Anyone who wants to know how Parisiennes curate a wardrobe over time needs look no further than Véronique Leroy. An indie insider for more than three decades, the Belgian designer has a flair for turning out staples with a signature that also last. And her loyalists will happily stray from the usual shopping arteries to drop by her quiet, bright atelier next to Père Lachaise cemetery.
“Clients from France, Belgium, and elsewhere know that what’s here will go with what they already have, plus we’ll adapt things for them,” the designer said on a recent visit. “Often, they rediscover and rewear things from their closets too. I love the idea of keeping clothing for a long time, forgetting about it, and then finding it again.”
A champion of slow fashion since the outset—perhaps gleaned from formative days working for Azzedine Alaïa—Leroy developed her fall collection by working primarily with two seemingly opposite materials: a Japanese silk-polyester taffeta and heavy felted wool in “wartime ’40s” tones of dove gray, prune, and black enlivened by shots of red or orange. Picking up a sleeveless top, Leroy explained that she chose the taffeta for its sculptural quality, which lets the wearer finish the piece by draping it and arranging its volume as she pleases. “I like the idea of a garment only being finished once it’s worn,” she noted, describing the pairing of taffeta with felted wool not as contrast but “confrontation.” In a season of the power shoulder, outerwear with squared, dropped shoulders looked strong but not overpowering; trousers were cut to sit right at the waist or slouch lower. Thick knits in multicolored yarns—for example, rich chocolate and royal blue—were worked to appear slightly random rather than matchy, at times with a gathered effect to mimic the drape of fabric.
And since bold shapes call for statement jewelry, the designer presented voluminous, organic-looking pieces in hand-sculpted aluminum, a continuation of last season’s experimentation with wood. The earrings looked particularly striking and, fortunately, are lighter than they appear.
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