Bouchra Jarrar is a big talent who prefers the small gesture. The ready-to-wear collection she showed at the Musée Bourdelle put in sharp relief the frivolousness of some of the haute couture paraded elsewhere today. Sounding a lot like Phoebe Philo, another smart woman designer who s made sharp tailoring the defining aspect of her work, Jarrar called her new offering a "continuation of the wardrobe, of the story I ve been telling since the beginning."
The designer s focus, as always, was on cut. Trousers were at once stricter through the hips and fuller through the legs than they were last season, and jackets had a more masculine swagger, thanks to double-breasted silhouettes, bolder shoulders, and brass military buttons. On the other hand, a pair of backless gilets—one in fox and the other in black-tipped white feathers—were all femme. Jarrar latched on to snoods; in fur and stripe knits, the circular scarves accessorized sleeveless coat-dresses, as well as simple coats.
But the real news for this label was prints—a contemporary woman s wardrobe isn t complete without them, after all. Jarrar has never used them on the runway before, so she started off subtle, draping a silk floral wallpaper motif into a soft shirtdress and a wrap gown. We can already picture the bow-front blouse in the deep-forest-green print taking root in the front rows next season.
