Just behind the Gare du Lyon there’s a former SNCF railway warehouse that has been upcycled into a food court / art space / community center hybrid. It’s called Ground Control. Marine Serre took it over this afternoon for a show that—at least to this tourist—felt more true to ‘real’ Paris than any other on the schedule.
Rather than remodel the space, Serre instead Marine-ated it (sorry) with her own codes. Guests, who included 200 fans of the brand, either stood or sat around tables laid with crescent-moon branded deadstock cups of chai and coffee served by Café de Serre. The Effet de Serre florist doled out moon-wrapped tulips, Marine Records stocked vinyl, and La PiSerreIa (arguably even a cheesier pun than mine) served slices.
Once we were settled the models, around half of whom were street cast, walked as if they were here to browse, chill, or meet up with friends: some carried pizza boxes or take-out cups from the designer’s new portfolio of fantasy businesses. Each individual was aligned with various loosely overlapping (and all complementary) typologies of character designed to showcase Serre’s worn categories. We were people watching.
The opening was a specifically Serre-ish mix of sportswear and evening-to-morning wear, starting with a knitted ‘fur’ paneled leather coat that segued to flocked sheer black dresses. A black knit sparkle-moon dress and cardigan over bodysuit transitioned to black tracksuit over faux python heeled boots. Thigh highs and tough jackets in smoked-finish moon leathers, two loose suits in non-moon black-on-black check jacquard, and two all-over black on white moon print looks (accessorized by an infant-occupied baby-carrier and vegetable-occupied shopping caddy) followed.
A series of moiré looks, including two fantastic sportily-corseted fitted ruched dresses, were followed by more knits in zingier colors and a series of finely draped upcycled scarf pieces. Next came moon-emblem denim jeans and workwear, python-print jersey and leather, and a blue marinière sweater. Great details included fork-head earrings and a necklace made of upcycled key fobs (Serre’s grandfather, Jean-Jacques, used to collect them and passed on that passion). A body suit was patterned after a collection of vintage brooches in a print that was manipulated to ergonomically contour the body beneath it, and then applied with the brooches themselves. A brace of near closing looks featured bell-sleeves or winged shoulders in a mix of moiré and more foulard silks before a final dress in black “wet” jersey. At the finale the models who had walked apart came together, as if they’d found each other in the crowd. The guy with the bouquet had found his date, while the two young women—one with baby, one with groceries—were getting their steps in together.
There were a few men’s looks here, but having already presented her menswear lookbook in January, Serre was focused on the womenswear today. She said: “Just being a woman designing for women—today you don’t have this so much. I just want to be at the service of women to design a collection for them that is both something daily but also graceful. It s better for me, it makes sense, to dress women for daily life. Some red carpet, yes, but not only red carpet.” Serre’s quotidian and contemporary feminine realism took off without a hitch from Ground Control today.
