The fashion crowd after these shows often reacts with a swoon combined with imagining that, in a parallel world, we might all be dressed in Lemaire. The brand even plays into this, conjuring a conceptual sidewalk within its Place des Vosges premises, where models appear like poised city types exiting a building, pausing mid-stroll, or encountering another character en route.
Even while Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran have this narrative down pat and know their audience is comprised of admirers, they still build upon their repertoire, finding new ways to express the language of Lemaire. This collection, said Tran, was about straightforward silhouettes, “long and lean, easy to understand.” The noted how the photographs of August Sander informed their opening black-and-white archetypes—the men’s white button-front V-neck under a black ensemble and overcoat, for example. But the designers also have a thoroughly contemporary eye, as if considering that one of those portraits today might feature a young woman in a liquid-like dress adorned with beaded body jewelry, or a guy projecting an urban-western vibe, his black shirt pierced with small rings.
The lineup’s softly tailored ensembles, often in nuanced tones of moss and bark, will particularly resonate for Parisians and people elsewhere who have endured a season of un-springlike weather. Here, you start the day shielded by a leather jacket and different weights of gabardine and poplin and finish by peeling open a shirt to expose the shoulder. The duo also continues to design coats with inner straps that transform outerwear into a kind of shoulder accessory. In two instances, they created volume around a knit minidress integrated with another kind of strap: garters that held up matching thigh-highs. Lemaire has an innate sensuality, but this felt cheeky: Pretty Woman in the era of quiet luxury.
The show’s shift towards dusty colors—coordinating pieces in a captivating blue gray, a romantic ruched dress in peony—coincided with a print series featuring the pencil crayon drawings of chairs and other objects by Philippe Weisbecker. Along with bags that boasted braided details and removable jewelry elements and asymmetric sandals dubbed ‘Picasso,’ the art and craft layers brought even more interest to the collection. Lemaire, meanwhile, downplayed their talents. “We can only do half the job and then someone has to wear it and make it look stylish.” That they do most of the job is what keeps those stylish customers coming back.