New Beginnings: Guy Laroche | Ready to Wear Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2015-16

French fashion house Guy Laroche’s presentation was the debut of new creative director Adam Andrascik. The American born designer, a graduate of Central Saint Martins College in London, put his eponymous label on hold to focus on his appointment for Guy Laroche with an ambitious intent to modernize the label’s inspirational archive. With his first autumn/winter Ready-to-wear collection the new Guy Laroche women was rendered more sensual and rebellious, with a darker street-ready edge.

Speaking to Fashion One the designer discussed his examination of the house’s garments during which he spoke of the realization that his main aesthetic drive was to capture and reflect the current women’s fashion zeitgeist, and that would be his focus to reinvent the label “...making it more relevant. Really look at his work with a fresh eye, make it more modern, make it more bold, make it more exciting”. A dark deconstructed atmosphere was the order of the day to find this new relevance. One of the designer’s references was English director Peter Greenaway's film The Pillow Book, which revolved around the sensual, fetishistic act of body art in traditional Japanese culture. In the designers vision it was manifested as hand tattooed leather jackets in black and white, overlaid with gold foil Japanese calligraphy. Sinuous knit dresses with plunging necklines and gold and silver embellishments made a positive impression, while deconstructed panel hemmed warrior skirts, dévoré velvets and black lacquered lace gave a gothic voice to the proceedings.