For Fall/Winter 2018, Paris Fashion Week went West. Wild West that is. Many designers chose to show looks imbued with frontier qualities, like cowboy boots and silk shirts with traditional Western yoking, but it was at Isabel Marant that the trend was really solidified as the chic French designer leaned into the theme with a show entirely dedicated to the cowboys and cowgirls of yore. With deerskin tops and jackets, thigh-high cowboy boots, and cozy blanket wraps, you could practically smell the campfire and hear the lonesome howl of the coyote.
The chic French designer leaned into the theme with a show entirely dedicated to the cowboys and cowgirls of yore.
Outerwear was an important factor on Marant’s Fall/Winter 2018 runway and, after racing through subzero temperatures to get to the show, all of those thick, striped coats looked mighty tempting. Rugged blankets were transformed into coats, ponchos, and capes, and deerskin hides were worn as pullovers or transformed into fringed jackets with leather lapels. Dresses were unkempt, like the models had been wearing them for days on a cross-country trek. Done in crumpled linen and trimmed with cotton florals and doily lace, the look was very Little House on the Prairie. Leather trousers, snakeskin leggings, and thick shearling toppers with geometric decorations were also in the mix.
Things took a more sophisticated turn towards the end when cute ruched dresses with wide shoulders got the party underway. Unfortunately, the silhouette was extremely similar to what Saint Laurent had just showed, and there has been enough copying between the two brands that it was hard to believe it wasn’t intentional.
