On Aura Tout Vu: Unbroken Poetry

By Timothy Hagy, Paris Editor

PARIS, January 25, 2006 - The design team of On Aura Tout Vu has been quietly developing a unique language and their show presented on Wednesday afternoon in the Westin Hotel spoke volumes about where couture is - at least when it can be when voiced in a modern and creative dialect.

"Unbroken Poetry" the enigmatic title of the collection offered any number of exquisite moments: a coat magically transformed into layers of clouds, a linen voile over a sea-foam green pleated dress studded with crystal, a bustle of apricot tulle, and most especially André's tuxedo. That piece - a tuxedo of duchess blue satin with a cascade of unbroken threads - sang out as an elegy to their lost colleague, a brilliant designer and artist who passed away prematurely on the cusp of the New Year.

Elsewhere, the vocabulary of Christian Lacroix was evident. Not coincidentally, the On Aura Tout Vu team has worked in close collaboration with him for many years. The black "Vestido Viana de Castelo" creation with its matching cascade of symbols was a case in point.

The Cinderella gown in scaled gold and iridescent cloud with diamonds that closed the show was a fairy tale piece, a dream come true for whichever real life princess that gets the honor of wearing it.

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