Christophe Lemaire's self-described ambition is the "ideal, essential wardrobe", a project that finds him tweaking, rather than reinventing, his collection season after season. His sensibility is nomadic, temporally and geographically both. He borrows freely from global traditions (who else offers a "Maoist architect jacket ?") and skips lightly through history. Fifties workwear of Chinese, American and African extraction, Forties textiles, Eighties new wave shapes -they all go into the pot. For this season's collection, Christophe Lemaire channeled "a mood of tropical night". It brought him to a lush print of flowers blooming on dark ground, and a new palette of rich cadet blues and bottle greens that, more than his usual pale neutrals, intensified his unadorned creations, from big-shouldered, boxy blazers to pleated carrot pants. "I let myself go a little bit", he explained. Wretched excess it isn't, but the relaxation suits him. Moreover, Christophe Lemaire has a total product wonk's eye for detail, and his idea of luxury is design that merges functionality with style, and never traffics in ostentation. His maths are less is more. Every piece of the collection added to the puzzle of the ideal estival garde-robe and nourished the fantasy of a light suitcase filled only with the essentials : five or six items at most, complementary, convertible and flexible for a journey to a tropical land during monsoon. The signature volumes, generous and comfortable, were enriched by sportswear accents : visible gunmetal snaps, enducted fabrics, folded seems, functional interiors, and constructions giving ease -mohair suits were willingly überwide.
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