On the catwalk, sheer beauty: chiffon vests, slip dresses and blouses in feather-light Japanese cotton organza, with hand-cut velvet and lacquered appliqués taken from photographer Mapplethorpe's acclaimed flower images (a figure inspired by along the creative journey of Ludovic de Saint Sernin, who signs the collection). On bare skin, pure craftsmanship: bracelets, earrings and chokers bathed in 18k gold with black enamel (with the same starting point and produced, for the occasion, by TOUS master craftsmen).
The collaboration between the two brands shone, on February 11, in the French designer's first show at New York Fashion Week to present his FW24 collection. An initiative that reconfirmed TOUS's unstoppable and conscious commitment to the development of new alliances. On this occasion, together with one of the most visible and vocal representatives of the New Queer wave in fashion design.
“At TOUS, as a jewelry brand with a centuries-old legacy, we always bet on creativity and talent. For this reason, we are happy to collaborate with Ludovic de Saint Sernin in his first show at NYFW, giving life to the jewelry that accompanies the looks he presents at Fashion Week,” stated Israel L. Roca, TOUS Design Director.
The Paris-based couturier, whose eponymous brand was launched in 2017 to reinvent the meaning of beauty in the 21st century, without compromising craftsmanship and cut, has also celebrated his collaboration with the brand with more than 100 years of creative legacy, that revolutionized the jewelry sector based on a new vision of the role of jewelry in people's lives. And, above all things, a symbol of self-expression and creativity.
“TOUS has incredible savoir-faire in the field of fine jewelry, which it has been cultivating for over a century, and we were completely fascinated by its history. Jewelry is a discreet but incredibly important part of Mapplethorpe's work, so it was a great privilege to bring these pieces to life with TOUS,” said Ludovic de Saint Sernin.
His FW24 collection is the result of a partnership with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, created by the American photographer in 1988, a year before his death. Therefore, each garment and each piece of jewelry is conceived as an imagined collaboration between Ludovic and the late artist, in which the former brings to life both images selected from the photographer's archive and the characters seen in them.
This is the case of a naked silhouette holding a bouquet of lilies and which becomes, on the catwalk, a somber silk devoré, while sleeveless plastrons and dresses with spectrums of poppies, tulips and orchid branches are represented in glass and metal meshes. Each pixel-like dot is arranged with geometric precision and a single dress requires more than 100 hours of manual labor.
By framing the shadows of blooming flowers against the illusion of the models' bare skin, Saint Sernin invokes a crucial tension in Mapplethorpe's work. Black calfskin also serves as the collection's base material and can be seen in looks reminiscent of aviator jackets taken from the artist's self-portraits, with an intricate relief interpretation of his photograph Heart and Dagger (1982). .
