Would childhood be the lost Eden of creators? In these times of pandemic depression, some have taken the tangent by looking back in the impressions of their young years, seeing in the dreamlike, the fantasy and the innocent joy of the tender age as powerful antidotes to the time.
Scarves folded like paper planes dangle from the handles of Balmain travel bags. “They represent the little boy whom the sky makes dream of. It is the part of the child in me that allows me to always create more ”, says Olivier Rousteing, artistic director of Balmain, touched by the lack of a physical parade: “Fashion is a living spectacle, we need the applause of the public. “ He therefore designed an escape video, filmed on the tarmac at Charles-de-Gaulle airport. The models parade on the wing of a Boeing 777, under an Airbus A350 or in Air France maintenance hangars, in Saharan, pilot bombers, long coats of officers, and multi-pocket pants in khaki tones. Then the company flies to the moon, and the glamorous military wardrobe gives way to bright and colorful combinations. “I refuse to become a pajama designer! “protested Olivier Rousteing. He prefers to take inspiration from Alyssa Carson, the 19-year-old American who dreams of being part of NASA’s future mission to Mars in 2033.
At Paco Rabanne, Julien Dossena, weary of the “covido-depressing” atmosphere, thought of “The teenager who has fun in her room trying on all her mother’s jewelry and coats, dreaming of the adult she will become”. In the video baptized “Your room, your dreams”, girls locked in rooms with flowery walls bounce happily in the air, as if they were jumping on the parental bed. “I wanted to indulge myself, to be generous, to work on hypersensual materials and to offer a maximalist version of femininity”, specifies Julien Dossena. Inspired by films by Sautet or Chabrol that he had time to watch during the curfew, he offers an excessively sophisticated wardrobe, jersey dresses with wallpaper prints, jacquard ball jumpers in Lurex, curb chains on steroids, blood orange velvet that makes you want to be caressed or even tasted … Or wise trench coats, with collar and cuffs in fake tiger fur that unfasten. “A lot of the elements are removable. It’s almost a disguise to play bourgeois ” proposed by Julien Dossena. An offbeat, exuberant, slightly pitted bourgeois: here is an exciting program!
The theme of childhood takes a much darker turn at Dior. “For the past year, we have witnessed the transformation of the world in which we live. This situation reminded me of the world of fairy tales where the present is worrying and the future uncertain ”, explains Maria Grazia Chiuri. His tale for cherub logically takes place in a castle, that of Versailles: in the half-light of the Hall of Mirrors, the walls are hidden by 14 “mirrors” created by the artist Silvia Giambrone. They are in fact 2 m high golden frames filled with wax through which brambles pierce. In front of these disturbing works, dancers choreographed by Sharon Eyal, who appear naked in their body flesh, mimic jerky movements. The models seem to put up with these attempts at exorcism and display an impassive air in their referenced locker room: the uniform of the tin soldier is transformed into a series of coats in marine cashmere, red and white. Lewis Caroll’s Alice is seen through a perforated leather apron dress like English lace, worn with white socks. The hood of Little Red Riding Hood is invited on the Bar jacket, and Cinderella would have no trouble seducing her prince in one of the ball gowns in layered tulle veils. The set forms a pretty, very wearable collection that contrasts with the dramatic atmosphere. As pragmatist Maria Grazia Chiuri reminds us: “I am not a costume designer, I dress women in their everyday life”.
“The glimmer of childish wonder” that he sees light up in the eyes of his clients: for Daniel Roseberry of Schiaparelli, nothing proves better that he did his job well. In these troubled times, the designer offers a playful wardrobe, tinged with surrealism: woolen suits and canvas jackets are punctuated with mouth, nose or lock-shaped buttons, breast casts are hung on the sides. shirts, denim jackets are crossed with a fake button line in the back, and a phone case takes the form of a giant golden ear. “You have to keep a sense of humor in dark times”, insists the designer, for whom fun is a way of reconnecting with the child who is in oneself.
At Acne Studio, we make the call like at school. One by one, the models start by giving their first name in front of the camera, before parading in an enveloping wardrobe in pastel shades, made of belted coats, floral dresses, openwork mesh sets. In the “Landscape of dreams” as Jonny Johansson draws, women who pass with a determined step and a severe air can seem busy in their adult life and its share of responsibilities. But details refer to their childhood share: cowhide boots and clogs, XXL chains with oversized links as borrowed from grown-ups, and earrings or bags in the shape of cute dogs, signed by the ceramicist Apollinaria Broche, who can play the role of a ” imaginary friend “, suggests Johansson.
For Anrealage’s Kunihiko Morinaga, fashion always looks like kid’s fun. One year after a collection inspired by the geometric wooden toys of the little ones, this time he likes to turn everything upside down. The photos of her silhouettes are mostly looked at upside down, when the model has her feet on the ceiling and her head down, in order to savor the effects of gravity that he offers, such as these apples that come unhooked from a tree on a jacquard sweater, or checks that tumble on the pattern of a coat.
For his label Xuly Bët, the 50-year-old Lamine Kouyaté becomes a little boy again this season, with a touching, sport and pop collection, designed as a tribute to his mother, three years after her death. The layering effects and the veiled or hooded heads refer to her taste for the Russian dolls she collected. As for the candy pink, glitter magenta, emerald green or bright red tones, they are nods to the Quality Street candy wrappers she loved to savor.
For his part, Giambattista Valli mixes his adopted city, Paris, with the one where he was born, Rome, with the fresh gaze of an amused child. Tailors a little sixties are married to antique tiaras, blazers see fun puffy satin sleeves, a costume adopts cheerful patterns of marble tiles … One would think Juliette Greco on a spree at the Villa Borghese, as if the visions of the designer’s Frenchy ideal had naively melted into his memories of a little Italian boy.
Make a kid’s dream come true? Alexandre Mattiussi allows himself this season by recreating in his own way a feverish parade, like those who made him fantasize in the early 1990s.
“I drew on those years of my youth spent watching Fashion TV which broadcast the Calvin Klein or Helmut Lang catwalks, all that American minimalism that I had somewhat omitted until now”, says the creator. The previous collections in search of a more marked sophistication are therefore erased here for a return to a black, cream, blue, red, pragmatic, ultra-easy wardrobe: oversized suits, aviator jacket, mini-skirts and long beige coats. , cigarette pants, poplin shirts and trucker sweaters. “Ready-to-wear, in all the nobility of the term. “
To stage it, not Claudia Schiffer but all the elements of the parades of three decades ago: the raised podium where a logo in big letters triumphs, the flashes of the photographers at the feet of the models who adopt a sovereign air, the repetitive music, models in bathrobes in the backstage. And Mattiussi himself, having fun coming to make his final bow without removing his dark glasses. Like a big … or a child.