PARIS (AP) — Chemena Kamali said it with flower prints. A good old-style collection that set a few themes on the table and spent the rest of the Paris Fashion Week Sunday show refining them — proof that focus can still feel new.
Kamali, now in her third stint at Chloé, knows the house from the inside. German-born like Karl Lagerfeld, she worked here under both Phoebe Philo and Clare Waight Keller before returning as creative director last year.
Chloé was founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion and is widely credited with inventing Parisian ready-to-wear — a freer, more feminine alternative to couture. Kamali’s vision taps that core: the romantic lightness and movement Aghion set in motion; Lagerfeld’s ’70s capes and lace; the 2000s “Chloé girl” ease; flashes of Stella McCartney’s wit. The project remains clothes by women, for women — “intuitive” dressing that evolves like life itself.
Prints, pastels and fabulous dropped hems
The prints weren’t just pretty; they set the tempo. Then the silhouette widened: a trapeze line in pearlized yellow, coats and skirts layered, knotted, and lightly gleaming — surface alive, structure calm. Color and the clean flash of leg kept the message Chloé: feminine without fuss.
One pastel look crystallized the mood — draped, ruched, pleated — its ’80s maxi-shoulders and dropped waist drawing a long, confident line.
The dropped hem returned in a gray coatdress with quiet authority. A tan coat-skirt, waist cinched, hovered between coat and dress and didn’t need to choose. Frills and belts threaded through like a house refrain.
The references were tuned rather than shouted: Lagerfeld’s ’70s fluidity, the 2000s “Chloé girl,” a measured dose of ’80s structure to ground the float. It read as memory put to work.
A caution remains. When shoulders harden and outerwear gains weight, Chloé’s natural freshness can dim. Here, that heft mostly served the line, though a couple of exits pressed the limit.
Still, the sum was clear and persuasive: romance with discipline, past speaking to present, ideas carried through instead of piled on. Chloé, steadying its rhythm — and selling the feeling as much as the clothes.
