La Raphia. Jacquemus SS23

In the middle of winter, Jacquemus transported our minds to hot, sun-drenched summer. That’s the effect of “La Raphia” – the spring-summer 2023 collection he presented yesterday in Paris. Under a straw-storm that rained from above, his humongous cartwheel sun hats came out, balanced over his tiny cutaway things, some with trails, others with slinkily bunchy drapes, and still more with bits and pieces suspended from skimpy lingerie straps and held on with criss-crossed shoelaces in the back. Beachy sarongs, tiny shorts and soft-psychedelia ’70s-ish prints were all over the place, too. It was a happily playful excursion around all of the youthful, sexily revealing, quirkily accessorised bases he’s been building for his brand since 2009. This one, he said, was inspired by “girls you imagine in Portofino and Capri, going around with their hats and earrings and polkadot pants.” But there was something dramatic, Pedro Almodóvar-esque about it as well. There were mad fringed raffia hats, poufs of straw decorating triangle-shouldered tailoring, and one whole shaggy coat that was a collaboration with Lesage, the French haute couture embroidery house. Clutched in hands were soft bags (a new contrast to the miniscule Jacquemus purses of fame). And amongst the shoes the pointy toes implanted with a circle and a square on each toe, his own signature invention. Simon Porte Jacquemus is famed for his love of creating environmental scenarios—and for projecting the imagery with which he’s gathered an adoring public around him. Friends and influencers turned up at Le Bourget already dressed in the collection that was on the runway; others were wearing pieces from the one he showed in June. Jacquemus is all about humorous exaggeration and French romance, combined with a down-to-earth instinct for reality. This collection, in the last gasp of 2022, showed all of that at his best.