The Lemaire team didn’t need a weather shaman to anticipate the Paris skies on Wednesday towards 1 pm. Instead, they doused the enclosed parvis of the Pierre and Marie Curie university campus and played an ambient score composed of rain, city sounds, and birds. As the models arrived at the expansive runway, looking this way and that, walking with purpose (to avoid getting wet, presumably), their light, tonal layers were primed for a summer afternoon downpour. And for all their stylistic idiosyncrasies, they could have belonged in Paris… but also New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, or Vietnam, where a recent trip inspired Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran to explore how travel encourages a more deliberate rapport with what we wear.
And as climate change increasingly makes the weather even more unpredictable, their collection transcended a specific point of departure to address a universal hot topic. “We like to design from reality,” said Lemaire. “Like everyone, we’re experiencing global warming and the need for lighter fabric, lighter clothes, protection pieces—and we try to bring that functionality to our work.”
Tran noted how this body of work is currently full of archetypal shapes—twisted, balloon, boxy—that can be revisited season after season. These designs are already so elemental and timeless that adjustments need only be incremental to register as fresh. “It’s just about adding layers that evolve with time,” she said. While anyone with Lemaire fluency would detect the newness, the rest of us can appreciate how their men’s and women’s wear benefited from breathable fabrics such as cotton and silk; fluid and functional shapes, from capes to reporter vests; technical features such as drawstrings; and, yes, water-resistant outerwear. Many looks appeared to be convertible or adaptable in styling.
The palette brought added dimension through an alluring spectrum spanning earthy, fleshy, inky, and airy. Two unassuming prints—a dark stripe and a faded floral—made the lineup feel believable, less rigid. But to see a sea of sameness would be missing the Lemaire approach altogether. “What we like to do is present characters and not just themes,” Lemaire said, noting that they spend considerable time on casting. “We want [the models] to feel credible. For us, style is about that… when there is a coherence of the personality and outfit.”
The current (increasingly tiresome) infatuation with quiet luxury would seem to make Lemaire more relevant than ever. But only Lemaire has built so much versatility into its luxury. And the brand will continue to exist this way—well beyond the latest sneakers and store designs—no matter the trend. For the designers, though, the intention in every collection—but particularly in this one—was about seeing the clothes in the street (which Balenciaga also captured in its recent video). Said Lemaire, “What we’re interested in is to try and embellish reality. We should learn to look at reality, so we start by that… and hopefully we end with looking like a better version of ourselves.” Or if nothing more, a version that stays dry.
