The AZ Factory platform is expanding to include a program supporting young designers, whose collections are to be showcased during couture week. After last season’s newcomers Cyril Bourez and Tennesy Thoreson, this time it was the French-born designer Lara Sonney’s turn. A class of 2021 graduate of Geneva’s Head and a finalist at Hyères in 2022, Sonney was given the opportunity to create a 10-piece collection in collaboration with Swiss textile manufacturer Maison Jackob Schlaepfer.
Sonney’s work is about gardening, nature, and the great outdoors, with a strong focus on sustainability and upcycling. It was fitting that the lineup, presented on models in tableau vivant-style, was framed by the lush greenery of Fondation Cartier’s hidden garden. The designer made recycled garden hoses into colorful basket bags, picking up on the late Alber Elbaz’s playful spirit. Some vibrant swirling prints also inspired by gardening house pipes made their way onto a voluminous trapeze coat, a recurrent shape in Sonney’s oeuvre that favors generous protective outdoor garments, engineered with attractive, feminine ingenuity.
Elbaz’s penchant for zest was also translated into the huge volants undulating from the fuzzy mohair hem of a sleeveless turquoise tunic, in the patches of hand-applied sequins on crinkled bonded-paper cape coat, and in the silicone graphic motifs on an elongated white shirt. Another playful mélange between Sonney and Elbaz’s sense of humor was a basket bag made of glass that looked like a delightful flower vase.
