When a crowd of hundreds gathers and quietly swelters while waiting for a show in the Grand Palais on a June afternoon, you get the sense a designer has something up his sleeve. Which, in fact, Alexandre Mattiussi does. He sports on his forearm a tattoo of a Roman numeral—IX. Nine. It’s his lucky number.
It so happens the numerology is working in his favor. The designer has moved into his ninth year as a Parisian indie. Today, June 18, marked his 18th show, which squares nicely. And, conveniently enough, the French word for “nine” and “new” is one and the same. One cycle ends, another begins.
Mattiussi champions fashion with a sense of humility. Back in the day, he resigned from a major fashion house and struck out on his own because he could not reconcile with designing menswear that was too far removed from real-world dressing. ANDAM Prize in hand, he staked out a place in men’s ready-to-wear with AMI. Elevated basics like easy overcoats and cropped carrot pants were just edgy enough for a broad Parisian base. It made a whole lot of sense. Women were known to adopt the outerwear, and style icons like Caroline de Maigret walked in his shows (she sat front row wearing a caramel AMI ensemble tonight). For years, the designer’s women friends needled him to branch out.
“I always wanted to be a small house with a lot of humility,” the designer said this evening. Today, he chose to push AMI into new, slightly darker and moodier territory, complete with a full-fledged women’s category—without blurring gender lines. In a crisp palette of black, white, beige, and poppy red with the occasional shot of fuchsia, Mattiussi stepped neatly into a space that, bizarrely, has sat relatively unoccupied in the Parisian landscape for years, ever since a few international behemoths (and a smattering of niche brands) got big enough to lose the plot.
“Suddenly Next Summer,” as the collection was called, sticks with Parisian essentials: a sharp trench with a wide belt (one of them in black leather); a cropped jacket, also with a wide belt; a mean pair of pants; a sharp, sleeveless coat; a black-and-white check jacket. The meditation bells on a coat or shoes may not be for everyone, but they speak to the designer’s sense of staying centered. “I wanted to do pretty and sophisticated ready-to-wear,” he said. “These people are cool; I wanted to show something more of Paris.” That doesn’t necessarily mean starting a revolution. But for savvy dressers everywhere, AMI is now officially a French brand to be reckoned with.
