When Vogue broke the information final week that Ludovic de Saint Sernin would be the eighth visitor designer to create a season of Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture, he stated that his personal assortment would ship new concepts regardless of the choice to skip a runway present.
In a whitewashed gallery within the Marais, he elaborated on what this entails. “We need to construct the construction to assist our progress. We don’t need to be all over the place after which can’t maintain the expansion,” the designer stated. “We now have been working with individuals like Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, and Troye Sivan, who’re performing lots, and we’re excited about the clothes in such a distinct manner.”
Cue BDSM Ballet, a fairly correct description of the 2 important influences, laced collectively tightly, identical to de Saint Sernin’s best-selling bralettes and briefs. The accompanying images, taken by Adam Peter Johnson, function fashions who convincingly double as dancers—simply dressed up and off-duty—exuding the type of angel-demon rigidity of Black Swan, which impressed the designer alongside the choreography of Pina Bausch.
Whereas one can not escape {that a} assortment alluding to bop deserved a present, de Saint Sernin’s explorations of eroticism translate throughout efficiency and images, as evidenced by final season’s particular runway present in New York that was an homage to Robert Mapplethorpe (created in partnership with the artist’s basis). Right here, de Saint Sernin launched flounced and tiered volumes in tulle and softer materials slung low on the hips, babydoll clothes, and gilets in precise feathers or textured wool “mille-feuille.”
There have been extremely streamlined concepts: Slinky clothes that knotted throughout and dipped low down the décolletage had been made from a jersey from Japan (the place de Saint Sernin sources almost all his materials) that had the transparency of semisheer tights. Extra elaborate items, like a crystal lattice bolero or a prime constructed from a single sq. of leather-based, boasted almost 1,400 eyelets positioned by hand (a extra industrial model can have them hot-fixed). Most spectacular was a sculptural costume composed of eyelet trims uncoiling across the physique—like a descendant of Alaïa’s well-known zipper costume, solely the bands had been extra staggered and suspended by invisible threads. And whereas chaps might not qualify as sculptural, let’s say they supply a peek at what de Saint Sernin might suggest as his males’s seems for Gaultier. For each women and men, collared shirts and micro-shorts topped with both a suede blouson or trench reemphasized his on a regular basis, gender-fluid attract.
Unsurprisingly, de Saint Sernin stated he would like to design ballet costumes, and it definitely felt as if he was manifesting his subsequent marquee second. “It’s the dream to have these tasks outdoors of trend,” he stated. As for the eye-catching eyelet ballerina sneakers, they had been from a collaboration LdSS did early on with Repetto, maybe due for an encore.
