Steffie Christiaens: experimentally strong

You have never seen a fashion crowd move with so little fervour. Here we were assembled in the forecourt of the 18th century Monnaie de Paris, while inside was to be the showing. It was not just doors that separated us, however. For today mother nature gave this city its first true glimpse of spring 2011, the wind still and the sun gently warming, and this group of visual appreciatives simply opted to bask in the moment. A moment made longer by French champagne and initially interrupted by little else than the sound of a waiter struggling against the laws of physics as his tray and its glasses found themselves connecting with the cobble stones.
Somewhere nearby a bell tower heralded the arrival of three in the afternoon, door men begged us to go in, and slowly people awoke from this sun kissed Sunday siesta. Buyers marched to their seats, ever eager to take their front row position, while the rest of us did little more than meander away from our source of assured warmth. Was it a sign of things to come? Not for a moment. We were here to witness the unveiling of Steffie Christiaens' fall 2011 collection and while it was to include some electric colours, it offered little in the way of what you might describe as 'winter brights'