Anthony Vaccarello Paris Fashion Week S/S 2013

If you hadn’t heard of Anthony Vaccarello before, you definitely heard of him after Anja Rubik’s exposed hip. The hip, that is, that put Angelina Jolie’s bare leg to shame when it protruded from Rubik’s white Anthony Vaccarello dress at the 2012 Met Gala.

For the brave and body-baring, Vaccarello designs provocative pieces that one could just as easily find in an editorial (Harper’s Bazaar Spain, for instance) as on a luxe party girl in New York’s Meatpacking District. Said party girl would have to be exceptionally luxe, though: Vaccarello has said he prefers to have his clothes stocked in no more than one store per city, with thirteen pieces max per store. His pieces may be difficult to find, but once you know the Paris-based Belgian designer’s work, it’s impossible to miss. 

Vaccarello cited the image of a fully clothed woman emerging from water, clothes clinging to her form, as inspiration for his SS13 collection. This inspiration is particularly identifiable in the collection’s eveningwear. Vaccarello’s models strode down the runway in form-fitting miniskirts that brought to mind something like Grecian draping-meets-bondage. The idea here, it seems, is power and sexual authority. The skirts featured curved slits that brought the eye up the models’ thighs, each skirt roughened by zipper-detailing on the hips. Eveningwear pieces were mostly in black and white, although later in the show Vaccarello introduced fluid lamés, and copper- and teal-patterned textiles that suggested a continuation of this fall’s brocade and pattern-work trends.

A black and white palette permeated Vaccarello’s SS13 daywear pieces, as well.  Many of the looks included drop waist wide-legged pants that were impressive for their silky movement. The pants were decorated with grommets at the waistband, which aesthetically unified them with scout uniform-inspired tops.

Anja Rubik started and finished the show, opening in a strong blazer-trouser pairing and closing in a compellingly sexy black billowing silk dress with Vaccarello’s trademark slit. Power is apparent in Vaccarello’s SS13 collection, and in both his opening and closing looks it is clear that Vaccarello prefers a kind of sexual power that grips you, from which you can’t turn away.