Show us the green, the dough, the brass. At LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi it was all about money, from the coins in every seat to the destroyed old bank where he performed his fall show on Wednesday.
After focusing on masculine sensuality, wildness and sensitivity in past seasons, the Parisian designer considered social status.
The lightning rod of the season was the 19th century novel “Bel-Ami”, where Guy de Maupassant narrates the rise of a socially ascending journalist.
“It's a reflection on suits and how for men, when you rent a suit, people look at you differently,” Nouchi told WWD in a preview. “The way we express outward signs of wealth and opulence in clothing.”
He searched the sartorial glossary of men's evening suits, tuxedos and tuxedos for both their structure and materials.
Satin became a high-shine leather and evoked fur by replicating its lush texture interpreted as jacquards, including a furry fil coupé. Applied to the strong shoulders and cinched-waist silhouette he favors, it made the collection walk a tightrope between serious and sleazy.
Details that played with sparkle included loafers and brogues with slits filled with oversized coins, courtesy of LGN's connection to France's sovereign mint, La Monnaie de Paris.
Since the protagonist of Maupassant's novel rises in society by seducing influential women, Nouchi felt it was the right time to introduce LGN's women's clothing, bringing out the idea of ”equality in terms of appearance,” Nouchi said. Changes were made slightly, a change of button side here, a reworked pattern around feminine curves there.
When asked to define her feminine archetype, she defined it as “central, fierce.”
If seeing Coco Rocha closing the show in a shirt and tie with a patent leather coat on top was anything to go by, she certainly looked the part.
