Ballet has a lot to do with Ludovic de Saint Sernin, the next guest couturier at Jean Paul Gaultier.
His partner is a former dancer, and he has been looking at images of the New York City Ballet by Robert Mapplethorpe since the development of his last collection, which included a collaboration with the later visual pioneer’s foundation.
“I didn’t get a chance to explore when with my previous show and I have been a huge fan of ballet and dance forever,” the designer said during a preview.
“I wanted to explore the duality of the innocence and the erotic of ballet, and how beautiful that tension is between looking for perfection and achieving high performance, but also at the same time, wanting to live your life and experience life, so that you can show on stage something unique about who you are as a performer,” he added.
That duality translated through his high-glam, ultra-sensual lens resulted in a juxtaposition of stage-ready, body-con leather eyelet dresses — perfect for Sabrina Carpenter’s upcoming U.S. tour — sequined gowns, mille-feuille-like ripped wool gilets, metal mesh skirts, crystal boleros and delicate feather body pieces, alongside everyday tank tops, logo T-shirts, casual shirtings and baggy denim jackets.
“I didn’t want it to read like an obvious thing. I wanted this collection to show that you can wear LDSS in your everyday life. What a dancer is wearing offstage. We wanted to build a wardrobe that includes shirting, layers, and coats so that LDSS is not just a fantasy,” de Saint Sernin said.
The feather element was a nod to Natalie Portman’s psychological horror film “Black Swan.” The designer said he was fascinated by the two characters in the movie — the black swan and the white one — who are “simultaneously obsessed with each other, jealous of each other, but also desire each other.”
The final, feather-adorned underwear look was more specific. It’s his take on a sketch by Yves Saint Laurent of a cabaret dancer at the Lido on Champs-Élysées. It was realized in collaboration with the same plumassier who worked on Lady Gaga’s Paris Olympics performance.
