Paris Opens: Gareth Pugh Movie, not Catwalk, Credits

We saw a significant economy of means, but not at all of imagination, in a vivid video presentation of the fall 2009 collection of heroic young British designer Gareth Pugh in Paris Wednesday, March 4.

Turns out the hottest catwalks show on the opening day of the fall 2009 season here, had no runway, but a screen that hovered above a bed of dry ice. There, in a Ninth arrondissement battered show space was projected a Kabuki Expressionist performance movie featuring just one model, who emoted admirably in Pugh’s natty, and occasionally voluminous, clothes.

Pugh is sometimes criticized for allegedly being a one trick pony, but judging from this collection he has plenty of tricks up the batman wing sleeve or the “inflated” beehive cloaks in coppery nylon, both shown over articulated thigh boots. Hooded jackets in satellite style panels, mega-flared ski-pants and Mars Mistress peak shouldered tails all looked new.

“It was all about this,” explained Pugh, turning his hands into the shape of an inverted triangle, “rather than this,” he added, making the shape of a deep V of his Samurai Gothic early work.

Though still in his 20s, Pugh bursts with imagination and novel taste, and his choice of “collaborators” is impeccable. Take the excellent “Shining” sampled mix by English DJ composer Matthew Stone – that included breaking bamboo and deep synthesizer beats, or the faintly eerie set by conceptualist Simon Costin, or heroic styling by Katie Shillingford or, bien sur, the movie by Ruth Hogben, a high-tech actress on in a surreal space station disco with huge wind tunnels.

So though Pugh clearly skipped the catwalk for budget reasons, his performance, if anything, enhanced his mystique.

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