Couture week has come and gone without much fanfare. Christelle Kocher joined forces with the artist Laure Prouvost and the organization Thanks for Nothing to create a one-of-kind dress to raise funds for survivors of domestic violence that would’ve gotten plenty of appreciative attention had it walked a runway. Cut on the bias in blush pink lace, in Kocher’s signature slip dress silhouette, it features an embroidery of a disembodied breast and arm raised in solidarity with the words “stronger together” stitched underneath; together they required 100 hours of handwork in Kocher’s studio to achieve. With the world in crisis and fashion searching for its raison d’etre, this special piece has significant things going for it: There’s the charitable component, of course, but also those 100 hours of handwork—both the artisans that they employed and the satisfaction such employment brings.
Kocher is trained in the couture—she’s the artistic director of Lemarié, the plumassier to Chanel—and she brings her elevating eye for detail to her Koché ready-to-wear, putting her stamp on an otherwise street-ready track suit with patch-worked color-blocking and twisting the everyday right out of polo shirts and dresses with clever pattern making. This season, one of her most remarkable looks combines a sleeveless jacket and snap-off sports trousers in a jacquard designed to look like Tokyo street signs at night. Another suit is made from a lightweight denim with an all-over lace print. Easy to wear but unordinary—that’s a real reason to buy in this strange new world of ours.
