An empty studio, just a couple of models taking turns in a dressing room, and an iPhone with a Zoom link. This is not the debut Olivier Theyskens imagined when he signed on at Azzaro to design womenswear and men’s in early February. Back then, this couture week was shaping up to be a beauty, with not only Theyskens’s Azzaro launch to anticipate, but also Demna Gvasalia’s first made-to-measure collection for Balenciaga. But, of course, the coronavirus happened, and designers and fashion brands, like all of us, have had to adapt.
During the lockdown, Theyskens visited the empty Azzaro atelier on rue St-Honoré to sketch alone and “get in the mental state to feel the gestures of the founder.” The studio, he says, “is like a museum, full with the integrity of all the archives of the house, which is everything from the ’60s to the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. It’s a place that’s about a moment in fashion that I’ve never really had the opportunity to dig into,” he continues. “For me the house of Azzaro should be dresses made with the least seams possible. It’s something about the ease of movement, but it’s also [about] something intelligent in the construction.”
In quarantine, Theyskens created a collection that’s lean and efficient yet sumptuous. Loris Azzaro’s most famous design is an evening dress with three strass-lined circular cutouts on the bodice. The designers who’ve headed up the label since his 2003 death have never failed to reissue it. Theyskens made his version in a silver lamé velvet with rhinestone and sequin embroidery tracing the cutouts. That crystal detailing provides one of the collection’s through lines: A long-sleeve triple black crepe dress is crisscrossed with ribbons of shine, and an exactingly cut brocade coat dress is finished with glimmering buttons. The collection’s other hallmark is its rigorous cuts. It won’t put anyone in mind of Theyskens’s much-loved 2000s work for Rochas or Nina Ricci—there’s not a single gratuitous flourish. But that feels right for our straitened times.
Absent a runway or even the chance at a presentation, Theyskens commissioned the Belgian director Lukas Dhont (Girl, 2018) to create a short promotional film starring the Belgian musician Sylvie Kreusch. “I gave them carte blanche,” the designer says. At the end of last week he was still waiting to see the final cut, but he did know for sure that in addition to a selection of his Azzaro dresses, Kreusch models a menswear jacket. “I was very pleased with the first outings of the tailoring; I want to wear everything from the collection,” he enthuses. That cameo aside, his menswear debut just might happen IRL; it’s scheduled for September, and Paris is promising in-person shows and presentations.
