Simon Porte Jacquemus,
the two-time LVMH Prize finalist and designer behind the cultish
womenswear label Jacquemus, has not deleted, nor contemplated deleting,
his ever-growing Instagram account where he shares whimsical musings in a
triptych format (his seaside diving portraits are particularly
popular).
Only half a dozen or so collections into his career,
Jacquemus has managed to clearly and quickly define his eponymous
brand. However, he is aiming to get to the root of things and explore
the evolution of man. "She's not the easy or cool girl that you see in
Paris," he says of his Fall/Winter 2015 muse. "I'm exploring beauty,
dreams, not in the princess way, but poetry...I don't know if people
will get it, but it's what I'm exploring."
Jacquemus has carved
out a niche in the fashion landscape so specific that he's already
feeling a need redefine his message. For Fall 2015, that meant working
with his hands, quite literally. Evident in the collection was a motif
of simple outlines of his five fingers, spread in a star formation,
derived from "one of [his] earliest drawings."
"I wanted to do
something primal. I noticed the energy around had changed since the
last collection, and I thought to have a new woman. The look is not as
perfect as it was before with matching tops and skirts." Instead, the
designer offered a mix and match collage of abstract shapes that wrapped
around the body.
Jacquemus' "jazz hands" took shape in the
form of "suspenders" in either felted wool or painted directly onto the
models' bodies, with wrists and arms stretched over the shoulders
reaching toward one's nether region.
In true web 2.0 fashion,
the designer teased his new collection via his preferred method of
communication, a certain 1:1 digital square. The series was presented in
a trio of simple outline drawings of his hand, a single thumb colored
in blue ink scribbles.
When we visited the 25 year old
designer at his charming Le Marais district atelier, he also shared,
"One of the first dresses I made was created using my mother's drapes," à
la Scarlett O'Hara in
Gone with the Wind. The oversize rings seen throughout the collection, some with fabric pulled through them, are a nod to this more innocent time.
His rainbow bright beach ball stripes had all but disappeared, save for
one lone red ring on a black dress. And the girls, all barefoot, some
even with bare breasts and childlike paper masks over their faces,
might've come straight from a Gauguin painting, minus the hue
saturation, obviously.
"It's not random," he continued, "but
much more spontaneous, like a Gondry film. And it's not about a boy or a
girl in the clothes, either. There is no sexuality in this collection.
It's simply about playful times, when children just don't care how they
dress themselves."
Perhaps that will help explain the
collection's many blouses without traditional armholes, but instead a
swath of fabric encasing the upper arm like a cask as if a young kid has
put his head or arm through the sleeve instead of the garment's neck
opening. "Children," he continued, "they put on many elements,
sometimes it's weird, and sometimes it's beautiful." And that very
sentiment perfectly encapsulates this collection. Oh, to have a spotless
mind...
