TALENT SHOW: Not many fashion students can claim the presence of a first lady at their runway debut. With Brigitte Macron among the guests Monday afternoon at the Institut Français de Mode masters students’ show, the 27 fledgling designers showing for the opening of Paris Fashion Week could check that ambition off their bucket lists.
“They’re at masters level, and they have incredible mastery of their craft,” said Macron backstage, playing on the term for a postgraduate degree and the French word for skill. “I was captivated by their creativity, their energy.”
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Afterward, accompanied by newly named Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton executive Sidney Toledano, the first lady took the time to speak with a number of the designers and take a closer look at their creations.
Among them was French creative Alice Le Ster, from the IFM’s knitwear program, who is soon to start an internship at Alaïa. “She really took the time to look in detail, which is great, because when you see the designs, especially knitwear, on the runway, you don’t necessarily realize the intricacy involved,” said Le Ster. “She congratulated me and said the creativity was impressive.”
Le Ster took her inspiration from vintage jewelry she loves to find at flea markets, molding its shape into trompe l’oeil motifs or weaving it into the leather that she combined with knit elements in her designs.
From the Philippines, fashion masters student Jude Macasinag’s exuberant “Haute Queer-ture” collection also caught the first lady’s attention. “She was fascinated with the fabrications,” he said, highlighting a trailing gown made from denim coated with layers of paper, paint, glitter, foil and plastic.
There was also Marion Pellé, whose experience wearing an orthopedic corset as a child informed her designs, a combination of delicate knits with hand-molded, transparent asymmetric bodices made from resin molded on orthopedic mannequins.
“She told me it was very poetic and beautiful, and that I should persevere with my project,” Pellé said.
The students’ designs were made real thanks to the support of industry organizations including Les Teintures de France, behind the sculpted cape by Chinese designer Qfanhan Liu that opened the show, crafted from hundreds of leather scraps in the shape of autumnal leaves.
“It’s really satisfying to see their crazy ideas come to life,” said Serge Haouzi, manager of design for Les Teintures de France. “Nothing is impossible in their world.”
“These designers are at a point in their lives when they can create what they want,” said Claudio Rovere, president of another supporter of the program, Italian industry body HIND, representing 16 Italian suppliers. “They are at the height of their creativity.”
Adam Jones, director of the IFM’s knitwear bachelors and masters programs, said, “We push them very hard to create their own universe. They are all very different, they all have something strong to say, they’re all storytellers. No one needs any more clothes, but we’ll always need storytellers, and that’s what we’re trying to enable them to do.”
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