As Paris Fashion Week men officially ended on June 25, the off-calendar fashion shows can begin! Before Patou, Celine and Alaïa who will parade on July 2, Jacquemus took the lead in Versailles on Monday June 26 with a mixed autumn-winter 2023-2024 collection, already available in stores. As usual, the young brand demonstrated its ability to compete with the bigger ones by organizing a visually striking event.
Ordinarily, the designer Simon Porte Jacquemus rather chooses a setting evoking his native South: he has thus already occupied a field of lavender in Provence, a salt reserve in Arles, a creek in Marseille… “I wanted to change aesthetics and I dreamed of Versailles, he explained after his parade. But being faithful to our DNA by being in nature, on the water, not under the gold of the castle. »
The two hundred or so guests, including Eva Longoria, the Beckham couple, Adèle Exarchopoulos as well as the designers from Courrèges, Schiaparelli, Coperni and Ludovic de Saint Sernin, boarded boats two by two which went up the Grand Canal. They lined up in battle facing the podium consisting of a long vermilion carpet unrolled along the pool, on the grass. A very photogenic staging, as much from the point of view of the drone, which films from the air the red band clashing in the green order of the park, as from the point of view of the guests, delighted to photograph themselves in their little boats, a parasol in their hands, the castle in the distance.
Everything is not so square on the side of the collection, of which Simon Porte Jacquemus assumes the part of“absurdity” that it conceals. When he obtained permission to parade at Versailles after months of negotiations, the designer first sought inspiration from Marie-Antoinette and the 18the century, and so far it makes sense. “But I needed to make more sense by confronting it with a more modern inspiration. I went to dig into the 1980s and 1990s and Lady Diana’s outfits. »
“Donkey skin” and evening dresses
Ultimately, the English princess became the central figure in the collection that traces her life. First transparent tutus, bras and bathrobes to evoke her young years, then the wedding dress with puffy sleeves. Her sons, Harry and William, are represented through two mannequins dressed in wide striped shirts, and after a few variations on the deconstructed suit, finally comes the “revenge dress” (“dress of revenge”) which bares the shoulders and shows the legs… Interspersed in the middle, a few male silhouettes in black suits with bare backs.
There are also amazing red or white lace tights, a bubble dress embroidered with metallic flowers. Jacquemus tells us that these are references to Donkey Skinthe 1970 film by Jacques Demy, whose soundtrack also serves as a soundtrack. “There is nothing more French than Donkey Skin », defends the designer, who, to close the parade, chose three evening dresses with long transparent trains: a blue, then a white and finally a red. “The French flag is beautiful, and does not belong only to the extremes, says Jacquemus. I love my country, I want to express it. » And too bad if, from a historical point of view, Versailles is not really the cradle of the tricolor flag imposed by the revolutionaries on King Louis XVI.
Also listen Simon Porte Jacquemus: “Fashion shouldn’t just talk about the Parisienne”
It must be recognized that by occupying Versailles, not so frequented by fashion brands, Jacquemus gives it a little facelift. This is also one of the reasons that convinced the administration of the castle to open its gates to him, that, and a future sponsorship. “Even if our contribution is a grain of sand, it upsets me to be able to do it”says Simon Porte Jacquemus, moved that his brand, which is not even fifteen years old, is capable of such a gesture.
Driven by growing success in recent years (220 million euros in turnover in 2022), it will also perpetuate the Parisian pop-up store on Avenue Montaigne and open new addresses in 2024. Between the show show, the cultural patronage and the network of physical stores, Jacquemus is definitely adopting the strategy of historic luxury houses owned by large groups, such as LVMH or Kering. These same groups who covet this independent label and who, this time again, must have appreciated its genius for the parade.
