Paris Fashion Week S/S 2012: Womenswear

Roland Mouret

Now that Roland Mouret has his own store and atelier in London's Mayfair he has more contact with his clients and their needs. Imagining a 'tourist and plastic free' French village - and the kind of pretty clothes needed for shopping for provisions and a Sunday night dance - may be more Manon des Sources than reality for his loyal customers, who sometimes buy mutiples of the same looks for different homes. Silk and wool crepe dresses cut in summer colours had fitted waists, bell-shaped skirts, pronounced busts and emphasised shoulders thanks to folding and darting cloth. In addition to the construction details he is known for, Mouret used black knitted bands, grossgrain and lace tape to create additional hems, enhance shoulders further and fashion bandeau style lingerie worn underneath. The same tape was appliqued in evil eye patterns. Those, plus naïve leather shapes applied on skirts, came as Mouret sketched, imagining the women in the lives of Picasso, Cocteau and the like