The Hôtel National des Invalides provided a grand setting for this year’s fall/winter 2017 Agnès b. display. With its towering Napoleon statue and its massive golden dome, les Invalides imposed a hush on the showgoer. In a gallery off the vast inner courtyard, surrounded with historical martial frescoes, the show offered an appeasing peaceful counterpoint.
The wearability factor of any Agnès b. collection has always been high and this season’s suggestions were no exception to the rule. Unlike most other fashion outlets, the brand prides itself on wide-ranging variety. Agnès b. fashion shows tend to be segmented into sartorial-musical movements. Instead of a succession of variations on the theme, you’re provided with an eclectic range of figure-hugging to free-flowing outfits.
Agnès b. fall/winter 2017
Experimental shapes and asymmetrical pleating were generally avoided but motifs were always neat, sweet, and full of finesse. The overall look veered from the womanly to the almost mannishly severe. The printed tops were also mixed, ranging from graffiti-covered urban scenes to the rural poetry of silhouetted branches on a blue evening sky, and abstract computerized drawing motifs.
Although the general palette was wintery grey, black, and white, there were exceptions added to this, with some dresses and pull-overs experimenting in every vivid, rainbow-patterned hue. Some of the outfits departed from the demure with flashes of garishly fauve dotted yellow. An additional touch of poetic drama was added by Agnès b.’s signature otherworldly married couple in the final movement.
Agnès b. fall/winter 2017
