Viktor & Rolf
PARIS, March 9, 2002
By
Viktor & Rolf enigmatically named their collection "long live the immaterial." It was hard to decipher precisely what that meant since the collection was full of rather heavy materials—wool, pinstripes, fur, velvet, crochet. The designers' talent for earnest experimentalism with traditional elements was funneled into a single device this season; they highlighted all-black outfits with bits of vivid royal blue so that the epaulettes, collars, bib shirt fronts and belts popped out in radiant color.The designers showed a bit of their playful side with jackets ornamented by absurdly-inflated cargo pockets. But otherwise, the collection had an almost disturbing degree of bourgeois propriety about it. Harlequin patterns of the sort normally seen on golf sweaters were blown up for patchwork fur and wool skirts and big mufflers. Paisley showed up on soft brown wool pants suits, and then in a stately blue velvet gown topped by an enormous coat with matching paisley lining.
Perhaps the show's title referred more to the backdrop—aerial photos of the Manhattan skyline at night, Texas oil fields, cotton fields, and traffic. For a charming, if unfathomable finale, the designers appeared in matching blue pajama suits while their disembodied heads floated among stars on the screens.
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