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The avant-garde couturier Josephus Thimister has returned to Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week for the first time in more than a decade, with his dramatic “anti-war” collection. Thimister’s stark, bleak and disturbing collection searched beauty in horror. Entitled as ”Bloodshed and Opulence”, the collection opened the Paris couture season for spring/summer 2010, and it takes no prisoners.

47 years old,Thimister is Paris-based designer of Russian-Dutch extraction, looked to the bloodbath of World War I for this collection. He said, “I’m not a political person, but fashion has a voice and it’s time to express my views. We’re still feeling the aftershock of the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Communism, when Europe fell apart. We have never recovered. We have lost our soul and our spirit.”

It was a collection of simple-lined ball gowns in gold and silver, red beaded cocktail dresses and full skirts. The military looks were revealed with soldiers’ coats, satin sashes and mesh tank tops splattered in faux scarlet bloodstains.

The show interspersed menswear fashion in a beautiful way. Reinterpretations of uniforms of Russian Cossack troops was modeled by male models with couture pieces. Often men’s and women’s looks mirrored one another, as with his-and-hers versions of red satin pant suit (look at the very first image) that opened the show.

Bursts of applause rang out from audience as a sign of appreciation at Paris’ rarified made-to-measure shows, after many looks from this collection. Standouts included a cocktail dress in olive silk with a cape transformed into a dramatic train and ball gowns beautifully crafted from woven gold ribbons.

Overall, the collection was truly magnificent, and really Haute!!

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