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Modern art inspires Balmain for spring 2000
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PARIS (CNN) -- When he began planning Balmain's collection for spring/summer 2000, designer Giles Dufour saw spots. But he didn't call a doctor.
He called, instead, for inspiration from the work of modern-art masters, and says he has used their muse to create a collection reflecting an energetic, happy mood.
"It's a new feeling of moving forward, of wanting to change your life... of being sexy," he says.
The knits, all hand-painted differently, are inspired by modern artists like Jackson Pollack of the United States, he says."(The prints) are spots, almost like a panther," he says. "But they are also like modern painting, like I saw at the Whitney Museum or the Guggenheim Museum."
The shapes are as unique as the prints. Suede skirts, for example, look as if they were ripped, not cut. "They just come the way the skins are," he says. "It's ... like 'Tarzan and Jane' -- but an intellectual Jane."
Jackets hold you in a Tarzan-like grasp, too. "You have very small tiny blazers, which are almost too small for the woman who is wearing it," Dufour says. "And then she's going to wear it with the fishnet stockings."
For evening, says Dufour, the formula is simple: short in the front, long in the back, and "always chiffon."
CNN Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch contributed to this report.RELATED STORIES:
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