Since he’s stepping into his 20th-anniversary year, Alexis Mabille decided to kick off the celebrations by doing things a little differently.
For his lookbook, he invited chosen family—a glamorous lineup of creatives and tastemakers including Ellen von Unwerth, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Dita von Teese, Jordan Roth, Audrey Marnay, Bérénice Bejo, Robert Carsen, Tina Leung, and Zita d’Hauteville—to pose wearing creations that nodded to the sartorial lexicon he began compiling in 2005.
Many of those faces, plus a smattering of couture clients, performers, stylists, and editors, turned up Monday night at a cozy friends-and-family dinner in the back room at Caviar Kaspia. “I didn’t want to do a big, expensive show when all I feel like doing is hang out with the people who’ve been with me from the beginning,” Mabille offered. The vibe was such that guests from another house’s party peeled off to check out what they were missing.
If the looks featured here did not make the guestlist, it’s because quarters are too close at Kaspia. The glacier blue “Disc” coat in quilted duchesse satin, a summer “fur” in gradient pleated, frayed organza, a floral-embroidered bustier dress with a sweeping tulle petticoat and several quilled numbers demand a grander stage.
Most of these were presented in Mabille’s showroom-boutique in the Passage Vivienne this week. Thirty-five looks were inspired by the arc of his career thus far: A boutis-stitched bolero in black silk, worn here with a bustier sheath in leopard brocade scattered with stone embroidery and tufts of white fur, dates from the designer’s 2005 debut. Otherwise, not-so classic classics were revisited in function of each wearer’s personality. A violet crepe sheath was cinched with a bow in matching satin and lamé; a velvet column dress tricked out with crystal buttons amped up an hourglass figure; a smoking jacket festooned with ostrich feathers did double duty as a minidress. Voluminous petticoats fused flounce with cheeky transparency. In a midnight blue grouping, a sheath dress with tonal embroidery (here on Swedish model and actress Emma Wiklund) looked like it could work on women of any generation. As ideas go, it was more generous, even, than the dollops of caviar at Kaspia.
