Isabel Marant on the road

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Mar 1, 2018

It felt like a great road movie at Isabel Marant this season, a trip around the great American Southwest, cool cowboy style meeting French self-confidence.

 
A Navajo blanket cut into a winter coat opened the proceedings, a snug pony skin jerkin followed, the latter though worn with thigh boots. D’Artagnan meets Billy the Kid, but for cowgirls.
 
Nothing too literal mind you, seeing as Wild Bill Hickok fringed suede jackets were paired with a silk party girl paisley mini dresses. Cowboy boots everywhere, even worn with Gangs of New York striped artful dodger skinny pantsuits for women.

A sensational casting: from Gigi Hadid and Anna Ewers to the legendary Amber Valletta, who appeared in a mannish drop-waist six-button cocoon coat. Add in some marvelous one shoulder, saucily ruched leather cocktails that only a French designer could drape and you had a powerful collection that Marant fans will love.
 
“Yes, its quite Cowboy but more like in a Jim Jarmusch or Wim Wenders movie. A bit trashy, and a bit eighties,” explained Marant.
 
The show also marked the catwalk debut of Marant’s menswear collection, Isabel’s dudes in copper brown leather ranch-hand shirts and chunky sweaters done with Comanche insignia.
 
Staged with great oomph inside a custom-made tent deep in the Tuileries Gardens, half its walls open to show the plane trees illuminated at night, to a funky rock soundtrack courtesy of DJ Ariel Wizman, where the cast slinked on a wide plank boardwalk, this was a great example of how to stage a show in Paris.