For his fall 2024 Rochas presentation, the brand's new ready-to-wear creative director, Alessandro Vigilante, had about a dozen models circling (or lounging) around a square room, with walls and the furniture covered in bright pink fabric.
You couldn't tell if it was a cocktail party or a boudoir: the shimmering satins and coiled silver fringe suggested the former, and the easy robe jackets and luxurious materials evoked the latter.
Vigilante seems agnostic about such distinctions, pairing satin duvets with a clutch coat and a sleek bomber jacket, or pairing a fitted cardigan with a trumpet-shaped tiered evening skirt.
Her first effort for the heritage brand, founded in 1925 by Marcel Rochas, suggests a love of color and cues of femininity that Rochas himself used: lace, peplums, and screen-mermaid glamour, among them.
“It's a first step,” said Vigilante, a soft-spoken designer prone to keeping pins in the folds of his pants or his sweater, always ready for a test.
“Everyday fantasy,” she said of her approach, and that's as good a description as any for hydrangea-shaped embroidery on pointy pumps, a raincoat made from a shiny technical velvet, or cargo pants made from an elegant masculine tweed.
Vigilante is the latest second-in-command talent to recently emerge from the shadows and land a top design position. He previously worked in the studio for brands such as The Attico, Dolce & Gabbana, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Gucci, and hopes to stage a show in September.
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