In a departure from her usual venue, a bijou of a garden apartment on the Left Bank, Julie de Libran this season welcomed guests with a sweeping panorama of Paris, courtesy of her friend the perfumer Daniela Andrier, who hosted the show in her apartment overlooking the Seine.
“We have a lot of people traveling and everyone is exploring Paris, so I figured, why not give them a view?” the designer offered as guests began filtering in. As it happens, de Libran and Andrier go way back: they’ve been friends since they met at Prada many moons ago. An award-winning nose, Andrier reckons that she has somewhere around 44,000 perfume formulas in her personal database. One of those, an original composition made just for de Libran will be familiar to the designer’s customers: “Since the beginning, we’ve been spritzing our clothes with it,” de Libran explained. Today, for the first time, guests at the show received their own travel-sized flacon as a gift. Those guests turned out in force, cashmered and tweeded, jeweled and befeathered, to take in a show that was as much about family and familiarity as it was about luxurious wools, silks, jacquard, Chantilly lace and a couple of firsts: knitwear and a new bag.
De Libran cited her main inspiration as the iris—one of the most expensive ingredients in perfumery, and an emblem of faith, hope and wisdom. On a more personal note, this collection was also a tribute to de Libran’s French grandmother, who lived in Provence, not far, as it happens, from where Van Gogh painted his Irises. A painter, knitter and skilled seamstress, she introduced her granddaughter to lace- and dressmaking, setting her on the path to here and now.
In 28 looks, de Libran offered pieces like versatile, practical cashmere separates (she wore a black jacket herself, belted over jeans) and easy knits, for example a gold-buttoned sweater in forest green as shown here with a matching skirt, but that can also be reversed and worn in a burgundy variation. On a more precious register, she sent out pajama-adjacent styles in sequined tweed or silk leopard print, a nuisette-sequined slip dress, or more sculptural ideas, like skirts in raffia winking with clear paillettes.
Not everything was easy to picture in the wild: an iris-blue peignoir cape in silk organza embroidered with flowers looked almost too delicate to leave the house, and a short taffeta bow dress with a long trailing panel seemed a tad unwieldy. But de Libran well knows the value of a good classic with a twist, and there were several contenders here, notably in cashmere and knit, as well as that shoulder bag in lambskin, which can be separated into a simple envelope clutch. As her business continues to grow—next month, she’ll start settling into a new atelier on the Rue du Bac—she’ll be able to lean even more into those, and into the specialized savoir-faire she wants to perpetuate.
