Roland Mouret is on a streak to bring back glamour.
His fall 2023 collection is all about the dark side of the Golden Age of Hollywood and he believes it’s something that women are rediscovering slowly.
“The way we want to buy clothes must have an emotional attachment,” said Mouret, who believes Hollywood in the last two years became “more costumey” and his latest lineup is the antidote toward extravagant shapes and color palettes.
His remedy is simple Little Black Dresses; sleek, waif-like eveningwear with an attached sash; classic separates and tailoring, and the introduction of velvet, a new fabric to the Mouret universe.
“Velvet comes and goes in fashion and at the moment it’s got that intense power of elegance which takes you into so many referential periods, especially in the ’80s with Saint Laurent,” he added, explaining that the velvet he used throughout the collection has a stretch to it that gives it a juxtaposition of elegance and relaxation.
This season is about coming out of brightness and into a dark coziness for Mouret.
“Not every part of the world or every woman wants to wear the same colors. It’s about us [Mouret and his design team] adapting ourselves to the demand of what women want to have in their wardrobes,” he said.
The French designer predicts that the incoming glamour from his collection and those shown in Paris will be a lesson “for us all to understand where we come from.”
“What glamour means is not just your body, it’s the way you talk, the way you move and impose yourself in public life,” said Mouret.
The brand went into administration in 2021 and Mouret is slowly picking up the foundations rather than jumping for the galaxies just yet. As a whole the collection felt like a shaky seesaw, sometimes rising into regal glamor and at times falling flat.
