Story

oktober 26, 2015

Text Fredrik Austad Photos Jacquemus

The Jacquemus SS16 collection invited the audience to visit a surrealistic dreamy world created by the Paris based designer Simon Porte Jacquemus. Without being affected by big commercial and conceptual trends, Jacquemus brings up some of todays hottest topics challenging the boundaries between male and female. For this season the designers in general have turned out to be more independent and eclectic in their designs, embracing the growing focus on the individual in the society of the Western World.

The name of the collection, Les Nes Rouge (The Red Nose) is a metaphor for the illness and personal struggles the designer felt while making the collection. A big red yarn pushed across the industrial location by his younger cousin opened the show symbolizing the trial Porte had gone through, emphasizing his summer of sadness.

Earlier the 25-year-old designer has shown collections with both lightness and humor, as for the last season the brand has kept its playfulness but now with a more serious undertone. The Jacquemus girl is a raw individual that neutralizes the old sex-roles when it comes to both wardrobe essentials and the way of being. The same goes for his clothing: deconstructed tailoring with inspiration from the menswear scene. Crisp shirts made into skirts and tailored jackets used as dresses. At one point we also saw a navy pinstriped piece with bare shoulders that had the outlines of a classic suit drawn on top of the fabric. As for the colors he proposed to his country with the signature blue, white and red of the national flag. A light grey was also spotted on some of the pieces. Crisp white has been a key element since his first collections and is also dominating this season.

The house of Jacquemus has had a good year with the designer receiving a special award form the LVMH Prize. «I don’t’ make collection, I tell stories» the designer has been saying in several interviews, having a fresh take on fashion design in a society driven by the needs of the consumer, and not other way around.

At one point during the show Jacquemus himself walked across the stage dressed in all white with a great majestic white horse, hopefully symbolizing a triumph over the dark memories. We surely hope so and can only say that we are looking forward to seeing what he does next.