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Viktor & Rolf

PARIS, March 2, 2005
By Sarah Mower
Just as fashion fatigue threatened to set in at the collections, Viktor & Rolf dreamed up a fantasy solution: Why not go to work in your bed? Lily Cole, for one, appeared on set with her red hair splayed out on a pristine, lace-edged cotton pillow and a neatly folded-over sheet inserted into the neck of her coat. She led a troupe of fellow sleep-deprived models, all in V & R's surprisingly chic renderings of bedclothes: shirts that were part sheets, with all the eyelet trims and frills intact; comforting duvet coats with huge wolf-trimmed collars; suits fashioned from quilts; and charmeuse boudoir sheets wrapped into evening dresses.

The somnambulist girls circled a stage where Tori Amos sat at a grand piano, premiering a specially commissioned 15-minute composition set to the biblical words of the Song of Solomon. "I sleep walked, my heart waketh," she sang, dramatically tossing her mane of crimped red locks. Sound mad? It was, but in a gentle sort of way. Fashion needs an occasional nudge of performance lunacy, if only to keep itself awake. And in any case, these days, Viktor & Rolf don't allow surrealist antics to block the view of their increasingly accomplished way with smartly normal clothes.

These included some of the season's best black tuxedo pants, dashing black raincoats with fan-pleated storm flaps, and a pea coat with frilled edges. In the sheet department, shirts with broderie anglaise edgings and folded fronts were a great contribution to the season's growing white shirt trend. And a beautiful charmeuse and lace gown (embroidered with a red rose, like a love token left on a pillow) proved that Viktor & Rolf are learning how to whip up dresses for a dreamy night.

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