Dominique Sirop: An Afternoon at the Lido
By: Timothy Hagy
(Photo courtesy of Dominique Sirop)
PARIS, Jan 22, 2003/ FW/ --- The Lido of Paris was the setting for Dominique Sirop's contemporary couture show on Monday, and this young designer's work will certainly make any fashion enthusiast stop and take note.
To start things off, guests were welcomed with Pommery Brut Royale Champagne and canapés of smoked salmon, before sitting down in wrap-around booths, or in the rows of seats arranged at stage level on the sapphire carpet.
Haute Couture by its name, can be an old fashioned affair. And if one wants to dwell on the past, say the days of Palermo Picasso, Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Grace and the Baroness Rothshield, it can quickly become a very fond memory.
But Dominique Sirop has a different approach to couture, one grounded perhaps in classical techniques, but so shockingly modern as to blow the dust right off a lunar landscape.
The stage was set up with three white sail-like rectangles before a twinkling black sky, an effect that conjured up the image of a desolate planet somewhere far, far away from this troubled Earth. The show began with three models rising from the stage floor, attired in a trio of slacks in brown and indigo, some with tops cut in an unusual zigzag pattern that plunged.
In another sign of Mr. Sirop's modernity, his models were Caucasian, Black and Asian, all with hair pulled back and trailing down in a long tail. Invitations were in open seating, with no hierarchy assigned the front row.
The music and the pacing of the show were deliberately slow and repetitive, and it took some time before it all begin to make sense. But finally, Mr. Sirop's opaque approach become crystal clear. His style started to resemble Islamic art, which British musicologist Peter Philips describes as "static, non-representational, tirelessly inventive in its use of abstract designs, which are intensified by their repetitive application."
And that is what we saw: themes reworked, repeated, subtly altered and strewn with abstract designs. By the time the show really began to unfold, a virtual galaxy of stunning creations appeared.
Of particular merit was an Evening dress with a long-line corset of brown crocodile leather, turquoise embroidered, and worn with an iridescent blue silk chiffon skirt.
An equally stunning gown composed of a top of draped ice-blue leather was paired with a black and white striped satin skirt embroidered in African patterns.
But perhaps the most inventive of all was an evening Kaftan in grayish-beige crystal net, embellished with silver lamé, a sapphire leather skirt draped below.
On the other hand, not all the pieces worked, and several outfits less resembled Princess Leah's wardrobe, than cast outs from the set of "I Dream of Jeannie".
In the end, though, Dominique Sirop's imagination and creativity combined to produce a wonderful collection. We'll look forward to seeing even more of his genius in the seasons to come.
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