The starting point of Louis Gabriel Nouchi’s fall collection was “Artificial Paradises,” an essay on the creative process under drugs by French poet Charles Baudelaire, which led the Parisian designer to think about what today’s ultimate escape would be.
“Right now, nightclubs, a place to escape from the everyday, where you dance, you sweat and then you stumble out, trying to put your coat on and flagging a taxi at the same time,” Nouchi said backstage.
The designer played with the confrontation between dressing up for a night out and staying at home in one’s underwear — a fast-growing category for the label — by pairing bodysuits with tracksuit bottoms; throwing a jacket over tank tops and boxer shorts, and even offering a dress. Ties akimbo, fine knit tops laddered, coats and jackets only half-on, the models looked a little worse for wear after their night of revelry with sweat glistening on their faces. Swimwear, introduced here and arriving in stores in April, was also thrown into the mix.
Worn by a cast that included some of his label’s real-life clients — “I wanted to show bodies types you don’t usually see in men’s wear,” he said — the show offered a glimpse at what the wee hours of Feb. 17 might look like — if nightclubs reopen as recently announced by the French government.
