Alexis Martial and Adrien Caillaudaud took the ultra-gamine Carven girl on a deep-sea dive for their Spring 2016 collection, exercising their ability to produce neat tailoring, sporty details, and the type of kicky, youthful A-line silhouettes that consistently bring the ingenues running, credit cards extended. The story, said Martial and Caillaudaud backstage—while standing before an inspiration board posted with Corinne Day’s portraits of Kate Moss for The Face, early female scuba divers, and assorted oceanic creatures—was of a girl in search of a seaside adventure. She ditches her boyfriend (but “packs some of his shirts to wear with her minis”) and learns to scuba dive. Eventually, as the looks lead into evening, she goes back to the city; only now she’s wearing her souvenirs.
And true to the narrative, nautical touches on suiting and separates (eyelets as portholes!) gave way to transparent logo tees paired with a Grey Gardens–esque shirt-as-skirt (“Because you’re on the boat and you really don’t care,” said Caillaudaud) and, eventually, a long and lean silhouette, often centered around a narrow crepe pant anchored by a clunky sandal. But while prints were derived from sea creatures (jellyfish, octopuses, striped puffer fish, all covered in fluorescent spots and striations) and one stiff frock’s frilled edges were reminiscent of undulating tentacles, most of the clothes—barring at least one excellent knit, which boasted dangling, beaded fringe—lacked the movement inherent to the life aquatic, favoring instead the rigid thickness of decidedly un-casual clothes. Adventure, after all, is about freedom—and even ingenues need some wiggle room.
