Iconic is an overused word that, when deployed in fashion, mostly means nothing. Few designers alive can truly lay claim to it, and fewer still who run independent brands. Marine Serre is one of them. For spring the 33-year-old designer forwent a runway show for a presentation and cocktail event. “This season we are not showing. We are building,” read the notes.
There was plenty to build on. Sheer stretchy jersey dresses with a trompe l’oeil bra and knickers were designed so they could be thrown on without a second thought, even from the nude. Bang and done! “I want the girl of Marine Serre not to have to worry about the styling,” she said. “I don’t like the sexiness to constrain you. When I feel the most sexy is when I can breathe and I can move.” The menswear pieces, though subtler in their sensuality, were also body-conscious, highlighting the breadth of the shoulders through the chest seams on denim jackets, or with trousers that hugged the thigh before flaring at the feet. “The conversation between the body and the garment, this collection is of course a lot about that,” said Serre.
Elsewhere was cotton imitating python leather, knitted and printed and extending through to men’s shirts, bodycon dresses and pumps, complete with mini moons on the soles to negate any click-clacking (“I hate the women or men who make a noise when they walk in the room!”) Sequins and flaming leather patches or tulip prints were spread across the chest and crotch on mesh, denim and leather. Plumetis (the sheer fabric with raised dots that you often see on hosiery) was also a big reference, which Serre transformed into a knitted dress, the dots becoming tiny moons. One more standout in a collection with many to choose from: the LBD in look 1 that had Serre’s moon crescent embedded in wire at the sternum. The designer said she imagined the wearer getting a crescent-shaped sun tan on her chest next summer. How’s that for branding?
There were also nods to Serre’s background as a tennis prodigy in the navy tennis dresses, plus some necessary whimsy in the boy scout-inspired looks and shirts complete with foulards, decorated with vintage iron-on patches that will make each piece a one-off. In tune with Serre’s continued commitment to sustainability, many of the fabrics in the collection were upcycled or repurposed from deadstock, like the silk scarves (one of the brand’s staples) that were turned into a djellaba dress, or a floral shirt made from old polyester, given new life by shrinking it into thousands of pleats. “Most of the time there is no need for more garments, so I try to use what we already have,” she said.
Now with 75 staff according to Serre, the eight-year-old brand is a force to be reckoned with. Maintaining relevance in an environment that prizes the new and chews up and spits out the next big thing (that Serre herself was, when she became the youngest designer to win the LVMH Prize back in 2017) can feel near impossible, but Serre has an easy assurance that makes you believe in her future. “It’s about endurance,” she shrugged. “As a designer I love vintage pieces, I love to study where the garments come from and I think that’s how you can renew yourself and make your garments iconic, because at the end that’s what I want.”
Gesturing to one of the jewelry tableaus framed on black moire at the exhibition entrance, where a new range of gold and silver Creole hoops were hanging, she said: “I never did the Creole before, so I said ‘Okay, let me do one more iconic piece.’” As if it were easy! Her trademark crescent on the hoop, big and bold, will no doubt be another hit. Tout suite—iconique.