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Isabelle Ballu: Geometric Concepts
By: Karin Nelson
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
Click on image to see bigger photo.
Paris, Oct 5, 2001/ FWD/ --- "It’s about being an individual in a big world,” explained a
diminutive Isabelle Ballu, who presented her Spring 2002 collection Friday.
Staged in an austere gymnasium in the Bastille section of Paris, the show had a disturbingly
peculiar air to it as models with zippered hair walked with blank stares to disjointed music.
Twice, two of the models stopped before the audience to maniacally unzipper the other’s hair.
Unsettling antics aside, Ballu, a visionary now in her 13th season, presented a collection
inspired by Japanese geometric and minimalist concepts, yet firmly entrenched in a Western
world.
A sack dress, quite literally a circle with slits for arm-holes and a cinched bottom,
opened the show, and continued to reappear in the form of jackets and tops, paired with mini
shorts and rainbow hip-slung belts.
A back flap that strapped around the waist and billowed as the models breezed by also
manifested itself onto tops, jackets, even swimwear.
“I like the idea of discovering new parts of the body,” Ballu explained of the look that
alluringly exposed the back.
Her strength undoubtedly lies in her ability to perceive and create novel shapes;
unfortunately, she seems to have trouble with the simpler things.
Her skinny pants, a bit
too high-waisted and tapered at the ankles, just looked odd and ill-fitting, and one look –
a polo shirt and short shorts – lacked direction altogether.
Isabelle Ballu Fashion
Isabelle Ballu Fashion
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