At first glance, one may be perplexed as to why Alexandre Vauthier included faux furs in his summer couture collection. Those pieces came about after he noticed that customers were increasingly speaking about heading north—way north—to avoid the crowds and explore something new, rather than cruise lines along the French or Italian Riviera. Customers still want to wear Vauthier’s hot little minis, but they also need to keep warm. Vauthier thinks that couture should be “contemporary and forward-thinking,” and his growing fan base is spoiled for choice with this collection.
“We’re living at a crossroads which makes for anxious times, so with this collection I wanted to really play and show something very strong, with radical colors.”
The faux fur was just one of several unexpected twists in a collection that included signatures such as razor-sharp tailor made jackets or bombers, second-skin trousers with quicksilver shine, and ultra-sassy hemlines. The designer used an explosion of hot pink flounces on two black velvet bustier dresses, giving one a modernized pouf skirt and the other a seductive, almost natural outgrowth of pink lamé.
Teal sequins sparkled from the hood to the matching boots, paying homage to Grace Jones. One of several pieces that put a couture twist on next season’s dominant pattern diamond—while also breaking with conventional codes was a tuxedo jacket dress with an irregular underskirt of hand-cut mirror-lacquered rhodoid.
