Feb 2017
A decade on from creating the hit Galaxy dress that became a defining look of the noughties, Roland Mouret has celebrated the 20th anniversary of his label by bringing his catwalk show home from Paris to London for fashion week.
And that dress was back, too – in spirit, at least. “When I think about the Galaxy dress now, I see that it was all about the women who wanted to wear it,” Mouret said backstage after the show at the National Theatre on Sunday, referring to the curvy, back-zipped dresses that made him a star.
“It wasn’t the dress that said anything, it was the women who wore that dress who had something to say. It was a dress for a woman who knows her body. A woman who is in a relationship with a man but who also goes out into the world and has a life outside of that relationship, too. That inner woman is the icon, not the dress.”
The anniversary show – his first in London after 10 years of showing his collections in Paris – was a celebratory affair, with the foyer of the National Theatre turned into a catwalk. It provided a suitably theatrical atmosphere for the wearing of high-voltage dresses on a grey Sunday morning, and an appropriate setting for a designer who rivals Stella McCartney as one of Britain’s foremost names in red-carpet fashion. At last week’s Bafta awards, the author JK Rowling and the Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley both wore Roland Mouret.
The Galaxy elements on this catwalk were updated for 2017. The cleavage that was an essential part of the dress when it was worn a decade ago by everyone from Cameron Diaz to Carol Vorderman is now out of fashion, so the distinctive origami folds of the neckline were raised several inches higher and instead of framing a balcony-hoisted decollete, they accentuated bare shoulders.
The full-length back zip was present and correct, made even more steamy by being emphasised with a small keyhole of cut-out fabric in the small of the back. The fabric has also moved with the times, from stretch crepe to wool knit and velvet, which give the shape of the body a less stark frame.
Mouret was born in Lourdes, south-west France, where his father was a butcher, but now lives between London and Suffolk. His UK-based company employs 75 people, and has been a champion of British manufacturing.
Sunday’s show, which was attended by about 100 of Mouret’s best customers, as well as editors and retailers, was set to a ***** soundtrack that began with Burt Bacharach’s The Look of Love and ended with Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man. It was followed by a champagne trunk show at which orders were being taken for delivery in a few months’ time.
The only archive design Mouret resurrected faithfully was a dress from his pre-Galaxy days, of which no pattern existed because “in those days, I just draped and sewed the dresses on to the girls”.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/evening-dresses | www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-2017
And that dress was back, too – in spirit, at least. “When I think about the Galaxy dress now, I see that it was all about the women who wanted to wear it,” Mouret said backstage after the show at the National Theatre on Sunday, referring to the curvy, back-zipped dresses that made him a star.
“It wasn’t the dress that said anything, it was the women who wore that dress who had something to say. It was a dress for a woman who knows her body. A woman who is in a relationship with a man but who also goes out into the world and has a life outside of that relationship, too. That inner woman is the icon, not the dress.”
The anniversary show – his first in London after 10 years of showing his collections in Paris – was a celebratory affair, with the foyer of the National Theatre turned into a catwalk. It provided a suitably theatrical atmosphere for the wearing of high-voltage dresses on a grey Sunday morning, and an appropriate setting for a designer who rivals Stella McCartney as one of Britain’s foremost names in red-carpet fashion. At last week’s Bafta awards, the author JK Rowling and the Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley both wore Roland Mouret.
The Galaxy elements on this catwalk were updated for 2017. The cleavage that was an essential part of the dress when it was worn a decade ago by everyone from Cameron Diaz to Carol Vorderman is now out of fashion, so the distinctive origami folds of the neckline were raised several inches higher and instead of framing a balcony-hoisted decollete, they accentuated bare shoulders.
The full-length back zip was present and correct, made even more steamy by being emphasised with a small keyhole of cut-out fabric in the small of the back. The fabric has also moved with the times, from stretch crepe to wool knit and velvet, which give the shape of the body a less stark frame.
Mouret was born in Lourdes, south-west France, where his father was a butcher, but now lives between London and Suffolk. His UK-based company employs 75 people, and has been a champion of British manufacturing.
Sunday’s show, which was attended by about 100 of Mouret’s best customers, as well as editors and retailers, was set to a ***** soundtrack that began with Burt Bacharach’s The Look of Love and ended with Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man. It was followed by a champagne trunk show at which orders were being taken for delivery in a few months’ time.
The only archive design Mouret resurrected faithfully was a dress from his pre-Galaxy days, of which no pattern existed because “in those days, I just draped and sewed the dresses on to the girls”.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/evening-dresses | www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-2017
