Every year at the end of the film festival, Philipp Plein organizes a resort show at his villa in Cannes. The reasoning seems obvious: the city on the French Riviera has become a hotbed for fashion, as models and influencers outdo each other on the red carpet and at events like the amfAR Gala. But for Plein, it’s less about catering to that specific segment of the fashion audience and more about connecting with his customers. “What we like about this is the intimacy we get with customers, a few selected people who come to our home,” says the German designer. “When you do something bigger, like we do in Milan, some people complain because they get lost in the crowd and can’t take a photo or talk, but this is exactly the opposite.”
Plein was supposed to host his show yesterday afternoon, but had to move it a few hours to the evening due to a threatening thunderstorm. “That’s life, we move on,” he said with a smile, walking through the show’s set — his home — over Zoom with the familiarity of a friend pacing their apartment, dishing out good gossip. Walking from his living room to the pool (“that’s the dog!”), he paraded around the racing flag strip, past a vintage Mustang (“cars used to be so much better, now they’re made of plastic and PVC”), and found his way to a room where models were getting ready: “Sorry we’re postponing the show, girls! I’m real.”
About that racing flag: Plein said he chose racing as the theme because of the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend. “People come to the south of France for the race and for the film, so we thought that was a nice combination.” The film in question would be that Fat, which showed up in the hair – lots of hairspray and gel – and in the music: ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘You’re the One that I Want’ by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The Johnny Depp movie Crybaby was another reference here, one most fitting of Plein’s brand of bad-boy camp.
Plein focused the Zoom on a short dress covered in crystal flames, and continued with a longer version and its matching clutches. “This dress is made entirely of single stones, it took a week to prepare,” he said of the mini, which will cost about $35,000. Another gown was covered in crystal chains, and yet another cut of silk printed with flames all over.
The designer said that when he puts on shows like this — which he does twice a year, the other time at his home in Bel Air during Oscars weekend — he pares his collections down to their most special elements and focuses only on women’s clothing. “When I started in fashion 26 years ago, we did men’s fashion week and women’s fashion week separately, very traditionally, but then we started mixing them up and that was successful.” Women’s clothing is a growing business for Plein. According to him, women’s fashion is currently trending towards ‘very sporty looks’. Always a contrarian, he gambles on offering evening options, especially dresses. The key word here is “glamour,” he said.
