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Cacharel Cashes In on Couture
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
Click on image to see bigger photo.
Paris, Mar 10, 2001/ FWD/ --- For their second season at Cacharel, British design duo Inacio
Ribeiro and Suzanne Clements presented a collection frankly influenced by French couture.
Though the pair coined a new term for their current fashion take – "cari couture."
Since their arrival, these designers have injected much-needed momentum into this famous
French label that had lost direction.
For fall 2001, the Cacharel maiden gets around in slimly-cut tops -- chiffon separates with
pretty trompe l’oeil tassels and details.
In their notes, the designers call this "approaching ironic elements of French style with a
D.I.Y. mentality."
One wonders how ironic this would seem to couturier Pascal Humbert, whose collections have
already included highly similar, and more original, looks in trompe l’oeil.
Staged on a twisting paste catwalk with cut-out gilded "couture" chairs, the collection
contained lots of cute clothes -- snappy Prince of Wales pants and check blouses and beautiful
chiffon dresses with crystal tipped fringes.
The throngs of retailers in attendance also
attested to the renewed marketability and credibility of Cacharel.
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