PARIS – She-wolves whimpered as designer Yiqing Yin introduced the svelte world of their more glamorous cousins, the she-foxes, in her haute couture show on Wednesday.
The pack of journalists ensured the heat was on for the Chinese-born couturier to impress in her first official haute couture showing.
And Yin didn’t fail: introducing a new fascinating couture technique of fox fur shaving — alongside a skilled demonstration of embroidery and her signature draping.
Patchy silver and blue frost fox fur was meshed onto tulle in several pieces, serving as a second skin next to sexily exposed bare flesh.
A raw elemental mood defined the show.
A top covered in intricate silk and metal mesh blurred the face of a fierce old man in sisal netting, as if tousled by a tempest.
Frost swept through another piece: a sparkling jacket, embroidered with Swarovski crystals that gleamed like tundra.
At one point, the young designer had the audience gasping in delight, or perhaps for breath, when a model in a full body veil of powder blue silk with assorted skirts appeared like a giant air bubble.
The designer still has a lot to prove, but this collection might have blown her some of the way.
