(Paris) “It was time to return to the parade”: after several seasons of artistic films, the Frenchman Stéphane Rolland brings his haute couture “rock” dresses to life at the Chaillot theater in front of more than 450 guests.
Posted at 2:17 p.m.
The show begins with a tribute to fashion designer Thierry Mugler, who died on Sunday, who pioneered show shows as we know them today and from which “each of us retains an emotion”.
“It’s good that it’s starting again, it was about time,” Stéphane Rolland told AFP in his studio, making the final touches the day before the show.
The movements of the muslin on the draped toga dresses hypnotize, huge hoods evoke a mystery, the bare backs that emerge from the sculpted volumes fascinate.
The oversized pebble jewels reflect the couturier’s passion for stone and counterbalance the lightness of the fabrics: these “rock” dresses weigh nothing.
“We find my essentials with more sensuality, more lightness, like a new chapter,” he summarizes.
Russian and Middle Eastern customers
In the midst of the Omicron wave, most of the participants in the Parisian haute couture week opted for the parades. The Julien Fournié house, whose physical parade was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, nevertheless gave up on it last week, for fear of creating “a cluster Parisian haute couture”.
“I hesitated for a long time, more out of ethics, telling myself it might not be serious and I said to myself ‘no one is going to come, people are going to be scared'”, says Stéphane Rolland.
“We had to say no every day, there were a lot of requests, I would be at 2,000 guests if I didn’t hold back,” he continues.
Many of its customers from the Middle East and Russia have indeed been able to travel to Paris, driving up the rate of mink and other real furs at a fashion event while luxury brands are giving it up one after another, Moncler being the latest on Tuesday.
COVID-19, overnight
Enthused by the thirst for fashionistas for the real show, Stéphane Rolland also feels responsible for “a whole industry behind it” having suffered from the health crisis which forced fashion to take refuge in the virtual
“I saw certain companies in the process of collapsing, caterers, hairdressers… For the models, it was terrible. They are not supported by the State, in France we have been extremely helped, but the girls who come from all countries have not experienced this at all and have found themselves in extremely precarious situations”.
Some models selected during the auditions were finally unable to parade, because declared positive for COVID-19.
“It’s unheard of, but I was very lucky: only four to five changes out of a cabin of 20 girls,” he says.
“COVID-19 cases happen overnight, you do a fitting and the next day the girl can’t do the show anymore because she has COVID-19. There is everything to redo, all the alterations have been made before. Last-minute withdrawals are very complicated to manage,” says the designer.