There’s a certain emotion involved in attending a young designer’s first Couture show. Laurence André’s for Autumn Winter 2010-2011 was very moving and above all beautiful.
Trained as an architect, Laurence André offers architectural yet delicate dresses for the modern, urban woman who likes to stand out while retaining a touch of mystery. The Belgian designer plays with volumes with subtlety, offering an uncomplicated style far removed from the shackles of traditional fashion. From her background as an architect, Laurence André has retained a love of shapes and structures, which she transcribes into her collection with a genius-like sense of purity.
A graduate of the Institut supérieur d’architecture Lambert Lombard, Laurence spent 4 years as a design architect in a Parisian agency. Then, following meetings with stylist Frédéric Blanc and Rossana de Sordi (Espace des Créateurs in Paris), the young woman decided to put forward a capsule collection of 10 models, structured and built in volume in the image of architecture. For her “collection 2”, the designer used bold, beautiful materials: second-skin leather, soft cashmere, wool crepe, draped silk chiffon, which she sublimates in a palette of autumnal colors: navy blue, chocolate, gray, deep duck green and, of course, black.
Laurence André has chosen leather, a rather masculine material, as the leitmotif of her collection and a symbol of sensuality and mystery. From the very first model, the tone is set: leather delicately accessorizes a wool crepe dress with edging, and takes shape in the form of a bolero.
Throughout the collection, leather appears here and there in small touches or as the main material, as in this slit dress in navy blue leather. It emphasizes curves by being close to the body, but skilfully avoids the overly sexy leather dress thanks to the shape of the highly structured butterfly sleeves. The silhouette is sensual but definitely chic. Walter Steiger made no mistake, offering graphic, structured shoes in perfect harmony with the collection.
Leather becomes strapless in a leather and cashmere dress covered by a micro jacket. The high, marked waist is the perfect fit for a modern, resolutely urban woman who never forgets to be chic.
Cashmere, chiffon, satin and leather wrap beautifully, revealing themselves as feuilletés or draped, intertwined, structured in modules and embracing or extending the silhouette, but always with one dominant feature: leather. Leather provides the perfect structure, as in the “cornets” mini-dress in satin, chiffon and green leather, or the “carrousel” dress in satin, chiffon drape and leather.
We’re dazzled by this elliptical stand-up collar jacket in chocolate cashmere, or this butterfly dress with a bare back in grey cashmere, delicately belted in leather.
Laurence André’s Autumn Winter 2010-2011 collection is a real success for her first show. The designer draws us the lines of her stylistic identity and expresses her sensibility as a woman deeply rooted in her time and in love with shapes and structure. And a look at this collection makes you feel right at home in leather…
Photo credit: ©Marie-Odile Radom
Marie-Odile Radom
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