Friday, October 12, 2012

POSTINGS FROM PARIS: CEDRIC CHARLIER, ONE TO WATCH

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Cedric Charlier SS13, complete with awesome make-up (including the legs) by Karim Rahman

When I was working out what I would do while I was in Paris, visiting Cedric Charlier's showroom was rather high on my list of priorities. He is one of France's most promising "young designers", though you realise that the definition of "young" is not really the same as it is in London where that term constitutes being a couple of seasons beyond graduation. Charlier's label is only in its second season but his CV shows a steady climb through the design ranks at Givenchy and Lanvin before becoming head of design at Cacharel for four seasons. AEFFE, the group which owns Cacharel as well as Moschino and Alberta Ferretti, agreed to back Charlier's own label after he left Cacharel and so the fashion world was granted a fresh, new Parisian talent to get our hands on.

Charlier's SS13 collection is a super sleek combination of luxe pieces in bright white and the most, vivid awesome orange you could possibly imagine. It is actually quite blinding when you walk into the long, gallery-like showroom and there are rails of different riffs on essential yet fabulous staples- a great jumper, shift dresses, pencil skirts, shell tops- all rendered in those strong, strong hues with added zips and sharp folds and drapes. The orange apparently came from mercurochrome, something we don't see very much in the UK but widely used on the continent as a kind of liquid alternative to plasters. It's right up there with the most genius, obscure and tightly focused references cited by designers.

Interspersed with the orange and white is an abstract, hand painted print which is very fitting in the context of SS13's graphic, modern art theme. Charlier went to Japan to get started on the collection and there's definitely a hint of the oriental in the sweeping brush strokes and stark delineations. The biggest influence from Japan though was the idea of Samurai armour. Charlier did his thing and came up with his own version; "L'armure de Charme" (Charm armour) which translates to gorgeously cut, sexy, modern pieces. What's more, we're not taking thousands for a piece here, you can get your hands on a little bit of Charlier magic for well under £500. At the moment, the collection is only available on the brilliant Avenue 32 but Charlier's people tell me that it looks like it'll be coming to a London store soon. With plans for a bigger show further into Paris Fashion Week (he currently shows on the first day) next season, expect to see plenty more of Monsieur Charlier.