Anyone even passingly familiar with Alexis Mabille’s work—be it fashion or the interiors he’s dreamed up for chic watering holes from Paris to LA—knows that he’s obsessed with dramatic colors. One of his latest projects, redoing the legendary Lido cabaret on the Champs-Elysées, has plunged him straight into the glamour, sparkle ,and history of that celebrated spot, so it’s perhaps not surprising that with this couture collection the designer just went ahead and embraced a rainbow.
“It’s like a therapy, a symbol of freedom, happiness, and playfulness,” Mabille said backstage before the show. He even threw in some period references for fun. Though the collection’s title, Color Addict, speaks for itself; Felix da Housecat’s “Money, Success, Fame, Glamour” drove the point home.
The designer said he wanted to open with gold half-tones because they can work as well by day as by night. A long beige-gold mesh dress with an asymmetrical neckline, tonal embroidered belt, and a dramatic drape from hem up to shoulder was followed by a draped sheath in burnished lamé whose midsection was hand-embroidered with the profiles of two lovers. That was an homage to the artist, illustrator, and costume and set designer Erté, who drew Lido dancers in his day and worked on theater productions there. Elsewhere, a quasi-cosmic homage to the artist Jean Lurçat appeared as a sequined bodice on a one-shouldered dress in Danube blue crepe, and later on a fuchsia bustier dress-slash-cape, flourishes the designer called “a bit rock and roll.”
To close the show, a backless sheath in embroidered organza seemed to bring all these clothes of many colors together like a kaleidoscope. Mabille lights up when he describes “painting all different types of women” (and he loves them all!) or striving to express the texture of color through design. That’s why—to his credit—he kept most of these silhouettes simpler than he has in the past. And that’s also why, no matter a client’s shape or favorite kind of silhouette—tailored, flou, long, short, deconstructed, fluid, draped, pleated, “high drama,” nearly naked—there’s something here that will speak to her.
