Riadh Trabelsi’s second outing on the official Paris calendar had a lighter, less structured touch. “I think it’s a good thing to respect the materials for spring, they’re very beautiful in their own right, then for fall have a more structured approach,” he explained.
Making his unisex creations all from recycled and deadstock fabrics, he continues to carve out his niche: edgy enough to have street cred, with the design knowledge to back it up and an increasingly important eco-stance. “It’s a continuity from last season,” the designer said over the phone ahead of revealing the collection, entitled “ADN” — the French for DNA.
Playful vintage pops of color like lilac and pale yellow found their way onto tie-dyed and overdyed patchwork denim pieces, as on boxy jeans and a matching crop top. It may sound an incongruous mix, but a vintage curtain fabric worked well as a hoodie, while a djellaba inspired by Trabelsi’s North African roots was reinterpreted with a pointed 1970s-inspired collar and a safari jacket in a coarse rich brown fabric was given purple buttons for a fun twist. Body-con pieces came by way of logo T-shirts cut apart and spliced back together on the bias, while tailored pieces had eyelet details and cropped, belted or sleeveless silhouettes.
