Cannes: Philipp Plein makes us very welcome on the Cote d’Azur

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
May 24, 2017

A healthy dose of frock n roll in Cannes, as Philipp Plein staged his 2018 resort men’s and women’s collection in the German designer’s own mansion high in the hills above Cannes on Wednesday evening.

 
On the runway, Paris Hilton emoting mightily in a slinky, barely there negligee gown and lace up thigh boots – like Morticia Adams de la Cote d’Azur. Arm in arm with her boyfriend Chris Zylka in a white alligator blouson with a pink skull on the back.
 
The big idea of this debut cruise collection – using NYC’s Alec Monopoly – to spray paint models clothes as they marched down the catwalk – in something of a fashion first. The catwalk – naturally a red carpet – had the strong pong of aerosol thereafter.

The American graffiti artist is best know for his character Monopoly Man, who dashed across oversized rapper T-Shirts through the show. Apparently the character was inspired by disgraced stockbroker Bernie Madoff. Seeing the amount of somewhat dodgy billionaires dashing around the festival this week, this seemed rather prescient.
 
Sitting front row, Eva Longoria, in a va va vroom column by Klein accessorized by an enormous Damiani diamond bracelet and sparkling stalagmite earrings.  Beside her, the actress’s dashing husband Pepe Baston, himself in a flawlessly cut hounds tooth suit.
 
All told, the show and clothes packed plenty of punch; hyper floral ball gown; khaki parkas bursting with sequined motifs or the designer’s classic silver rhinestones skulls; funky elephant flare denim jeans. The guys in low-slung oily black jeans, or sweat pants emblazoned with dollar signs, worn over white leather high-tops.

“How did I let all these crazy people in my house? But, we are all here in Cannes for a reason. The weather is beautiful and we have the festival and a lot of famous, beautiful and interesting people are here in town. So, I can only says, let the games begin,” said Plein as he marched around his garden, where the show was staged.
 
That said, Plein is derivative: one did not need to be a fashion savant to recall that Alessandro Michele of Gucci has been using another NYC graffiti artist – Gucci Ghost - to do something quite similar. Plein’s florals also brought to mind Dolce & Gabbana and his embroidered jeans echoed DSquared2.
 
One could not fault this designer’s energy. And taken as an ensemble the clothes did have an unmistakable signature style.  One test of a designer.