“This is my last show,” Simon Porte Jacquemus announced solemnly on his Instagram Stories yesterday—cue a severe intake of industry and influencer breath. Then he swiftly added: “of the year.”
Pranked. “We wanted to have a bit of fun with our brand,” he declared. So, on December 12, 2022, possibly the most extreme late-date upon which any fashion show has ever taken place in Paris, there we were at Le Bourget airport, suddenly transported into Jacquemus’s vision of summer. A collection he’d named ‘Raphia.’
Under a straw-storm that rained from above, we watched as his humongous cartwheel sun hats came out, balanced over his tiny cutaway things, some with trails, others with slinkily bunchy drapes, and still more with bits and pieces suspended from skimpy lingerie straps and held on with criss-crossed shoelaces in the back.
Sectioned into trilogies—three related outfits at a time—looks for women and men came out, walking along the perimeter of a circular, curtained space evoking a sundown situation. “Solar” was his word for it. Sunny. Sunshine yellow through ecru, pink, and red. Beachy sarongs, tiny shorts and soft-psychedelia ’70s-ish prints. It was a happily playful—yet skillfully carried out—excursion around all of the youthful, sexily revealing, quirkily accessorised bases he’s been building for his brand since 2009. This one, he said, was inspired by “girls you imagine in Portofino and Capri, going around with their hats and earrings and polkadot pants.”
There were mad fringed raffia hats, poufs of straw decorating triangle-shouldered tailoring, and one whole shaggy coat that was a collaboration with Lesage, the French haute couture embroidery house. Clutched in hands were soft bags (a new contrast to the miniscule Jacquemus purses of fame). And amongst the shoes—clogs and strappy stilettos—the pointy toes implanted with a circle and a square on each toe, his own signature invention.
Porte Jacquemus is famed for his love of creating environmental scenarios—and for projecting the imagery with which he’s gathered an adoring public around him. Friends and influencers turned up at Le Bourget already dressed in the collection that was on the runway; others were wearing pieces from the one he showed in June. “You know, often they go more viral than the show,” he observed, smiling as he watched them walking in on the backstage monitor. “It’s different, dressing real people who are not models. I love it. People find them relatable.”
Somehow, his talent is for humorous exaggeration (just look at those giant daisy earrings!) and for French romance, combined with a down-to-earth instinct for reality. This collection, in the last gasp of 2022, showed all of that at his best. “And tomorrow it starts to drop,” he added. “Not everything, but people shouldn’t have to wait.”
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