Lemaire RTW Spring 2019

Every designer has to accept that their designs are like children — at some point you have to let go and send them off into the world to live their lives. To that end, Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran showed their spring collection as more of a group of characters on a stage, surrounding a live performance by Eva Moolchan, rather than a straight runway show. The male and female models were encouraged to be themselves, walk around, dance if they wanted to. “We wanted to bring life a little bit,” said Lemaire after the show. “Style is very much about character. Cinema is very much an inspiration for us because it’s the actress or actor who make the clothes stylish or not, right? As designers, we can only do half the job.”

If the presentation wasn’t exactly true to life, it helped to see the models inject their own attitude into the clothes more than a standard, semi-robotic runway show. The collection was full of layered looks that enveloped the body in soft volume. Folding and knotting techniques nodded to a subtle martial arts reference, though nothing felt particularly Eastern-inspired. The palette built from dusty neutrals and pastels, like khaki, buttery yellow and pale purple, to deeper shades of rust, red and gold with a few prints scattered in. One was originally inspired by cowhide but read as inkblots. There were water-colored florals and marbled denim, too.

Summoning personalities to flesh out the clothes was wise. They were cut in the kind of generous, chic, but not uncomplicated proportions that could easily wear you, not the other way around. It takes a certain cerebral swagger to dominate a big papery shirtdress worn over matching pants that were wide through the leg and then laced tight from the mid-calf down. You either have it or you don’t.

Launch Gallery: Lemaire RTW Spring 2019

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