Celine: Roberto Menichetti Rings in the New
October 07, 2004 - Paris
Thursday’s most anticipated show in the Paris season was staged in the Espace Ephemere, a custom-made show tent in the south west corner of the Tuileries Gardens, where Roberto Menichetti presented his debut collection for French brand Celine.
If the executives who hired Menichetti wanted a fresh approach, they certainly got one as Roberto blew off the polished, though predictable, hard luxury of former designer Michael Kors in favor of a brighter, hipper and younger aesthetic.
Nothing summed up the change the Italian designer introduced better than the color palette. In came a brilliant blend of sharp yellows, cool grays, turquoises and vivid beiges, mixed with some great abstract mid-century prints; out went the black, brown and white neutrals of Kors.
Roberto also banished the more typical supermodels favored by his predecessor for the new hot catwalkers of the moment, like Gemma Ward and Heather Marks.
Roberto concentrated his fire on developing smart, modernistic looks with snug safari jackets with knotted pockets, high-waisted pleated flared skirts and some superb pants. His skill as a tailor was evident in savvy way he cut pants with diagonal pleats, assuring that they fell perfectly on the models and would do so on ordinary women too. His best look was a series of four tight, mini dresses in non-figurative Fifties print with open backs that thrillingly passed a key heterosexual acid test. Any handsome guy would spend large parts of the first date dreaming of the excitement of taking them off.
Menichetti wisely showed just a few accessories, though what there were looked chic, whether small canvas expeditionary bags or some super high heels with cut out leather straps.
There were, is has to be said, far too many banal simple tank tops and tent skirts that ballooned at the hem and would add kilos to even the slimmest of legs.
But the biggest problem of the show was the innate and inept organization. It’s true that the Espace Ephemere has now attracted a hoard of fashion groupies through which one must fight for entrance to a show. But once inside there was general pandemonium as people almost came to blows over seats.
Let’s be frank, when the president of the most important department store in Europe, Richard Simonin of Harrods, has to sit on the stairway, the best retailer in Hong Kong, Joyce Ma, is forced to stand, and the most influential editor in booming Moscow, Evelina Khromchenko of L’Officiel Russia, is stuck in a dark corner, then you know something is badly amiss. Enough said.
like the one from my ss05 capsule line 
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