With Alexis Mabille’s Spring couture collection still fresh in the mind, his Fall ready-to-wear lineup struck a similar chord: colorful and fabulous. Aside from fabric substitutions and a little less va-va-voom volume, this lineup reaffirmed his longtime love of statuesque sensuality. Dresses ornamented with his signature bows came in pleasingly lightweight faille; a trompe l’oeil shirt and skirt dress came with a removable basque that could be worn as a ruffled collar; fluid, confident looks came with tone-on-tone lace capes that swooped around the back; and malachite green became a surprisingly alluring hue. Some pieces were multipurpose: a hybrid hoodie dress in candy floss pink could be unzipped and worn as a top layer, just as an underpinning in floral tulle could be styled under several different looks. Most of the fastenings shone bright like diamanté.
Whether women end up wearing these designs for weddings, fundraisers, or other special occasions, they are likely to be traveling, noted Mabille. Hence, for all the drama signaled in his silhouettes, most were constructed to be relatively packable. He also suggested that, these days, his market largely consists of clients outside France who seek a recognizably Parisian touch. The lookbook images feature actress Audrey Marnay against a backdrop of fabric rolls in Mabille’s atelier. He appears in certain shots, too; it turns out the idea came from a charming black-and-white photo of Jacques Fath during a fitting with model Bettina from 1949. Mabille upholds this same couturier spirit no matter how his contemporaries evolve. Like it or not, he does this well.
