When Vogue broke the news last week that Ludovic de Saint Sernin will be the eighth guest designer to create a season of Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture, he said that his own collection would deliver new ideas despite the decision to skip a runway show.
In a whitewashed gallery in the Marais, he elaborated on what this entails. “We want to build the structure to support our growth. We don’t want to be everywhere and then can’t sustain the growth,” he said. “We have been working with people—like Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter and Troye Sivan—who are performing a lot and we’re thinking about the garments in such a different way.”
Cue “BDSM Ballet,” a pretty accurate description of the two main influences, laced together tightly, just like de Saint Sernin’s best-selling bralettes and briefs. The accompanying photos, taken by Adam Peter Johnson, feature models who convincingly double as dancers—just dressed up and off-duty—exuding the kind of angel-demon tension of Black Swan, which inspired the designer alongside the choreography of Pina Bausch.
While one cannot escape that a collection alluding to dance deserved a show, de Saint Sernin’s explorations of eroticism translate across performance and photography, as evidenced by last season’s special runway show in New York that was an homage Robert Mapplethorpe (created in partnership with the artist’s foundation). Here, de Saint Sernin introduced flounced and tiered volumes in tulle and softer fabrics slung low on the hips, babydoll dresses, and gilets in actual feathers or textured wool “mille-feuille.”
There were highly streamlined ideas: slinky dresses that knotted across and dipped low down the décolleté were made of a jersey from Japan (where de Saint Sernin sources nearly all his fabrics) that has the transparency of semi-sheer tights. More elaborate pieces, like a crystal lattice bolero or a top made from a single square of leather, boasted nearly 1,400 eyelets placed by hand (a more commercial version will have them hot-fixed). Most impressive was a sculptural dress composed of eyelet trims uncoiling around the body—like a descendent of Alaïa’s famous zipper dress, only the bands were more staggered and suspended by invisible threads. And while chaps may not qualify as sculptural, let’s say they provide a peek at what de Saint Sernin may propose as his men’s looks for Gaultier. For both men and women, collared shirts and micro shorts topped with either a suede blouson or trench re-emphasized his everyday, gender-fluid allure.
Unsurprisingly, de Saint Sernin said he would love to design ballet costumes, and it certainly felt as though he was manifesting his next marquee moment. “It’s the dream to have these projects outside of fashion,” he said. As for the eye-catching eyelet ballerina shoes, they were from a collaboration LdSS did early on with Repetto, perhaps due for an encore.