“I need to feel that this girl actually exists.” Sounds reasonable, right? Well, you’d be surprised how many designers don’t think that way. In a past life, Olivier Theyskens was one of them. His Rochas was a house of historical-tinged romanticism, producing some of the most memorable dresses of the 21st century (see his Fall 2005 collection for the heritage label), but if you wanted an off-duty weekend look from him in those pre-Great Recession days, good luck. More than a decade later, with an eye-opening experience at Theory in New York on his résumé, Theyskens is a different designer, adapted to our hyper-casual time and prone to statements like the quote at the beginning of this review.
Now in its fourth season, his self-named project is steadily evolving. If “clothes for real life” is the criterion, this collection was his best so far, with not a wrong move from the fine turtleneck with signature hooks and eyes and glossy leather pants that opened to the long-sleeved white dévoré velvet column dress at the end. Theyskens’s silhouette was familiarly long and willowy here, made all the more so by the monster platform boots the models wore. The palette was predominantly black, which is an accurate reflection of reality, even if it can read repetitive on the runway. His tailoring was clean and pure, sans a superfluous, unnecessary detail. He also had some sturdy-looking denim in a faded black with more of those hooks and eyes tracing the calves.
Theyskens being who he is, his dresses draw the most attention and scrutiny. His slips were likewise reality-based, with delicate straps, balconette bustiers, and bias-cut velvet skirts. It wasn’t hard to imagine his models wearing the wispy little things to late-night Fashion Week parties. Also not hard: feeling a pang of nostalgia for Theyskens’s pre-Great Recession youth, when he had the funding to indulge in a little bit more dreaming. He’s a major talent, he deserves it. Absent it, though, it’s still cheering to see him soldiering on.
