Photos : Delphine Royer

Mermaids are fantastic characters that have always fascinated me. When I was very young, I remember her Gorgons hypnotizing Ulysses and his crew to attract them against the rocks. They embodied temptation.

These half-fish, half-human women are icons of our collective imagination. Disney made them a star in The Little Mermaid, in the Netflix series Wednesday, they are nicknamed the Scales, in the Harry Potter books, they make your blood run cold. Finally, I prefer to remember images of them, drawn in watercolor, in the cult film Fantasia.

Adrian Colin an incredible glass artist

At Julien Fournié Haute Couture, and thanks to the support of this incredible glass artist, best worker in France, Adrain Collin, I was able to create my first Mermaid for the First Love collection, adorned with the colors of the rainbow, seductive and bewitching.

For the Première Creatures collection, this mermaid goes through the looking glass and becomes a poisonous character, with her sharp tentacles and poisonous rostrum.

three hundred patterns

She is adorned with jewels in the dark colors of the jellyfish of the ocean depths.

Tiaras, harnesses and pendants took Adrian Colin four months of work to create exactly the sketch I had sent him.

Nearly three hundred patterns were flame worked to combine the black crystal and translucent glass to achieve the exact shades. The harness of countless black crystal beads will serve as a showcase for the fragile glass patterns.

It is my friend Laurence who will lend her magnificent gestures to sew all these elements. A game of patience.

It is my first of workshop Jacqueline and me who decide to carry out a skirt with a train in marquetry of leather tied under the buttocks. Twenty-five mat black full-grain lambskins to compose this meticulous marquetry. The fluidity of the leather will raise the sublime body of Alexandra Martinovich who magnifies it in ecstatic poses. Nicolas Degennes will make her mouth black and venomous, as if she had bitten a sea urchin. Jack from the Neville Salon proposed a very technical chignon, in order to sew the tiara.

All in length, spidery, with cat eyes, Alexandra will be the most theatrical Dark Mermaid possible.

I ask her during the fittings: “Are you steady in your shoes?” “You realize that you can’t fall with this armor…”. It is the danger of this look that fascinates.

We know very well that we can’t wear this kind of thing in real life. But this is also the essence of Haute Couture. We are on the border between art and clothing. You don’t buy this kind of clothing to wear it, but to show it.

Three cult pieces

But for all those who would like to have a piece of this precious talisman, I have imagined three cult pieces with Adrian Collin.

Jewels

See

Octopussy, where tentacles intertwine in an inkjet.

Manta, where an inkblot becomes a deep-sea animal.

Jellyfish, a fascinating creature available in two sizes.

Mysterious objects that play with light.

The Dark Mermaid bewitched the audience. Marc-Antoine Coulon immortalized her in a superb illustration.

Chapter 13

Haute Couture outfit’s secrets : the mutant tuxedo for woman

Julien Fournié Haute Couture is known for its sharp lines.
It was with an explosive Apple Pencil that this look popped into my head, late one night on my couch.

No matter how much you want to invent something new every season, you end up getting caught up in your obsessions. Marked waist, round shoulder, but architectural, like Claude Montana – one of my daddy in the Haute Couture -, small and whalebone bust, anatomical collar cut and rounded and elongated basques, for a silhouette finally drawn to the line.

Plunging neckline mystery maintained

Zero compromise, we will seek the material fetish of Monsieur Saint Laurent, a grain of powder 100% wool. Its mattness will contrast with the shine of the collar in silk leather satin.

Everything for a final construction of the least expected, namely a plunging neckline mystery maintained, as if by magic, by tulle illusion. “You don’t wear this tuxedo”, as a customer who has already adopted it would say, “it’s the tuxedo that wears you”.

A mutant tuxedo for woman

I know, it’s not a jacket, nor a dress, nor a top. It’s a mutant tuxedo for woman that you can only put on if you know its secret…

Haute Couture is about balancing things: neither too much nor too little. It is with a lurex and viscose jacquard leggings, developed by the prestigious house Gigou, that this tuxedo for women worn by Patricia Semon will reveal all its character on the catwalk.

The woman who wears such a tuxedo needs freedom, no fuss, just the Premier Space bag under the arm, adorned with the house monogram on a mirrored canvas.
This mirror canvas is a very new tech material developed in France, screen printed with the signature design of the house that I created.

From another universe

The Hexagon monogram comes from a reflection on infinity. I started from the motif created by nature, namely the beehives. A view like the inside of a diving suit from another universe. From the suit we can discover: the planets aligning, the sun rising and the black of space to infinity.

The accessory goes for this mutant tuxedo.

A mutant tuxedo for women that is already one of my signatures.

More secrets

Photos : Delphine Royer