Quiet luxury doesn’t have to be a snooze fest. At least not in the opinion of design duo Sarah-Linh Tran and Christophe Lemaire.
With the intensity of life these days, you need to be “present and alert,” Tran said after the show. As a result, the designers dialed the Lemaire tone up from breezy nonchalance to energetic confidence with a lineup rife with marked shoulders, tightly belted waists and plenty of tailored leather outerwear.
More than ever, the designers sought a balance between utilitarian shapes — roomy overcoats, ‘70s suiting, workwear-inflected trousers and jackets, to name a few — and the fluid sensuality of balloon skirts and bias-cut dresses.
Throughout, they distilled what Lemaire called “a strange normality” while keeping wearability paramount.
This translated into staples given subtle revisits that included proportions devised to lengthen the silhouette; asymmetric panels and hemlines giving an off-kilter feel, as if clothes had been pulled on in haste, or pockets placed askew, a move that created visual intrigue — and made them more readily accessible.
Adding to the impression were accessories, created with Vienna-based design workshop Carl Auböck, that turned functional items such as magnifying glasses, pens or even a minute brush into talisman-like jewels.
Layers were used sparingly, mostly as a device to draw attention to a chiseled neckline or impeccable play of lapels, highlight juxtaposed textures or showcase a tonal palette. The design duo also leaned further into color, with pops of vermillion, pale yellow or shades of blue and lavender.
As classics emerge as a major direction from Parisian runways, Lemaire felt at once in step with the movement while walking with gusto to its own tune.
