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PARIS, France — In a former life, Christophe Lemaire was a d.j., so it's always enlightening to see how he uses sound in his shows. His latest featured the ominous techno throb of an all-girl group from Dusseldorf, and that was significant.
The industrial noise, more determined, more urgent, more European than French, soundtracked a shift in sensibility for the collection offered by Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran. It was reflected in clothes with a new sharpness: less languor, more tailoring. Perhaps more urban, like the severe black shirtdress that opened the show, or the jackets and pants in corduroy.
If Spring left a lingering taste of raspberry, the new season replaced it with the metallic tang of silvered silk. Lemaire said they wanted a sense of women in a hurry, a little disordered. The hairdressers were told to make the models look “a little sweaty”.
But what was missing was the indolent eroticism that usually powers Lemaire’s collections, the idea that his woman’s “sweatiness” might have sprung from a love-in-the-afternoon scenario. Maybe it’s all about getting down to business for the designer and his partner now. On that level, at least, Lemaire and Tran showed a stellar bag collection.
