Stéphane Rolland Fall 2024 Couture: An Ode to Paris
in the 1940s and 1950s.
Stéphane Rolland was frank when discussing the inspiration for his Fall/Winter 2024 Couture collection: "This show is a tribute to Paris." He imagined the city in the 1940s and the 1950s with its glamour and its elegance.
He shared how he "started with the poetry of Jacques Prévert and the photos of the famous French photographer Brassaï" and then "translated their work, their art, their sensibility into the collection"
With this, his stunning range had notions of a black-and-white French capital, filled with fog, mystery and sexiness. It is exactly what you would envision of Paris then and even today.
“It’s very emotional,” Rolland said. “It is the Paris of Yves Montand, of [Édith] Piaf, of Jeanne Moreau when she was young. It’s the kind of Paris I love, because it’s not obvious. It’s discreet and shiny at the same time, and deep. I like the secret part.”
He has famously shared how his mother worked at Pictorial Service, one of the most famous Parisian photographic studios, and he grew up surrounded by black-and-white photographs. This is now in his DNA and this translates into each factor of this range and show.
Taking place at the Salle Pleyel theater, the catwalk display was synonymous of a black-and-white movie, apt for the '40s or '50s. Models wore dresses decorated with stones and feathers. Rolland worked wool crepe and velvet, alongside gazar, tulle and satin for sheer elegance.
Deep-plunging necklines with bare backs and diamond belts looped around skin, added to the glamour. A standout was a dinner dress in black velvet accompanied with a belt and brooch in diamonds - simple but oh-so classy.
Elsewhere, there was a bubble dress in black gazar and draped black tulle top with a diamond brooch, a long cut-out dress in black velvet adorned with a brooch and headpiece in emeralds and diamonds, and a long dress in nude tulle and white gazar, a chest sculpture in black silk gazar, all set with cabochon sapphires and diamonds.
Other pieces so visually striking you will not be able to stop thinking about them include a black jersey sweater dress embroidered with long black feathers with a short white tweed jacket embroidered with crystal and a ball gown in white and black satin duchess.
The final look was fit for a bride and involved a giant “alcove” hood embroidered with porcelain and white organza petals. A skirt with train in white wool gazar completes the look.
“This collection is probably one of my favorites I’ve ever done,” Rolland said. “It’s more than 100 percent myself. I went to the essential. I really wanted to come back to the fundamental French elegance.”
He did it. This is a collection we will be thinking about for the years to come.
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