PARIS, Jan 25, 2003/ FW/ --- In her fourth collection, and only her second actual show, French designer Anne Valerie Hash is moving on. Gone is the overtly cerebral clothing that incited confusing comparisons to Japanese designers - in its place is a sleeker look with attitude.

Hash, still playing with her signature look of reinvented tailoring and unfinished hems, produced a beautifully conceived collection with enough street cred to allow the intelligence of the clothes to whisper itself discreetly.

Adding smoky shades of gray to her usual palette of black and white, Hash played with volume in a masterful way. Over miniskirts made of lining and trouser waistbands, she might put a two-layer puffing black top decorated with a black tassel or a sheer top with knife-edge pleats framing the chest.

The shoulder remains an erogenous zone, and tops in white shirting are cut with collars insouciantly sliding off and exposing shoulders and jutting collarbones.

Hash kept dresses to a minimum in the fast-paced show. She has had trouble doing dresses before, but the ones here were simple, easy and suitable for someone with even the most patrician of tastes -- though a wearer might disregard the ribbed socks worn with cut-out shoes.

Among all the wonderful asymmetric, sheer and unfinished outfits were some amazing pieces that any woman regardless of her level of conservatism would wear - like a black coat with a knife-pleated lapel or a classic gray striped shirt that closed diagonally and appeared over a surprisingly flattering puffed black skirt.

Embroidery by Lesage, in the form of torn threads, and the technique shown by a raw denim dress with a full millefeuille skirt decorated with raw edges, testify to the strength of a designer staking an exciting claim in the fashion world.

Anne Valerie Hash

Anne Valerie Hash

Anne Valerie Hash

Anne Valerie Hash