Ask any designer; second collections are harder than debuts. “You have more information,” Courrèges’s Yolanda Zobel said backstage, “and with this information you get to work.” Zobel’s launch at this space-age house last season was rocky. With its sheer body stockings, logo tights, and daisy nipple pasties, it left lots of room for improvement. Zobel slashed two of those three categories for Fall; she believes in body stockings no matter the season, but the other omissions suggest that she absorbed the feedback.
Now the question becomes: Does Zobel have a vision for the future for this heritage house? If she does, it didn’t become much clearer at the show tonight, despite the fact that it was held at the Espace Niemeyer, a landmark Paris building constructed at the same time André Courrèges was making his mark on French fashion. Zobel’s collection started decisively enough with a long series of wintry looks in shades of white; an ivory shearling jacket with insets of silver leather that counted as the best of them nodded directly at the Courrèges legacy. But subsequent elements, like an artist collaboration with Vava Dudu and the braided headpiece contributions of Sara Mathiasson, didn’t quite jibe with the house story. Not that they had to, but it would have helped. Save for a coat in color-blocked vinyl, most of the pieces didn’t have the clarity that Courrèges’s work is remembered for.
Perhaps the company would be better off simply focusing on its icons, like those vinyl jackets and coats, and reissuing them. Other labels have had success with this concept recently.
