lemaire Fall Winter 2023 – 2024, Silhouettes pass and cross paths at the Jussieu campus built in the early 1960s.
They draw close to one another, pause, and follow each other in the lines they take and trails they leave, experimenting with new ways of coming together. In this free-flowing movement of bodies, contrasts, characters, differences, genders and ages, lemaire has created a singular presence.
The ample, almost oversize volumes lend movement to garments tightened by ties, loosened by a long collar opening, or pulled taut by a string of off-centerbuttons. The wardrobe shifts between forms and functions: a uniform is rematched with a different shade, pajamas turn into a suit, a double-breasted jacket a cardigan, a cardigan a coat, a sleeveless down jacket an overcoat, a knit into fur, shoes into slippers. The collection ( leimaire fall winter 2023 – 2024 ) is more relaxed – somewhere between restraint and letting loose, structured and deconstructed.
New folk syntheses and crossing between East and West emerge in a foulard tied around the neck, a quilted collar placed on a jacket, a frill opening the bottom of a dress. Eminently urban silhouettes – large collars, blouses, pockets and bags – appear poised for departure on a citybound journey through time.
lemaire has continued its collaboration with noviadi angkasapura, an Indonesian artist known for his hybrid, epic drawings, whose spiritual messages feature on silk garments.
Materials and densities strike dissonant notes: an airy dress takes on weighty wool, a flowing skirt is paired with a heavy knit, silk streams from the opening of a maxi-parka to frame the entire silhouette, dry silk meets boiled Shetland wool, seersucker wool and silk, quilted cotton. Measures and substance surprise the touch, from alpaca to merino, printed silk Jacquard (by noviandi angkasapura), and shearling.
lemaire fall winter 2023 – 2024 of bark and stone, rain-soaked lichen and moss: roasted pistachio green, a leafy infused-tea green, pale and translucent greens, patinated greys, river granites. The wardrobe is piece-dyed to weather the materials and their indigos, pigmentary tones, and mauves.
The volumes are cinched at points by a two-tone scarf-bag, worn as an urban quiver across the chest, and leather boots tied at the ankles. Pouches and exo-pouches, not unlike foragers’ satchels, wrap around the silhouette. An off-beat little fleece-lined bag with a double zip and a wide camera strap looks like the revisited vanity case of a mysterious reporter from a different era. The accessories – untied ties around the neck, long ribbon earrings – lend momentum to the stride of the silhouette.
All images lemaire Fall Winter 2023 – 2024 by Lemaire