If it’s true that three makes a trend, there’s something afoot: Three French and Italian designers have been showing their fascination for the British Isles lately. First, Sabato De Sarno brought Gucci to London; secondly, Maria Grazia Chuiri took Dior to Scotland; and thirdly, Julien Dossena designed this Rabanne collection around his admiration for British style.
He crossed the channel in his head, rather than literally, shooting his lookbook on a set with a Scottish lake as a backdrop. What could have attracted him about the British and their way of dressing? “It’s really the freedom of it. You can feel the cultural identity of English people straightaway, in how they mix things together to build their identities. It’s very different from French people—which I wouldn’t say is ‘bourgeois,’ but more cohesive. Which is less alive. I like that London feel—to have that sense of realness,” Dossena said. “So this,” he gestured to the character in the pictures, “is a wild Paco Rabanne girl on a weekend getaway, let’s say!“
Dossena said he’d been looking at “British thrift-store style, like in the ’80s, and early ’90s, at the beginning of techno music, and at the same time, the influence of the New Wave. That exact moment.” The idea cleverly allowed him to explore casual wear—“energetic camo”—and things to wear on the street, as well as Rabanne’s more party-centric repertoire. As a piece of research, the theme provided a natural follow-on from Dossena’s last runway collection, a layered mash-up inspired by New York club and downtown styles of the ’80s.
Dossena imagined a girl who’d “borrow family stuff and mix it with her London clothes.” There’s a chunky mustard-yellow tartan coat” worn over a glam cropped glittery animal-print top and jeans. An unexpectedly traditional granny cardigan, garlanded with flower embroidery, is layered over a deconstructed shirt-dress. You’d need to do a double-take to get this, but the silvery lozenge-shaped paillettes suspended in one of the tops seemed like a Rabanne wink at the diamond pattern of a Scottish argyle sweater.
At one point, Dossena compared a long, slim dress made from panels of fringed paisley-like print to the notion of a girl improvising a dress from her granny’s scarves. It raised a smile; post-Brexit, these days the British aren’t used to being complimented for anything by Europeans. In fact, of course, Dossena’s take on British-style is as French as French could be. And that’s exactly how it should be.