Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
PARIS, France — On the morning of his show, Christophe Lemaire was looking at his line-up when it occurred to him that his collection was looking a bit Bowie/Iggy in Berlin, circa late-70s, with its oversized, elongated boxiness and the influence it drew from Japanese workwear. Lemaire's signature has always been a combination of utility and quiet poetry, but his collaboration with Uniqlo has familiarised him with fashion produced on an industrial scale. Could it be that industrial edge was creeping into his own work?
A soundtrack of recorded messages from a British call-centre for the unemployed painted an aural picture of the human cost of industry. But those irritating voices were replaced by The Belldog, a track by Brian Eno and Cluster in which machines produced something lyrical, moving, emotional. That was a more appropriate sonic complement to Lemaire's uniforms. The boxy new proportion gave the clothes a slight, sensual slouch, the palette was all sorts of new colours for the designer. More appeal to the senses. Lemaire stepped back and took another look. "Dandy workwear," he decided, happy to be a part of the industry of human happiness.
