If you were to happen upon a selection of these latest Anaïs Jourden looks in a store come spring, you might be surprised to discover that the runway show took place in a Paris strip club (granted, during lunchtime with no trace of the dancers). But designer Anais Mak continues to spike her finely made girly looks with a shot of subversive titillation—and the most intriguing part is that she serves up this coquettish cocktail with complete casualness.
Going by the program notes, which quoted Nabokov’s poem about Dolores Haze, aka Lolita, this collection was an ode to the ingenue. The opening looks were pretty, polished, and entirely in white. Some featured the label’s recurring smocking technique with ruffles encircling necklines and cascading on the bias down skirts; one sailor collar dress in crisp poplin was so modest that its only allure was to satisfy some sort of schoolgirl fetish. Gradually, she introduced an eye-catching foil-coated metallic lace, first spliced into a skirt, then as a rather beautiful scalloped-edge A-line coat. Additional groupings included a new logo calligraphy patterned across body-skimming silhouettes, some in baby pink; boudoir-esque lamé ensembles; and suiting with an overlay of fishnet.
A sticking point of previous seasons had been the way in which Mak exposed breasts through sheer organza blouses in a way that felt gratuitous, and she restrained herself to just one look here. To her, the statement wasn’t questionable so much as relatable. “It’s the same story we always tell about girls needing attention and the desire to be complimented and appreciated. It’s always my core interest,” she said backstage.
Granted, you need not identify with this rationale to appreciate Mak’s workmanship and derive pleasure from wearing the looks on summery evenings or while on vacation (many seemed easily packable). In conversation, she comes across as confident, and this, more than anything else, comes through in the clothes. “There’s a lot of discussion about how women should not be objects,” she explains. “But I think sometimes this debate sometimes goes too far, and we forget we have the autonomy to decide how we want to project our charms.”
