The Paris Shows

The natural style and artistic flavor that Paris exudes has always inspired my vision, as I am certain it has for other intrepid visitors.  For the past 25 years, the Lingerie shows, staged in this fashionable city have fertilized many American designs.  Mining these Expositions for information that will inform trends in the Intimate Apparel Business is a compelling challenge.  I am always searching for seeds of ideas, a color direction, a style detail, a new product capable of shifting fortunes in the North American market:  So, I was particularly surprised at the intelligence I gleaned from last week’s Salon De Lingerie and Interfiliere highlighting fall 2011 collections.  The messages were all inherently American stories:   Shapewear everywhere, Molded Bras in glamorous hi tech fabrics, and crossover loungewear, dominated for the first time in many years, by Casual Robes.  There was, of course, the always expressive   Spicy Garden gallery, a collection of entrepreneurial European designers with a creative array of innovative designs.  In fact, I spent an inordinate amount of time perusing these treasures which I intend to highlight in the coming weeks.

My son asked me a few weeks ago what the most important change has been in our culture from when I was his age.  Of course the answer is the Internet and how it has forced the world into a global economy.  Traveling to discover new frontiers, we return home to find the same brands opening their doors around the block.  But the reverse is also true.  The blueprints of our Lingerie businesses resonate internationally.  Shapewear, in particular, demonstrates this reality as it has evolved in America from function to fashion and in Paris, even the resolutely fashion first brands have integrated pizzazz with the practical.  The ubiquitous basic t-shirt bra, the fulcrum of US foundations business is flirting with sensuality as technically astute, yet gorgeous materials emerge.  An entire category, loungerie, struts its stuff as new silhouettes produce a parallel wardrobe of casual attire for women.  The boundaries that divided our sensitivities have dissolved and influences are ricocheting back and forth across borders.

“Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction
they are going.”  …John Naisbitt