Rabih Kayrouz is always in his element when dealing directly with people: nudging someone to try on a jacket; showing off a dress’s construction (or notable lack thereof); following the lines of a skirt as a calligraphic gesture. As he approaches his label’s 25th anniversary, he’s welcoming people to a showroom and pop-up store instead of hosting a show. The location on rue St. Roch is just down the street from the former fashion school that shaped his career.
He called this collection ‘Back Home’ partly because of this attachment, but mainly because he sees that the clothes represent a certain warmth for the ‘character’ who wears them. “I imagined her entering her home and being greeted and hugged by her various pieces. The dress is there, the coat is there…” he said, lifting a floor-grazing knitted coat off the rack to get a closer look at the double-sided inkblot effect.
Kayrouz is a storyteller par excellence, but his designs radiate an unparalleled degree of savoir-faire. A jacket split at the sides, loosening the structure into soft panels; the micro-pleated body of a dress that grips the waist without corset stiffness; the various breezy silk charmeuse blouses, sheaths and even cargo style trousers that can be worn by a wide range of women to suit their age and figure. The fact that several pieces from previous collections were reissued did not detract from their interest, especially as they returned in brilliant shades of leaf green, ocher and purple.
A higher level is reserved for an adaptation of couture dresses that demonstrate how Kayrouz can coax breathtaking volumes from a single rectangle of taffeta: cutting, pleating, delineating with grosgrain and instinctively building form (this is the moment you realize how draping comes from ancient civilizations is the most timeless dressing of them all). For example, one style can be accented as a T-shirt and give a red carpet look at the same time. And once again, vibrant, electric shades of blue, orange and fuchsia underscored how Kayrouz has spent a quarter of a decade distilling his point of view down to the most basic – and elegant – ideas. “I never stop. I revise, I evolve. I let go of certain pieces, others arrive. It is an ongoing process,” he says.
After Monday, the space will become a store where the current spring collection will be offered for at least the next three months. “For me this is a celebration,” Kayrouz said. “I want my brand to be known, seen and accessible.” And if you’re lucky, he might be there.
