FASHION

Thandie Newton Drops In on Paris Couture Week for Schiaparelli

After attending the Women’s March on Washington sister march in London, Newton crosses the Channel to Paris, exchanging her protest sign for couture digs.


It’s the first day of Paris Couture, and it’s a big one: Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her first couture show for Christian Dior; Raf Simons debuted a new made-to-measure collection, Calvin Klein by Appointment, on Instagram in lieu of holding a couture show; and Schiaparelli, under the guidance of design director Bertrand Guyon, returned to the official Haute Couture calendar with a collection that embraced the legacy of the house’s founder, Elsa Schiaparelli. (One of the designs, a one-shouldered ivory dress with a bright red sash and a lobster printed across the front, recalled a similar design Schiaparelli created in collaboration with Salvador Dalí in 1937. In the front row taking it all in were Kate Bosworth, Héloïse Letissier (alias Christine and the Queens), Melissa George, Kylie Minogue, and Thandie Newton, a wide array of offbeat stars reflecting the label’s idiosyncratic style.

Newton had just days before attended the London sibling of the Women’s March on Washington, one of nearly 100,000 demonstrators who showed solidarity with American marchers. Then, she made her way across the Channel to Paris for Couture Week, where Schiaparelli showed its own kind of powerful woman, gilt and colorful and unafraid to make a statement.

Thandie Newton in Schiaparelli at the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring 2017 show in Paris, France, January 2017.

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Who: Thandie Newton.

When: Monday, January 23.

Where: The Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring 2017 show in Paris, France.

What: A black silk dress with a slit and heart appliqué by Schiaparelli with a blood-red silk blazer over her shoulders, black sandals, a black silk clutch, and a bright red lip.

Why: Newton presents a variation on the look that opened the previous Schiaparelli show, a one-shouldered black silk dress topped with a black blazer emblazoned with a gold illustration and black pointy-toed shoes. Newton exchanges the black blazer for a deep red, coordinating with her bright lip and the heart appliqué pinned to the bodice of her dress. It mirrored the cupid’s-arrow motif that appeared throughout the Spring 2017 runway — and in places in Fall 2016’s runway, weaving Guyon’s whole vision together. Westworld might be done for now, but Thandie Newton will find you at fashion week.

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