In sifting through the archives at Rochas, Alessandro Vigilante came across photos of founder Marcel Rochas enjoying downtime at the beach. In stark contrast to today, the house’s founder dressed like a dandy even in OOO mode.
Vigilante has been at Rochas for a year now, and with this presentation—a beachside cabana complete with sand, staged at the Théâtre de Châtelet—he seemed to be settling in a little more. Where prior outings channeled starlets of the silver screen lounging in a boudoir, here he nudged them into the real world, and in doing so gave the Rochas client a bit more to hang her hat on.
Looking tan and hale himself, the designer described this collection as an homage to sea and sun. “A mid-century wardrobe with boyish tailoring and casual craft,” as he put it in the collection notes. During a walk-through, he also cited a print ad from 1949: a dark silhouette appears with a hat, bag, shoes, and jewelry, yet it’s not immediately clear what that woman is wearing.
Vigilante has a few ideas to fill in the blanks: his moodboard included images by Patrick Demarchelier as well as family photos of Marcel’s second wife, the Italian artist Rina Rosselli, in her bathing costume; and Marcel, ever in a suit, surrounded by family and friends.
Shell shapes and on-point organic textures fleshed out the seaside theme. Borrowing directly from the founder’s sartorial lexicon, Vigilante described a safari jacket as “beach wear that’s a bit boyish” yet he also managed to work in lightness and flou he qualified as “a little messy and easy to wear.” A few tulle tops picked up on the beach ball motif interspersed with an ‘R’ logo. Shorts in sandcastle brocade gave the theme a literal spin, while cloud-like prints evoked nostalgia, and a sponge-based material, shown here in look 17, brought both texture and sustainability to the mix.
Vigilante described the Rochas woman as “a driven dreamer, but with feet on the ground.” This collection showed tentative progress: a coastal palette of coconut, yellow, navy and turquoise will be universally flattering, but as the house rolls into its 100th anniversary celebration next year—amazingly, Marcel was only 23 when he set up shop—it will need to ease up a bit on the past and focus on its future. No logo, however sleek, can prove a house’s relevance for the 21st century.