July 19: Designers, in order to communicate a mood, express a personality; to catch a jaded fashionista's eye, they often spend a lot of time and money working on their invitations.
Naturally to some it's a last minute thing: a name, address and date printed on a card and, "Voila!" There's your invite.
For the current round of spring 2004 Paris men's wear shows, starting Friday, both Dries van Noten and Dior Homme thought big. Big, as in huge. Van Noten's invite is an enormous folded rectangle crisscrossed into shoe prints with his name that doubles as a template for dance steps. Dior Homme's invite is actually a large black envelope, but contained inside is another poster of oversized proportions -- this time it's a photo of black electrical cable on a hard concrete floor. Very urban, very Hedi.
But proving that sometimes the best things come in the smallest packages, FWD loves Paul & Joe's show invite of a packet of genuine cigarette papers with the attendee's name stuck on the inside. Not that the label's designer Sophie Albou is encouraging any sort of nicotine-related activity, but in today's regulation-riddled world there's something ever so wicked in the suggestion. Bureau Report