Singer Jennifer Lopez, center, and Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace, pose for photographers prior to the Atelier Versace Fall Winter 2014-15 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Sunday, July 6, 2014. AP
PARIS – Jennifer Lopez on Sunday provided the star power at Paris fashion as designer Donatella Versace kicked off six days of haute couture catwalk shows.
The Italian designer sent out opulent blue fur coats, voluminous silk ball gowns and gold-buckled corsets in what she called a celebration of “construction and deconstruction”.
In a string of asymmetrical looks, jackets and trousers were cut away to one side while one skirt was slashed so high it revealed the model’s hip.
Plunging fronts and backs had thin strips of vinyl embroidered on transparent fabric to create graphic shapes.
US actress Lopez, wearing a strapless white gown, posed with Versace on the steps of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry near the Champs-Elysees where the show was held.
French designer Fred Sathal, meanwhile, was fashionably late for her return to Paris couture after an absence of eight years.
Sathal’s “colour light” show got the couture collections for autumn/winter 2014/15 off to a sparkling start after a 50 minute delay.
The designer used beading and embellishments to create a swishing, shimmering effect, especially on mini-dresses with heavily-fringed hems.
A recurring fabric used in trousers, coats and kaftan dresses was inspired by an artist’s paint palette.
And Sathal did not shy away from fur with one supremely over-the-top cape made entirely from fox tails.
Around 30 haute couture fashion shows, including those by some of the biggest names in fashion such as Chanel and Christian Dior, will be held in Paris over the next week, wrapping up on Friday.