Giant Ruffles and Even Bigger Hats: Jacquemus at Paris Fashion Week

Walking into the Jacquemus show back on the first day of Paris Fashion Week, I had a sort of flashback the designer’s presentation one year prior, in which a white horse and small children with giant balls of fabric figured prominently. It was the first day of shows, and his name was on everyone’s lips; the collection as well as its theatrical presentation just brought more buzz.

All images by Jessa Carter

While last year’s show had a bold and exaggerated sense of play, what we saw last Tuesday was far more refined and sophisticated—yet truly, no less spirited.

In the space of twelve months Simon Jacquemus has beautifully repackaged the youthful energy that fueled his earliest collections and turned it into a kind of timeless, well-humored poise. 

“He’s growing up,” said Olivia Kim when we discussed it a few days after, “but not losing any of that levity.”

All the models in Tuesday’s show wore large straw hats made by a traditional hat fabricator in the South of France. Rich linen and clean white lace repeated throughout, and several of the standout pieces had wide shoulder pads and circular pleated ruffle-like forms kicking out along their hemlines.

These were references to traditional folklore, a sort of love song to the French countryside. And it’s people.

“I think that he isn’t really a Parisian designer,” Olivia said as we made our way through the showroom the following Saturday. “He’s a French designer.” For context, imagine what it means to be a New Yorker versus an American. The latter takes into account the urban, forward-thinking motion, but it also includes quiet farmland, stunning coastlines, placid valleys and wide open plains.

The collection for spring modernizes the French countryside for the fast-track city girl, and the pieces that Olivia and her team are selecting for our stores are about bringing those crisp and textural, voluminous and detailed references across the ocean for you.

Here are a few of our favorite highlights.

EXPLORE: current-season Jacquemus | all emerging designers | all designer collections

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—Laura Cassidy

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