First Circus Haute Couture Collection Look Book

A Word from Julien Fournié

Now that I have reached fifty, I feel entirely free to reveal what has always lived within me: enthusiasm, dreaming, dancing, celebrating — in short, everything that has driven me and set me in motion since childhood. In the house that bears my name, which I founded sixteen years ago, I do not really design and make fashion; I create characters.

Where do I find the inspiration? In films, in cartoons, in the music of the 1990s. As a young teenager, when I became a target of violence and harassment because of my differences, my bedroom became my refuge — a room peopled with fantastical figures: little statues of superheroes, mangas, princesses. These characters grew up alongside me. They stood with me through every battle, and they still inhabit my imagination and the shelves of my studio. Today I place them center stage at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, bringing them fully into the light, because they have always been my protective talismans.

Since then, of course, I have discovered and mastered the techniques and savoir-faire of Haute Couture and of the finest craftsmen who surround it. I can now offer an ultra-luxury incarnation of these characters, each one giving rise to new heroes: from the goddess in a cyborg trench coat who opens the show, to the white rabbit reimagined as a luxury dealer, alongside the commanding ringmaster, the "exploded" Joker, the clown stepped out of a black-and-white film, and the princess who has passed through the looking glass. Every one of them could have emerged from an animated feature. This is what continues to fascinate me when I look toward the metaverse: I am not only imagining how to bring architectural garments, built from many layers of fabric, into the virtual world — I also long to see the aesthetics of the animated films that have made us dream since childhood come to life on real women and men, here, in our own world.

This is, quite simply, a full show. No, it is not fashion — at least not what one usually expects of "ordinary" fashion. Down with trends! Long live free and independent Haute Couture — free to create, and to offer its clients legendary garments for women and men who grant themselves the freedom to acquire them and the audacity to wear them when the moment calls for it.

Each look in this collection is, in truth, an original work of textile art — through the mastery of its construction, through its chosen colors, and through its extraordinary embellishments. My gratitude goes to the craftsmen whose exceptional technical skill brings my fantasies to life; to the tailors and seamstresses of my atelier, who honored my every design and sewing requirement; and to the artists and friends who so generously took part in this show to make it a moment of pure extravagance. Thank you to Audrey Fleurot, Marina Viotti, Ashley Scott, Déborah François, Cédric Le Gallo, and all my supermodels for a day. Opera singers, film actresses, a sculptor, film directors — your support means the world to me. My thanks, too, to Wilfried Bernard, who directed the choreography, and to the dancers gathered for the occasion.

As the spokesman for this collective endeavor — and in the name of all the many talents brought together to restore excitement and joy to the Haute Couture show — please know that we seek nothing more than to share in my joy: the joy of dreaming, sketching, sewing, and performing.

— Julien Fournié