Nordstrom Fashion Blog: Paris Fashion Week: SPACE Brand Ellery Remembers Corsets, Flared Trousers, and the Value of the Printed Page

One of the industry’s biggest benefits when a magazine editor crosses over to the design world? She brings the magazines with her. That’s what’s up with Kym Ellery, who left gorgeously tactile digest-sized, book-like magazines on all the front row seats at her Palais de Tokyo Fall 2016 runway presentation.

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She had some pretty great other things for her audience, too: liquid gold lame, double silk georgette, turn-of-the-century blouses, lingerie, fur and those trademark flares. Tucked inside the mag was this explanation: “It’s a collection that explores the contrast between old and new… A sudden click, a lightbulb, a fleeting feeling, remembering something that doesn’t necessarily exist.”

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The Ellery look is all about the comfort of the feminine flourish; the luxurious pool of fabric, the trumpet-shaped grandeur of a sleeve, the insanely beautiful decadence of velvet. The feminine flourish turn of the 19th Century—the starting point of “the old” that Kym referenced for this collection—wasn’t nearly so comfortable. The fabric pools were heavy, the ruffles were a burden and the elegance was restrictive; you were literally strapped in.

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Each piece, and the overall vision, was about the dovetail of those differences. The doing-away-with of the Victorian constraint, and the reimagining of its best and most beautiful ideas for modern times.

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The corset was embedded in the bodice, the lace-up bootie was in blue velvet, the long silhouettes were split to bear the thigh and structure fit loosely over free-flowing double silk georgette.

The idea of sensuality was key—on the runway and also in the magazine; in fact, one feature had art director Bruna Volpi, stylist Ludivine Poiblanc, photographer Akila Berjaoui and others take a stab at defining it.

Other hits in the magazine: a photo essay by Ellery that reads like a stream of consciousness mood board, a look book of the current season, an architecture feature, and a list of handwritten anonymous memories from stylists, production crew members, designers and more.

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