"SOME people may like cool," designer Peter O'Brien remarked last week, "but I still like pretty." Actually, pretty is a rather paltry adjective to describe the clothes O'Brien creates for the house of Rochas. Romantic, charming, exquisite, ravishing: these terms could all be pressed into service and still not adequately summarise his style. As demonstrated in Paris last week, he's never going to fall in with the present fashion for cool minimalism and nylon based fabrics. Rather, O'Brien loves taffeta, silk crepe and lace frothing in voluptuous, extravagant layers.
His vision of dress is one that flatters and flutters around the body, accentuating curves in a way that has almost entirely fallen from favour among the designer's peers.
For his show in the newly opened (but just as lavishly decorated) Hotel Costes, O'Brien showed only evening wear. It isn't that his latest collection includes nothing else; he's perfectly capable of turning out the requisite number of day suits and dresses. But having decided to forsake the large halls of the Louvre for somewhere more intimate, presenting an enormous range of clothing began to seem just too overwhelming. So the 130 guests present were offered just 33 Irish named ensembles, each more gorgeous than the last but all of them drawing applause as heavy as the beading on the dresses.
Distinctly nostalgic in character, the clothes' historical references were partly inspired, according to Peter O'Brien, by the Regency outfits designed by Cecil Beaton for on A Clear Day You Can See Forever. But they were equally reminiscent of Beaton's work on My Fair Lady and Gigi. Words like coquette and fin de siecle were mentioned regularly whenever the designer spoke of his current work.
As each dress swept past, much of the detailing such as the specially made corsets and hand encrusted lace on concealed petticoats was lost. But there was more than enough already to admire in the khaki duchesse satin strapless ballgown with matching cropped bolero jacket or the long train dress in pink silk velvet, its decolletee edged in ruched silk taffeta and shown with a long court coat of shot pink silk taffeta.
Aside from his hallmark striped silk taffeta skirts, O'Brien this time also regularly Combined silk georgette with inset panels of lace as well as using plenty of chiffon and chenille lace in shades of rich chocolate and navy. It's a world, if not a century, removed from what is being produced by designers regarded as being at the cutting edge of contemporary fashion.
Definitely not cool, therefore, but yes, quite enchantingly pretty.