Alexandre Vauthier is fantasizing about the day when we can all go out dancing again. During a recent showroom visit, the designer reminisced about raucous nights and early mornings at Le Palace back in the ’80s, when getting all dressed up was “the ultimate seduction” and worlds collided on the dance floor.
“When you’re locked down, you realize that we live in an ultra-individualized society, and that’s anxiety-inducing,” he observed. His therapy: casting back to a world that he hopes will somehow return, meaning not just nightlife but the mash-up and buzz of runway shows as well.
Vauthier easily admits it’s been decades since he haunted the dance floor, but the unbridled energy in his first-ever video, shot by Albert Moya inside the legendary Paris nightclub, feels immediate and familiar in all its vibrant color and Bowie-inspired pizzazz. The designer pointed out that several of the models had never actually seen outfits like his swingy silver fringed dress and matching boots, which required some 1,500 hours of hand work to produce. “Super scenic but easy to wear,” he offered. The boots were part of his first collection in partnership with Giuseppe Zanotti.
Elsewhere there were dresses in crystallized stretch jersey and a liquid mercury lamé jumpsuit, feather fringe on flares lavishly embroidered with fireworks, and a featherweight, ruffled dress in red lurex velvet. Gravity-defying ruffles are a Vauthier signature, and the ones in this collection were particularly tricky to achieve, he said. Another statement piece—a multicolored rosette-covered bolero showered with crystals—was only finished after the shoot wrapped. But while some looks flirted with OTT—a peekaboo blue jumpsuit and a slithery burgundy sheath with sides cut to the hips spring to mind—not all were strictly for the dance floor.
Vauthier has serious tailoring cred: The white ensemble that opens this look book neatly straddled then and now, as did a few ’70s-leaning jacket-and-shorts ensembles, for example, in Prince of Wales check, shown with gold boots. And whether or not they can paint the town anytime soon, the designer’s base is more than likely to keep circling back, again and again, for his way with a smoking, a perfecto, and a trench.
