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Paul Smith: Après Ski Chic
Written by: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Javier Mateo
London, Feb 19, 2001/ FWD/ -- Ski bells signaled the start of après-ski
festivities at the Paul Smith Fall 2001 women's show in London Monday.
Sir Paul took his collection on an Alpine jaunt this season, ironically just as the weekend
fog lifted and London was blessed with unseasonably balmy weather.
Smith's Alps are a jolly affair, where leggy ladies don high-waisted check pants, colorful
boots and fake mink bomber jackets - suitable attire for a post Cresta run cocktail.
Fake snow surrounded the catwalk and covered a dozen Christmas trees, while the front-row
was draped in fake polar bear pelts in the Royal Horticultural Hall where the show was staged.
PETA should award Sir Paul an honorary medal.
Smith played with waistlines throughout the show: high, gray bouclé wool dresses were coupled
with schoolmarm-ish white shirts, and denim bustiers with fake-fur trim were paired with
asymmetrical leather skirts.
The collection was chock full of witty items: sleek, wool cardigans, a slew of silk dresses
printed with reindeers or glaciers and tight, yet flattering, jodhpur-style ski pants.
The designer's love of color also manifested itself in wool bouclé jackets and coats in
naïve pastels.
Smith's footwear is always worth a second look, and this collection was no exception.
His wackiest idea was a high-heel sock-boot, in granny shades of brown and gray.
As a voice on the soundtrack crooned: "Here we come Val d'Isère," one could only agree
these clothes would look just fine at dinner in the resort's tony Hotel Blizzard or,
better yet, for late night dancing in the nearby Petit Danois disco.
Paul Smith Fashion
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