“This show is a tribute to Paris,” said Stéphane Rolland, who envisaged the city in the 1940s and 1950s, with all the pure glamour and elegance that entailed. “I started with the poetry of Jacques Prévert and the photos of the famous French photographer Brassaï.
“I translated their work, their art, their sensibility into the collection,” Rolland said.
He had notions of a black-and-white French capital, filled with fog, mystery and sexiness.
“It’s very emotional,” Rolland said. “It is the Paris of Yves Montand, of [Édith] Piaf, of Jeanne Moreau when she was young. It’s the kind of Paris I love, because it’s not obvious. It’s discreet and shiny at the same time, and deep. I like the secret part.”
The catwalk display on the Salle Pleyel theater’s stage unfurled like a black-and-white movie, with models wearing stunning, elegant dresses decorated with stones and feathers. Rolland worked wool crepe and velvet, as well as gazar, tulle and satin.
He played more with tailoring this season, which resulted in big-shouldered jackets with a more masculine touch, which could second as a cinched dress. These were in contrast to the transparency and fluidity of chiffon he also plied.
“It’s graphic, but soft,” Rolland said. “There is a lot of softness.”
His fashion’s deep-plunging necklines, with bare backs and diamond belts looped around skin, added to the high sensuality quotient.
A long dress in nude tulle and black chiffon came draped with a black gazar neckline and a belt embroidered with crystals and sapphires. A bubble jacket made of black-and-white jersey and gazar was worn over a long skirt in black jersey. For the final look, the bride’s voluminous white hooded dress was embellished with embroidery of porcelain and white organza petals.
“This collection is probably one of my favorites I’ve ever done,” Rolland said. “It’s more than 100 percent myself. I went to the essential. I really wanted to come back to the fundamental French elegance.”
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