spent with the three biggest guns in Paris A day on the schedule where everyone is bragging, if that’s right, their own unique mix of celebrity and traffic jams, Olivier Theyskens offers something a little different. On a quiet street in the Marais, he opens the courtyard of his studio at dusk, sets out champagne – we need a drink after being drenched back and forth in the rain – and walks around with amazed observers 10 exquisite appearance, all handcrafted by his small team of six.
Corporate giants should take a closer look at this designer David. Theyskens has worked in the city’s brand studios in the past, he has held creative director titles at Rochas and Nina Ricci, where he produced some 39s. He seemed ready to jump into a bigger house—one of those cannons in Paris—but it never happened. He eventually moved to New York, where he worked for a stint at sportswear company Theory, before returning to Paris to relaunch his label five years ago. It was a minor operation, and his baggy cuts and gothic evening gowns didn’t attract a large audience.
Then the pandemic happened; it was a particularly brutal time for a startup like him, but a creative spark emerged . Theyskens set out to piece together scraps of fabric accumulated over 20 years, cooking them – literally – into some of the most heavenly dresses on this side of fashion. A beveled puzzle of silk, lace, and velvet offcuts, each a unique gem, and their labor-intensive nature makes them impossible to retail in stores, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t selling them. Although they can cost $25, or more, there is now a waiting list.
This series is the third in a series. It has gone beyond slender patchwork dresses to include an all-in-one knitting machine, roughly 10, Jet beads, assembled from leather Dust jackets were embroidered with offcuts one by one on the tulle, and long, thin, and slightly less rigid cuts favored by Teskens. Slender patchwork dresses were also developed. He gave them a new structure with padded shoulders and cut some with slits, the kind of silhouette that red carpet types love. Together, the three-season trilogy makes for a very convincing job application if the right job opens.
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