Another season, another postcard show by Jacquemus presented in a very Jacquemus-esque location. We’ve had lavender fields in the south of Provence, we went to a beach in Hawaii and visited Fondation Maeght near the idyllic Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Yesterday, the French designer flew his muses and friends to Capri and drove them to the flame-red Villa Malaparte to be exact. Designed by Adalberto Libera for Curzio Malaparte, starring in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Le Mépris” and once photographed by Karl Lagerfeld for a coffee-table book, this place is charged with history and a certain art-centric aura. Did Simon Porte Jacquemus do this place justice via his new season clothes? The designer has a tendency to scout highly-photogenic locations and create a masterful marketing ploy around it that certainly fuels an instant selling boost of his brand. If that strategy didn’t do commercial wonders, he wouldn’t repeat it each season. But the actual clothes tend to meander and stumble, being largely disconnected from the location except for a couple of architectural, yet flat-looking silhouettes, and the fluffy coat-dress that visually reassembled the bathrobe Brigitte Bardot wore in the aforementioned Godard film. I also didn’t feel Capri-ness in this collection. Everything looked quite stiff, even over-calculated, lacking a sense of sprezzatura. While menswear had daring moments – like tops derived from sailor’s smocks or really good looking pants with sharp pleats – womenswear was rather uninspiring and repetitive, focusing on flowing sack-dresses and hourglass silhouette that made the models look too covered-up. One can’t not respect what Jacquemus built: a successful, independent brand that’s based on a childhood dream. But I wish the designer was more of a designer when it comes to his fashion. 

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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