Kenzo Loses the Spell

PARIS, March 5, 2005 - At Saturday's Kenzo show, the models meandered through a tropical garden set before a tapestry background, which would later open to a set that looked like Aunt Clara's parlor transplanted to Bombay, and most of what they were wearing could have come from the 60s sitcom 'Bewitched'.

Antonio Marras has previously presented energetic and forceful collections aimed at re-launching earnings-challenged Kenzo, but for this season, he seemed to get lost in eclecticism so void of any discernable theme that it boiled down to gold speckled brocades, and a bizarre collar of hydrangea fluff choking Alek Wek's thin neck. What the swimsuits had to do with a winter collection, is anybody's guess.

Arguably the strongest moment was a quintet of day suits shown midway. Otherwise, electric blue feather stoles and a gold lamé cape interspersed by ponchos and Eastern European peasant dresses looked more experimental, than commercially viable.

It was an uneven collection from a normally solid designer.