Fresh Reconstruction

PARIS, France —  Paris has always been the home of conceptual fashion. And with each new concept comes a new darling, of course. Never underestimate the power of hype in this industry. At the moment, Simone Porte Jacquemus, aka Jacquemus, is a perfect case in point. Everyone who's anyone attended his show yesterday, set in pitch-black darkness that kept one wondering where good sense had gone. Ah, of course! It has gone down the high-concept drain.

Jacquemus favours drama, dry theatrics and a dash of Dadaism. As the show started, the darkness was split in two by a blade of light, much as Martin Margiela used to do in his last few years at the helm of his label. The Margiela reference carried into the clothing too: oversized shapes, trousers-boots, sliced tailoring. This must have been intentional: Jacquemus entitled the show 'Reconstruction,' which recalls Margiela's deconstruction.

To make things a bit more playful — that is the Jacquemus trademark, after all — more references from Comme des Garçons and the great Jean Charles de Castelbajac were thrown into the mix. The collection had a deliberately childish, homemade quality which made it feel fresh. But it also came with the pretence of being something truly avant-garde. Well, it was not. The avant-garde questions the status quo and subverts it; this was just as referential as anything else we've seen this season. Jacquemus has some talent, that is for sure. But he needs to tame his ego and work a bit more on his ideas in order to progress and find his own voice.