When Sébastien Meunier quietly relaunched his label in 2024, four years after exiting Ann Demeulemeester, he “wasn’t quite ready yet to speak to the fashion world again,” he told WWD at a recent presentation for his unisex offering, which will go to market during March’s Paris Fashion Week.
But his fall collection felt “sufficiently present” to strike up a conversation, he said. As a muse, the French designer named Jean des Esseintes, the anti-hero protagonist of the novel “Against Nature” by French novelist and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans.
Disillusioned with society, the man retreats to a secluded countryside house where he indulges in aesthetic contemplation and dubious creative pursuits — growing beautiful but poisonous flowers, bejeweling an ill-fated tortoise, you name it — before heading back to the world.
Caught on camera, Meunier’s silhouettes were dramatic clashes of whisper-light chiffons and laces with leathers and heavy English wools. But at the presentation, models slowly pulling on outfits showed there were plenty of ways into the smorgasbord of layers that riffed on the dark romance and sharp tailoring that garnered the designer largely positive reviews in his previous position.
A tank top, armholes cunningly shaped to hide any unaesthetic folds of skin; a biker jacket assembled with snaps that allowed the wearer to dial up or down the deconstructed effect; a faux-tuxedo shirt with an asymmetric bib, and a succession of coats in thick English wool that had more than a passing resemblance to 18th century frocks were among standouts that showed Meunier still has plenty to say.
