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About three minutes before the show began i-D online spoke to Rue du Mail Queen Martine Sitbon. Her calm was monk-like. “I don’t start with an inspiration”, she said, “I start by working on what I want to achieve for that woman, that season. This time I wanted her to be a bit more androgynous, though of course still feminine”. The effect of which was heavy printed twinsets, wallpaper printed dresses and cut-out fabrics that looked like stained glass windows, real works of art. Femininity was evident in the cinched waists, belted overcoats and the red, pink and purple nightie-like dresses skimming the floor in flyaway fabrics that definitely blew in the wind… despite being inside. “Knit motifs were very important”, Sitbon continued, “I’ve done cut outs and embroideries that look like knit and mixed knit with fabric.” And what do you know? The designer was proved right. About her own collection. Not three minutes later, knitted patches and panels came down the runway on sheer tops made modest by strategically placed knit. Skirts were all a modest length too, bringing the subtle feminine power that comes with less is more. “There is a story of course, a warrior, a princess, but I never start with the story. It’s only when I finish that I see the plot”.
Text: Sarah Raphael
Photography: Mitchell Sams
Click here to see our AW12 Womenswear coverage in full.
