken over as interim president in time for the 45th César Awards at the end of February, where Les Misérables by Ladj Ly, a searing depiction of life in the banlieues of Paris, triumphed by winning best picture.
* * *
To rave reviews and glowing recollections, this week saw the release of remastered, deluxe, and super deluxe editions of the seminal Prince album Sign o’ the Times. From the calamity-cleft funk minimalism of the title track and the sunburst sweeps of ‘Starfish and Coffee’ to the slow-build spiritualism of ‘The Cross’ and soul devotional ‘Adore’, on Sign o’ the Times the artist was at his most fertile, creatively unfettered as he surveyed his surrounds.
Sign o’ the Times was already a double album, which on release stretched across 80 minutes and four sides. The super deluxe package now spans nine discs, adding all of the contemporary single edits and B-sides plus 45 previously unreleased studio tracks and live performances from Utrecht and Paisley Park.
One of the most critically acclaimed albums of 1987, storming the annual Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll with Robert Christgau describing ‘the most gifted pop musician of his generation proving what a motherfucker he is for two discs start to finish’, today Sign o’ the Times is frequently regarded among the greatest of all albums. There’s never been a better moment for a really deep dive.
