PARIS, Feb 28, 2006/ FW/ --- Shows and presentations can get a bit repetitive really as there is a limit to what can be done right? Wrong! With a presentation that was a little bizarre even by his standards, Bernhard Willhelm proved that, with a sense of humor, there is no limit to what you can get away with. Either that or he really is absolutely crazy!

With a vast sports hall providing the setting there was enough room for some large scale installations and so why not build a mountain of cardboard boxes with models perched on the side like Christmas tree decorations? What about putting someone else up a stepladder to paint a wall blue? While we’re at it, we could create a false wall in cardboard, cut out the silhouettes of models and leave them standing there like human frescos.

Perhaps searching for logic in it all would be a fruitless task but then this is the sort of thing that drives humans on; further, higher, faster, and weirder. It’s like the mountaineer who, when asked why he wanted to climb Everest, replied simply, “Because it’s there”.

If he ever gets bored of fashion, Willhelm could probably do a nice line in situationist art happenings; then again, why bother – his events already are situationist art happenings.

But what about the clothes? The really subversive thing might have been to pair the wacky production with conservative dresses and tailored trouser suits but that didn’t happen.

Green tie-dye hoodies were nearer the mark with twined strands around the hood and a model holding a bag full of cabbages. Tie-dye, in black or technicolor, appeared also on raggedy smock dresses with ruffled collars. These were set with ‘80’s style basketball training shoes and fluorescent plastic shades with visor peaks.

Elsewhere there were families of Goth kids asleep on wooden palettes; their whitened faces and overdone black eyeliner giving them a strangely angelic aspect as they lay there amongst the hurley burley. Their outfits were a hotchpotch of D.M style sneakers, black and white print shawls and skirts that morphed into leggings.

Serenity however was something that couldn’t be attributed to the group of Sherlock Holmes’ who disco danced their way through the proceedings. One was conventional enough with her plaid Deerstalker hat and cape style coat while the others sported the same silhouette but, for example, with red, white and blue geometric shapes.

If you think that all this sounds a bit strange, don’t get me started on the people walking about dressed as giant rolls of wallpaper.

Bernhard Willhelm

Bernhard Willhelm

Bernhard Willhelm

Bernhard Willhelm

Bernhard Willhelm, Designer