Julien Fournie

JULIEN FOURNIÉ – HAUTE COUTURE – A/W 2014/15

First Impulse

In the eleventh collection under his name, Julien Fournié operates radical choices to underline the essence of his style. The aesthetic impulse is set with shades of black singing thanks to a few chosen contratsing colors. “I’ve been thinking about the precise elegance of Maria Casarès in the 1945 movie by Robert Bresson Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne. How could I render the charm printed on film in black and white, and integrate it to the necessary colors of real life?” The inspiration for the couturier’s response was found “in German expressionism, and particularly in some works by painter Otto Dix, in the way he put colors side by side to create emotion.” Julien Fournié’s enchantresses “à la Anita Berber” are moulded in sharp cuts, infusing to any movement an aristocratic composure. Cut out in dense jerseys or surrounded by a swirl of chiffon, the curves of the bodies are dancing with nobility. The couturier’s universe, close to a David Lynch movie atmosphere this season, portrays sorceresses in essential cuts, printed thorns or spiky long necklaces they consider as talismans. In contrast to the arcanes of blacks, solid colors, inlays or brocade, bakelite embroideries illustrate the eternal struggle between mystery and shimmer, innocence and malice, Good and Evil. “Shadow cannot exist without light.” This is what these slender slender females could whisper to discerning ears .Whether they favour the pîeces from the first ready-to-wear line included in the show’s first silhouettes, whether they prefer sharp accessories or colorama derbies or whether they adore the spell of Couture total looks, they have chosen to assume their personality and transfiguration.