French designer Alphonse Maitrepierre honed his knack for cut and craft with the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier and Acne Studios. Now flying solo, it’s his tongue-in-cheek twists that catch the eye, be it a handbag shaped like a PlayStation controller or an elegantly-attired alien. It felt logical that his muse of the season is the artist Ai-Da, a humanoid robot invented by British gallerist Aidan Meller who learned to paint thanks to machine learning.
The look: A history of couture meets Gen-Z, taking shapes and exacting technical details from the former, on which the digitally-generated prints, knack for splicing and general disregard for gender of the latter were overlaid.
Quote of note: “Ai-Da has the entire history of art into her algorithms and I loved the vision that we too integrate the codes [of fashion] in the same way,” he said after the show.
Standout pieces: Seams curled around the leg transformed tailored trousers into altogether more exciting proposals; New Look-esque hourglass jackets with a hood; a cropped hybrid of a Spencer jacket and top; a host of oddly attractive items like a double-ended slip dress or stirrup leggings worn with opera-length gloves.
Takeaway: Blending well-executed 1950s couture with more of-the-moment ideals, particularly the gender-irrelevant approach, makes Maitrepierre’s work feel exciting. So did his sense of showmanship. Finnish-French singer Prudence, formerly of buzzy group The Dø, closed the show in a voluminous feathered jacket, singing one of her solo debut tracks, to the delight of the audience.
Source: WWD