Is sending out looks single file down a runway not enough anymore?
Not for design duo Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran, who staged a performance at the Opéra Bastille in collaboration with French scenographer Nathalie Béasse to parade their fall collection.
“Today, we’re in a world where things tend to be a little bit dehumanized and sometimes fashion is also a little bit too materialistic,” Lemaire said backstage after the show. “At the end of the day, it’s interesting to show people, diversity of characters, human depth. Style for us is very much personality.”
With Shakespeare’s Sonnet 141 floating in the air, groups appeared on the semi-circular stage, slipping out quietly or appearing in energetic clusters, going this way and that. In the cast were experts at deploying presence and telegraphing emotion, such as South Korean actress Doona Bae, Japanese actor Kazuya Tanabe and American dancer Julie Anne Stanzak, a member of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, who pirouetted her way through her turn.
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Despite the duo’s self-described “pragmatic” approach to clothing, these felt like bit-players in this fall production. Floaty dresses and fluid suits fluttered by, telegraphing the sensuality that is a Lemaire mainstay. Examples of their handsome coats and breezy shirting passed through. Backstage, Tran spoke of coated denims that looked like leather or aluminum, while the women’s silhouettes played on light-catching textures.
Blame the setup, which gave some guests a bird’s-eye view on the proceedings, but what remained was more vibes than details.