Alexis Mabille & Tom Ford
This year marks Alexis Mabille’s 10th anniversary as a couturier. Two weeks ago, he was decorated with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres distinction by the French minister of culture, Fleur Pellerin. And while Mabille’s exceedingly feminine designs have been unwavering, the articulation of his vision has taken all sorts of twists and turns. But as a love letter to his muses, this latest outing stood as one of his strongest in a while. Rather than go to elaborate lengths of crafting an haute couture collection around a forced idea, he channeled personal connections into personalized creations. First, he reached out to 15 of his hall-of-fame muses, including Dita Von Teese, Leslie Caron, Bérénice Bejo, Audrey Marnay, and Mounia Orosemane. Then, in lieu of a show, he enlisted photographer Matthew Brookes to capture them in portraits. Yes, the echo of John Singer Sargent was deliberate.
The most sincere message was how Mabille sought to communicate that these client connections are the beating heart of haute couture. So for Von Teese, he made an alluring emerald green jersey and duchesse satin corseted gown with a distinctive embroidered scarf detail at back. Caron, spectacularly ageless at 84, radiated updated chic in an embellished white blouse and high-waist tuxedo pants piped with vinyl and jet beading. Here’s hoping Bejo wears her hand-painted gradient lace sheath as soon as her next red carpet opportunity arises. And Mabille might want to consider modifying Orosemane’s inky blue taffeta shirtdress bordered with metallic lace inserts for his ready-to-wear so more women have access to it.
The collection could have lost its cohesion, given that each look was so particular, but it didn’t, if only because the gigantic bows, crystals, beaded fringes, pearl lattice overlays, and painted silk flowers marked different expressions of Mabille’s maximalist spirit. Brookes mentioned Mabille hammering home that old chestnut about the dress not wearing the woman. And for the first time in a while, that felt about right.
Playing proud papa in the park with son Jack placed different demands on Tom Ford’s wardrobe for a while. His signature suits took a backseat to more casual clothing, and that was reflected in his collections. Now the pendulum swings again. Welcome back pinstripes and Prince of Wales checks and waistcoats with fob chains and handmade shoes of shiny, shiny leather. ”It’s fashion,” Ford acknowledged after his Spring presentation the other night. Besides, he added, ”I got tired of those dirty, stinky jeans, and they were chafing.” Anyway, Ford’s identity as a designer has always been about the sharp suit and, as savvy as he is, he knows how vital it is to stick to your identity.
But he’s as much storyteller as designer now, with a new movie to lens later this year, so his new collection wasn’t simply a lot of precision tailoring with a side order of smart casual and some more of that lushly trippy eveningwear he’s making a specialty of. If his Fall collection evoked the monochrome of David Bailey’s mid-’60s London, Ford kept the time frame but moved the location to New York, specifically Andy Warhol’s Factory. By making the clothes so character-driven, he immediately glamorized them (which was, of course, the point of the exercise). That wasn’t just a guy in a three-piece pinstripe suit. That was the ghost of Warhol’s dandified lieutenant Fred Hughes. On the other side of the sartorial coin, black leather jacket, mock turtle, and white jeans could have been Lou Reed tootling into the Factory for a Velvet Underground jam. With a couple of cues like that, your own imagination filled in the rest. Slim-line tonic mohair suits? Suedes patchworked like camo? Cool young Hollywood slumming with Warhol superstars. (Ford mentioned Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.) The fabulous evening jackets? They were Ford’s Pop Art editions, suitable for framing. Ford’s presentation even had a bit of that anything-could-happen Factory looseness (at least as it was depicted in the movie I Shot Andy Warhol). The margarita-swilling crowd parted and the models wandered through.
That all reads a little retro. It wasn’t. If Ford hadn’t mentioned Warhol and the Factory, it would scarcely have occurred to anyone as the collection’s backstory. Instead, everyone would have been following the fob chain to the future. It was customized to fit the Apple Watch. For how much longer will Ford be wearing his Cartier tank?
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