The venerable Le Smoking is a crucial element of French fashion, and one that Anne Valérie Hash has visited again and again, both in her ready-to-wear and haute couture. This season, she devoted an entire collection to it. But this was mostly a riff on tuxedo as motif. In other words, if you were looking to re-up on your timeless Yves-inspired classic, you d be out of luck.
Hash s proposition was deconstructed and quite a bit slouchier, even as her fabrics—heavy mikado silks, metallic velvets, and satins in jewel hues—ran to the flamboyantly expensive and formal. The new jacket came with a rounded drop-shoulder construction in contrast colors that had the effect of a strapless dress, while pants were either tailored but nowhere near strict or veering into near-dhoti territory. Blouses in sheer crinkle chiffon were draped and shadowy, while a button-up version had a trompe l oeil bow tie in two black triangles painted on its collar. Clever ideas all, certainly the kind of fresh and elegantly twisted pieces that Hash s fans adore. But on the runway the effect became slightly muddled, dragged down by heavy wedge boots. A soupçon of the quiet refinement you saw in the designer s pre-fall collection was the ingredient that would have made this recipe sing.
