Jacquemus showed its Spring/Summer 2021 collection about an hour outside of Paris yesterday, in accordance with France's latest social distancing guidelines. Around 100 guests were invited to see the new RTW collection, which was walked down a 600m wooden runway that snaked through a field of wild wheat.
The resulting visuals are a testament to a brand that developed a visual identity around the color beige – but made it sexy.
The new menswear offerings included an array of wearable pieces, such as oversized pewter cargo pants with excess straps (our must-cop for the season), leaf-print shirts, blue-and-white checkerboard pants, knitted polos, pencil-thin leather belts, Picasso-inspired prints, and sand-colored blazers with asymmetrical pockets.
Elsewhere, the collection's title "L'Amour" arrived a little too on the nose with literal heart shapes cut out of fabrics, and tailoring adorned with decorative cutlery. Perhaps these pieces will work for high-concept fashion editorials, but if brands are to uphold values of authenticity, we must ask why a leather fork is hanging off our shoulder, if not just for the sake of it.
Meanwhile, the womenswear evoked the glamorous insouciance that has already proved popular with audiences since the brand's 2009 inception: daring necklines, pillow-like folds on cotton tops, sheaf beading, tassels, leather accessories, and heavy gold jewelry.
Simon Porte Jacquemus explains his initial launchpad for SS21, "as an idea for this collection, L’Amour began as something different. I imagined people gathered together celebrating love. Alexander Ekman’s choreography of wheat tossed passionately through the air. Emir Kusturica’s film Time of the Gypsies with its enchanting realism."
South-of-France aesthetics and fields of wild wheat aside, the SS21 collection was notable for the way it circumvented an unfavorable industry schedule, as the designer explained on Instagram: "We shifted to a more sustainable rhythm last year, with two shows combining menswear and womenswear, held in January and June. This decision ended up saving us this season, since we had received all our fabric orders ahead of the confinement. Deciding to go ahead with our usual collection schedule and with a show is at the heart of our visual identity, our commercial strategy."
Jacquemus' commercial strategy has also been applauded for pulling off a successful ready-to-wear model, with pieces from yesterday's show available to shop on the Jacquemus online store tomorrow.
