Alexis Mabille channeled the nonchalant sensuality of his worldly clientele with his fall collection, full of riffs on tailored evening silhouettes and self-assuming plays on transparency.
“The young generation today don’t need so much artifice, they have couture in their blood. They wear couture as if it were track pants, except it’s not,” explained Mabille after the show. “I’m characterizing a little, but there is a relaxation in couture today that there wasn’t before.”
The notion was a good fit for Mabille, who offered up a focused collection, in largely black, pale pink tones and vivid lipstick red.
Women of character, his party girls paraded down the runway, their hair tousled, an empty Champagne glass in hand. “They’ve always known how to build a circle around them because of their personalities,” he explained after the show.
The designer’s own identity was clearly stamped as he played with his signatures like bows and tuxedo details reinterpreted in a plethora of ways, offering pieces for pin-ups alongside silhouettes that cleverly reinterpreted his classics. There were also archive designs, including a coat crafted from a multitude of organza bows in differing shades of pink, taken from his very first show.
A black tuxedo skirt with satin details was paired with a simple matching polo neck, while in pale pink crêpe, he crafted an elongated tailcoat and matching high-waist pants. There were jogging pants in black georgette or overalls with a crystal buckle belt, each worn with lingerie-like Chantilly lace. An oversize blood-red velvet hoodie was paired with an embellished sheath dress, typical of the sense of overstated effortlessness Mabille was seeking to achieve.
