Nearly a century since the young couturier Marcel Rochas dazzled in Paris, an oneric underworld of strange beauty pulses through the Rochas SS 2022 collection designed by Charles de Vilmorin.
Paraded through the onorate salon on Mona von Bismarck’s Parisian fantasia, cinematic vignettes underpin vibrant new expressions of a poetic world on fire. A master of Surreal figuration, de Vilmorin’s plume conjures an illustrated universe of women: curlicues of black ink that reveal androgyne bodies in motion, expressionist portraits, and the dreamlike remnants of an ancestral home.
Weaving through a labyrinth of heightened gestures and emotion, the silhouette sublimates classical shapes with new lightness, deconstructing the whimsy of cotton dresses and parachute skirts hitched in tumbling volumes, crisp shirts unbuttoned in peeling drapes and gowns that glint in tiers of flaming plissé.
Colors glow in a harlequin palette of cobalt, lemon and flame reds that smoulder against charcoal and smoke. Leather crackles in varnished lambskin, metallic brocades dissolve into chiffon pleats, and flame lilies blossom over tattoo hosiers and dazzling embroidered jewels.
Traced across cloth in silvery flames, broderies anglaise figures and nature morte jacquard, de Vilmorin’s intricate illustrations converge with expressions of graphic purity, from fringe-beaded poplin checks and optic white tailoring to monochrome organza ruffles and halter tops draped in crushed mousseline.
Accenting the season’s enchanted personage with steampunk flourish, an array of platform motocross boots and peep toe sandals are embellished with stained glass beading, piercings, and tarnished buckles whilst square toe cuissards are trimmed in undulating organza waves.