Fashion goes high-tech at futuristic Guy Laroche show

PARIS, France - Timeless classics on Wednesday got a makeover for spring/summer 2014 at Paris fashion week in a futuristic science fiction-inspired collection from Guy Laroche, marrying versatile high-tech fabrics with traditional silks.

White shirts and black trousers were "turned on their heads" with off-centred collars and extra-high waists and double layers, while "surreal" cocktail dresses came with voluminous front box pleats.

On the second day of Paris fashion week, the collection aimed to explore "the tension between natural and artificial, man-made and high-tech", the label said.

Looks that stood out included "curvy" trenchcoats in a "cutting-edge fusion of silk and (the high-tech fabric) polyamide" and skirts and shift dresses covered in fringes made from optic fibre.

Croatian designer Damir Doma, meanwhile, went for a less stark mood with the accent on the "lightness" of laser-cut, embroidered and sheer fabrics such as silk and linen.

"It started with the show that we did in Florence that was very feminine and light and easy and I wanted to push it a bit more (to be) more elegant, (and) so effortless," he told AFP backstage.

"The most important thing was the lightness that comes definitely from the materials."

Doma's collection was also notable for its asymmetrical looks from pretty summer dresses in white and taupe to more experimental combinations of shorts and dresses.

Elsewhere, France's Alexis Mabille took historical inspiration from "Rosie the Riveter", the US cultural icon representing women who worked in munitions factories during World War II.

"They have breasts, red lips and a boy's approach," he said of the models.

The collection was all about "hyper-glam dressing, worn casually like a guy", he added.