Animal fashion: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac Vs Manish Arora

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When I was a young girl Jean-Charles de Castelbajac's cartoon character jumpers were quite popular in Italy.

Many years have passed since then and almost four decades have gone since JDCD launched his label, yet the designer seems to be still fascinated by cartoon characters, pop art and joyful, at times childish, graffiti and colour blocks.

At his Paris catwalk, as usual more irreverent and fun than many other more formal events, models strode down the catwalk in Andy Warhol's white wigs, while JDCD’s teddy bear coats from the early 90s were instead turned into Kermit the Frog dresses and scarves.

The Muppet Show’s Animal inspired mini-dresses, skirts, hats and handwarmers and the rest of the Muppet crew appeared in a cute printed strapless puffball dress with matching gloves.

Graffiti T-shirts were paired with leopard head-shaped bubble mini-skirts, the sort of thing you would have loved to wear as a child, yet the best outfits were the ones in which the animal theme was used in a more subtle way, such as tops with leopards and horses surrealistically sitting on one of the sleeves, giving the impression they were resting or running on the shoulder/arm of the models.

The best piece was a red trench coat with subtle profiles of leopard heads, while the dress with the face of a young Michael Jackson with 3-D hair was totally redundant, and it was also a quote from JCDC’s S/S 09 designs.

A note on the accessories: there were nice lipstick necklaces and ammunition belts filled with lipstick cases. The former also appeared during Milan Fashion Week at Dolce & Gabbana’s and will probably turn into fashionable pieces during the next few months, so try to recycle your used make-up cases and use them in a creative way to save a bit of money.

Another designer who opted for animalistic inspirations was Manish Arora. I love the way he usually manages to overcharge his creations with colours, sequins, beads and embroideries. I could spend hours just looking at one of his designs, trying to understand the secrets behind his most elaborate creations.

For his S/S 09 collection Manish brought us all to his very own circus, but this time he moved to a more exotic location, a jungle. India mixed with Africa and with the colours of the Amazonian forest and inspired him dresses and prints that featured the most disparate animals. Alligators, peacocks, leopards and butterflies all made an appearance.

The simplest designs had prints of futuristic flying dolphins and leopard skinned rabbits, the most bizarre featured lion head-shaped shoulders on a black jacket decorated with an embroidered lattice motif (also employed for some very striking dresses), a definitely new idea of power-dressing.

Swarovski elements allowed the designer to create crystal encrusted birds perched on the models’ shoulders, but also gorilla and lion bags.

While the showpieces representing a crab and a deer (the latter built with what looked like overimposed planks of wood, reminding a bit of a gigantic version of those 3D laminated wooden puzzles of dinosaurs kids love…), the most interesting outfits were the ones in which Arora injected an almost architectural feeling, building hips that jutted out from the dresses, reproducing in the fabric and in the movement of a pair of trousers the colour and the beautiful knotted imperfection of an ancient tree, or using the hard carapace of an insect to create an armour-like top decorated with gems and studs.

The futuristic tribal make-up the models wore and their rhino-shaped shoes made them actually look like strange and colourful aliens during the catwalks finale that climaxed with the entrance of a model wearing a mechanical dress with silk orchids that bloomed as she moved thanks to some kind of hidden device. Charmingly wonderful!