Girbaud’s Beautiful Dirty

PARIS - March 1, 2005 - Marithé and François Girbaud is a label going through some change of late, and all of it is for the better. Recent seasons have seen the banishing of male models from the runway (who only made for a distraction anyway) and a concentration on women - more precisely on refining their youthful look. And each show gets a little stronger. You could find any number of details in today's offering: petticoats falling from beneath the hem of full skirts, leather jackets woven like macramé, fingers dripping in silver chains, or even metal sewn into elk, goat and sheep skin.

The collection was sent out over a runway strewn with what appeared to be shaved ice, but which suddenly glowed warm as candlelight. Had not a piece of the roof tiling fallen midway, nearly crowing a model, the staging would have been perfect.

Perhaps the corset -like tops, or the layered tulle that made up the opening Gretel, as in Hansel and Gretel, outfits gave a hint of the erotic. The show's title after all was "Beautiful Dirty". Or, as program notes put it - "from a distance her silhouette is a caricature with tiny waist and bustle: "Suivez-moi jeune homme".