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Paris Couture Season Kicks off with Frivolity, Seaborne Life

Kylie Jenner attends the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection presented in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP)
Kylie Jenner attends the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection presented in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP)
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Paris Couture Season Kicks off with Frivolity, Seaborne Life

Kylie Jenner attends the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection presented in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP)
Kylie Jenner attends the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection presented in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP)

Schiaparelli kicked off haute couture season Monday with plenty of glamorous frivolity and exaggerated silhouettes ahead of the highly anticipated show by powerhouse Christian Dior.

Schiaparelli

Schiaparelli also offered surreal takes on classics harking back to the 1930s heyday of house founder Elsa Schiaparelli.

The mood at the first spring-summer couture show of the season was enlivened by gold accents and intricate embellishments in front of a slew of VIPs inside the gilded atrium of the Petit Palais.

Designer Daniel Roseberry was in top form, taking classical styles and giving them unexpected twists. A dark tuxedo with stiff oversize shoulders was transformed into a minimalist, space-age jumpsuit.

A bronze bustier reimagined as a giant oyster shell rose up like a fan to obscure the model’s face. Its stunning pearl embellishments were rendered in organic, crystallized layers showing off the deftness of the house atelier.

Myriad embellished baubles — almost resembling wet pearls — organically dripped off a blown-up bolero jacket as if it had been created for a seaborne princess.

The collection was also reverential to the house founder whose unique brand of frivolity charmed audiences around the world. A giant lion’s head — replete with fangs and bushy mane — added a bite to this collection. It was fun, inventive and smart — a nod to Surrealism but also a powerful statement about the use of fur.

Iris van Herpen goes digital

Against the grain of Paris Fashion Week, which is turning its back on digital, Dutch wunderkind Iris van Herpen said she was proud to announce that instead of a traditional runway show, the brand “shows a digital presentation that allows for more creative freedom and storytelling.”

Van Herpen offered an in-person presentation of her spring collection as well as “Carte Blanche,” a stylized video in which she teamed up with French artist Julie Gautier to explore how feminine beauty can be used as a form of control.

A limp red dress, with sinews revealing inches of flesh, resembled a poisonous sea creature, while interlocking circles evoked spiky coral. Billowing blue and silver portions of generous fabric adorned a flowing gown, reminiscent of the organic inspiration of the award-winning couturier who designed for such artists as Bjork.

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Fashion

80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
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80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

L.L. Bean created it 80 years ago to haul heavy blocks of ice. Now it's a must-have summer fashion accessory, The Associated Press reported.

The simple, sturdy canvas bag called the Boat and Tote is having an extended moment 80 years after its introduction, thanks to a social media trend in which they're monogrammed with ironic or flashy phrases.

New Yorker Gracie Wiener helped get it started by ordering her humble bags from L.L. Bean monogrammed with “Psycho” and then “Prada,” the pricey Italian luxury brand, instead of just her name or initials, and posting about them on Instagram. Then others began showcasing their own unique bags on TikTok.

Soon, it wasn’t enough to have a bag monogrammed with “Schlepper,” “HOT MESS,” “slayyyy” or “cool mom.” Customers began testing the limits of the human censors in L.L. Bean’s monogram department, which bans profanity “or other objectionable words or phrases,” with more provocative wording like “Bite me,” “Dum Blonde” and “Ambitchous.”

Social media fueled the surge, just as it did for Stanley’s tumblers and Trader Joe’s $2.99 canvas bags, which were once selling on eBay for $200, said Beth Goldstein, an analyst at Circana, which tracks consumer spending and trends.
The tote’s revival came at a time when price-conscious consumers were forgoing expensive handbags, sales of which have weakened, and L.L. Bean’s bag fit the bill as a functional item that’s trendy precisely because it’s not trendy, she said. L.L. Bean's regular bags top out at about $55, though some fancier versions cost upward of $100.
“There’s a trend toward the utilitarian, the simple things and more accessible price points,” she said, and the customization added to the appeal: “Status items don’t have to be designer price points.”

L.L. Bean’s tote was first advertised in a catalog as Bean’s Ice Carrier in 1944 during World War II, when ice chests were common. Then they disappeared before being reintroduced in 1965 as the Boat and Tote.

These days, they’re still made in Maine and are still capable of hauling 500 pounds of ice, but they are far more likely to carry laptops, headphones, groceries, books, beach gear, travel essentials and other common items.

Those snarky, pop-oriented phrases transformed them into a sassy essential and helped them spread beyond Maine, Massachusetts’ Cape Cod and other New England enclaves to places like Los Angeles and New York City, where fashionistas like Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker are toting them — but not necessarily brandished with ironic phrases.

“It’s just one of those things that makes people smile and makes people laugh, and it’s unexpected,” said Wiener, who got it all started with her @ironicboatandtote Instagram page, which she started as a fun side hustle from her job as social media manager for Air Mail, a digital publication launched by former Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter.

The folks at L.L. Bean were both stunned and pleased by the continuing growth. For the past two years, the Boat and Tote has been L.L. Bean’s No. 1 contributor to luring in new customers, and sales grew 64% from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, spokesperson Amanda Hannah said.

The surge in popularity is reminiscent of L.L. Bean’s traditional hunting shoe, the iconic staple for trudging through rain and muck, which enjoyed its own moment a few years back, driven by college students.