Leather at Acne Studios, Shaggy Coats at Dries Van Noten for Paris Fashion Week

A model presents a creation by designer Dries Van Noten as part of his Fall-Winter 2024/2025 Women's ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, February 28, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
A model presents a creation by designer Dries Van Noten as part of his Fall-Winter 2024/2025 Women's ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, February 28, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
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Leather at Acne Studios, Shaggy Coats at Dries Van Noten for Paris Fashion Week

A model presents a creation by designer Dries Van Noten as part of his Fall-Winter 2024/2025 Women's ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, February 28, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
A model presents a creation by designer Dries Van Noten as part of his Fall-Winter 2024/2025 Women's ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, February 28, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

For his fall/winter runway presentation, Acne Studios creative director Jonny Johansson showed slick, all leather looks and long, tailored jackets on Wednesday at Paris Fashion Week.
The collection was "rooted in toughness and human form, leather and denim," said the show notes, affixed to each seat.
"A celebration of uncompromising femininity." Leather bodysuits had high necks and voluminous sleeves and were left unzipped in the back, while floor-sweeping trench coats were tightly fitted.
Softening the lineup were all-white looks, including a long gown with buttons running down to the navel as well as an earth-coloured dress worn with a thick, furry scarf.
Dries Van Noten, who showed earlier on Wednesday, also featured thick scarves in his catwalk show, including one with sparkles that framed the model's head like a pillow.
The Puig-owned label's lineup came in pastels, grey and light browns, and included coats and bomber jackets with rounded shoulders, as well as tailored suits embellished with shimmery beadwork.
"It’s the way that he drapes, it’s the way that he styles, it’s the way that he designs these clothes — there’s always a woman in mind," said fashion commentator Hanan Besovic, known for his Instagram account @ideservecouture.
French-Moroccan creative director Charaf Tajer also held a runway show on Wednesday, for his label Casablanca's collection called "Venus as a Boy."
Held in the historic Paris Bouglione circus house, models walked the circular runway showcasing sporty tracksuits, cheerleader skirts and sheer, fitted skirts with slits.
Paris Fashion Week runs through March 5, with upcoming shows from Chanel, Hermes, Kering-owned Balenciaga and LVMH's Louis Vuitton.



Jeweler's Eye-popping Watch is Love Letter to Albania

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
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Jeweler's Eye-popping Watch is Love Letter to Albania

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP

Albanian jeweler Pirro Ruco labored day and night for five years to capture the essence of his country in a spectacular luxury watch.
Now the timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November, AFP said.
Set under a sapphire dome, the hours are marked by 12 golden folk dancers -- each in different regional dress -- set on Murano glass, the minute and hour hands adorned with eagle talons in homage to Albania's national symbol.
Ruco's rollercoaster rise mirrors that of Albania, from poverty and isolation as the most closed communist regime in Europe, to rollicking capitalism.
Along the way the jeweler overcame jealousy, the secret police and being sent into internal exile to rise to the pinnacle of his profession.
It all began for Pirro -- as he is known in his homeland -- in 1985 when he was asked to make a medal in red and gold bearing the head of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid dictator who ruled the small Balkan nation with an iron fist for more than four decades.
"That saved me," he told AFP from his workshop tucked away in an alley in the capital Tirana.
The medals were awarded to the regime's most loyal supporters and later caught the eye of Hoxha's wife.
The turn of fortune saw thousands more produced and worn by communist cadres across Albania.
"All the congressional delegates had to wear it. I made a name for myself with it," he said. It also saved him from the textile mills where he had been sent because his family had been deemed "rebellious".
'Priceless'
All this, however, was nearly derailed by an anonymous letter sent to authorities accusing Pirro of working with foreign agents.
He was questioned by intelligence agents and his workshop raided.
Down but not out, he was able to bounce back after crafting a ring bearing the image of the late husband of a member of the communist politburo and in July 1990 won a prize for a piece featuring Albania's 15th-century national hero Skanderberg.
But the very next day history intervened. The regime began to crumble and the collapse of Albania's communist rule in 1991 was followed by years of violent tumult as the country transitioned to a free-market economy.
Amid the ups and downs, Pirro stayed busy designing pieces for officials and celebrities.
During a trip to Basel in Switzerland in 2016, something new caught his eye.
"I wanted to make a watch. It was my new dream," he told AFP.
For the next five years, Pirro said he focused on "doing something special, Albanian, and at the same time completely new and never before seen in the watch industry."
The new timepiece which he calls Primordial Passion was designed in collaboration with the Swiss watchmaker Agenhor.
"I never wanted to make jewelry, but art," the jeweler said.
"Sculptures, images of the country, pieces of culture... This watch is the culmination of all that, of this love for Albania," he added.
"It is more than just a watch. It combines the rich heritage of ancient Albanian culture with the notion of chronometry."
Pirro refuses to divulge the methods used to craft the watch, but remains hopeful the painstaking details will be recognized by the judges at the Grand Prix in Geneva.
Several collectors have already contacted him about buying the timepiece, he said, though it would be difficult to part with his creation.
"I set a price because I had to. But for me, it is priceless."