Alexis Mabille's haute couture outings have always leant towards his love of all things ultra feminine with the bow as his central motif that always pushes saccharine above all else. For his first womenswear ready to wear show, Mabille seemed to want to explore more casual offerings and reconcile that with his own aesthetic and penchant for all things girly. The playful attitude of the season started off with a quilted cotton dress that then came with a matching hooded jacket with large fishnet tights used in every instance that evoked ballet shoe criss-crossing ribbons. Mabille applied decorative elements such as Viscontian embroidery into daywear that was perhaps a means of making his RTW collection distinctive from his couture offerings. The bow this time came worked into corset lace-up detailing as little leather bows on a matching skirt or enlarged onto an off-shoulder body con dress. All the white howlite jewellery jangled as necklaces and around the ankles with arabesque sandals. Mabille's frou frou sensibility did get taken down a notch but this was his solution to transfer his dreamer's aesthetic to a real proposition.
Dazed Digital: You played with a lot of the contrasts in your collection but was there an overriding theme?
Alexis Mabille: The idea was about a lovely girl who loves to have fun and she's playful - she could be a woman and a girl at the same time. She plays with the rule and she's super sexy. She's also incredibly bourgeoise in order to be seductive.
DD: Your signature is the bow and how did that get worked into the collection time round?
Alexis Mabille: They're used in a different way this time. You have the more first degree way to put it on a dress They're also used on the back of the shirt like the collar becoming a bow or you just have a ribbon along the skirt. Everything is very seductive - they might be on the back or they're used to play with body shapes with a bit of naivety to them.
DD: The jewellery also made quite a nosie.
Alexis Mabille: Yes, it's a howlite stone and I like the idea of the more raw jewellery mixed with rhinestones and pearls and more refined things.
