In a once-in-a-lifetime Paris season, with all the churn and noise that implies, how can a young, budget-conscious brand find its place? For Luis de Javier, the answer lay not in a runway presentation, but “24 Hours of Love and Labor,” a goldfish bowl of a livestream performance straight from a shopfront in the Marais to the world.
Hours before the cameras lit up, onlookers were already lingering in front of a display window on the Rue de Turenne as the bare torsoed designer and his team—hair and makeup artists, dressmakers, photographers, stylists, models—were gearing up for a long night. Lookbook shoots were scheduled from 8pm to midnight, with showroom work and e-commerce shots to follow until a 6am call time, and so forth, the designer explained.
“I’m the only one pulling an all-nighter, but I might have to take a nap,” the designer allowed as his dressmakers were putting final touches on a few of the 25 looks to be presented in Paris. “But being a control freak, I wanted to show the world exactly how my team and I work.”
On the racks were the trappings of a character inspired by the flamenco dancer and choreographer Rocío Molina, whose iconoclastic style incorporates conceptual risk and the avant garde. In that context, de Javier seized on some of the most well-known tropes of Spanish culture, spanning flamenco and bullfighting, flounces and polka dots. Elaborately embroidered shawls, matador coats and capes were stripped of patriarchal connotations and reworked as womenswear like a peplumed fuchsia half-skirt, tuxedo shorts, knotted leather halter tops, embossed trousers, liquid animal prints, and “leather daddy” matador hats. For the most risqué dressers out there, there were quilted cone bras, little nothings in laser-cut latex and the latest iterations of de Javier’s popular stiletto thigh-highs, none of which would look out of place up the road in Pigalle. The accessories—among them hair comb sunglasses—looked hilariously kitsch. Back in Barcelona, de Javier has a devoted team that clearly knows its craft. Given that some of his more flamboyant pieces have found famous fans, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Kim among them, it’s fun to watch the designer slowly feel his way toward less showy, more real-world options—a crisp white shirt, tailored jackets and trousers—that the rest of us can wear.