It was around a year ago that Michelle Ochs was presenting her first few pieces for Hervé Léger. Among her fresh takes on the house-signature bandage dress was a little black piqué suit. Ochs was wearing that same style at a resort appointment, with its cropped jacket and flared trousers, now that it’s available in stores. “I’m ready for everything!” she said of the outfit
And she really did look ready for it all. What Ochs has done a year in at Léger is imbue a sense of realism and practicality into a brand that previously felt stuck in its glory days of tiny, tight dresses and vertiginously high heels. This season’s lineup of separates includes another LBS (little black suit) plus an array of turtlenecks and pencil skirts in a wide range of knitted fabrications, including a plush and supple new knit (which feels particularly novel against Léger’s signature tight fabrications), and a fantastic trompé l’œil croc pattern created with a foil print on top of the knit. Ochs is also breaking new ground with wovens, introducing a satin tailoring group.
Her evening selection shows how much can be done with the same knit: There’s lurex and there’s fringe, there’s crystals and a very cool metal staple effect. There’s also some mesh, shirred down the center-front and over the classic bandage dress for a fresh yet familiar iteration that doesn’t bisect the body as severely. This last group comes from the success of the jersey dresses Ochs introduced in her first few deliveries, she said.
“What’s fascinating is that a new generation is discovering it, but not as vintage, as a new brand,” said Ochs. This is the tightrope the designer has been walking. Her aesthetic here borrows from the ’90s without going too far into redux territory, and it works. She mentioned that a celebrity and Gen Z style oracle recently pulled 13 pieces from the collection. Her name will remain off-the-record so as to not jinx the oportunity, but we’ll see soon enough where and when she wears the brand. The takeaway is that people are catching on. Ochs has refined the language and given herself enough wiggle room to stretch, pun intended, in whatever direction makes sense moving forward. She should keep herself and her own lifestyle in mind, though, and make more of those great LBSs.