At Chloé, Natacha Ramsay-Levi has taken that balance in her stride. The collections that followed her first, in September 2017, have clarified her proposal for the market. Adjusting an expression that was initially way more complex than it is now. But while the applied art of fashion implies a need for functionality – something that is easy to wear – we still want it to look exceptional. This season, Ramsay-Levi nailed the relationship between the two.
When they announced their partnership on 23 February, Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada talked a lot about the importance of creativity in a business-led fashion landscape. Designers are pushed to sell, sell, sell. But in that transition the evolving point of view that could eventually really set off sales is often compromised.
At a brand dinner for her illustrious friends from the arts a few months ago, she had looked around the table – everyone dressed in Chloé – and felt the energy she wants to convey. To infuse her show with that spirit, she gathered a number of collaborators: the music producer Jackson scored a breathtaking original soundtrack with spoken poems by Marianne Faithfull. The artist Rita Ackermann created prints for the collection. And in between models, friends of Ramsay-Levi walked the show. The latter instantly brought a wider, more shopping-friendly point of view to proceedings, embracing different ages, shapes and personalities. But it was in the fit of garments that the democratic quality (saleable, if you will) of Ramsay-Levi’s contemplations shone through.
“The one reason I do this job is that these women were always questioning identity: What is femininity? But that’s something you can’t fixate. It’s very open,” she said, referring to her collaborators and muses. “It was this idea of, okay, at the end we make clothes, but what’s important at Chloé is the attitude. It’s this ability to experience what it is being a woman. You always reinvent and move the lines ”. Her statements reflected her own attitude towards her work at the house. Always open to the input of her surroundings while confidently setting an agenda. This season, that agenda was to be found in the ease with which she approached garments that could easily have ended up very difficult-looking.
To illustrate, a bustier seemingly cut from a blazer looked perfectly wearable belted over a knitted top, a rather oversized tweed tunic from the gentleman’s wardrobe was casually transformed into a dress. And a quite billowing ballgown was simply suspended off the body from a wildly embroidered necklace. Oh, and the jackets! So shoppable. “This collection is very personal, very intimate. I feel very comfortable at Chloé. I felt the need to say, I love this house and I want to embrace it. We have so much to say,” Ramsay-Levi noted. On the soundtrack, the magnificent voice of Marianne Faithfull cited lines from a Lord Byron poem that captured the collection well: “So soft, so calm, so eloquent.”
(📷: ALESSANDRO LUCIONI / GORUNWAY.COM)
source: Vogue
