When Paula Canovas del Vas was casting around for a presentation concept, she stumbled across The New York Times’s viral “36 Questions That Lead to Love” article. Reading the questions struck a chord, so she asked the artists Meryl Yana and J.B. Braud to narrate them, and that became the soundtrack for a presentation held in the ballroom at the Cervantes Institute in Paris. It also begat a five-minute film by Braud, entitled It Was Just a Background Noise.
The show opened with a friends-and-family group of performers all wearing corporate suits; gradually, models emerged and insinuated themselves into the circle, wearing sequined dresses with pouf shoulders or little mesh numbers printed with bright colors.
The exercise was about the power dynamics inherent in every relationship, the designer said. She name-checked the work of psychologist Arthur Aron, who demonstrated how self-disclosure can create closeness between strangers.
Dressed in fuchsia for the occasion, she said, “I wanted to explore this idea of belonging versus standing out from the crowd.” Fleshing out the flip side of that equation was her mother, who donned a suit to perform but also contributed the handmade head bows, hats, and sunflower earrings.
If the result all skewed a bit bridal, right down to the meringue dress and that macarena number, it was all intentional. Though restrained, it also felt like a step forward: more sophisticated and yet still distinct.
“I’m renewing my vows to the fashion industry, in a way,” Canovas del Vas mused. She is, after all, only in her third season in Paris and therefore still a newbie by every possible measure. The long, long journey of commitment has barely begun. “People think it’s all about models and a show when in reality it’s about moving forward without looking at what other people are doing,” she said. “I can say that you encounter all kinds of things they never teach you about in school.”