Scene setting: Marine Serre took guests to the depths of northern Paris for S/S 2019. The designer accelerated into the season with a Formula 1-inspired offering, and the catwalk – a long industrial raised walkway ascending through a park and over a railway line – was like a racetrack zipping through the city.
Mood board: Serre only presented her debut catwalk show last season, but she has already cemented her spliced, hybridising and scuba-centric aesthetic on the Paris Fashion Week schedule. Earlier this month, she even launched her first Matchesfashion.com capsule collection. Serre’s approach is utilitarian, colourful and athletic. A blend of bodysuits and bourgeois foulard silks, wet suits and tessellated moon motifs. She named her S/S 2019 collection ‘Hardcore Couture’, a reference to the blood, sweat and tears felt by her team securing production chains for her burgeoning brand, but also its audacious and innovative approach to design.
Amongst an impressive array of neoprene bodysuits, flame-print leather looks, draped dresses made from patchwork t-shirts and trailing foulard silk dresses, there were more Haute Couture designs on display here. A scuba-suit ball gown with voluminous fabric ruffles, a moiré silk racing suit, a cocoon coat dangling with key rings. Impressively, around half of Serre’s designs featured upcycled fabrics, including its moon print denim. Like the children who walked down the catwalk in the show, her sustainable approach to high fashion really is doing it for the kids.
Team work: Serre’s ready-to-wear offering also saw a host of accessory collaborations, including a sock boot-like Chuck Taylor trainer and a babouche driving slipper, created in collaboration with jelly shoe specialist Melissa. As the shoes hit the industrial tarmac runway, far removed from the opulent Place Vendôme orientated shows of fashion week, they represented a designer with her feet firmly on the ground. Like the speedy Formula One events referenced in her collection, she’s also leading in the race of what luxury looks like now.
Marine Serre S/S 2019
Marine Serre S/S 2019
Marine Serre S/S 2019
Marine Serre S/S 2019
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