The Magie Noire dress: a masterpiece of technicality

Photos : Delphine Royer

Chapter 12

Haute Couture dress’ secrets : Black Magic: a masterpiece of technicality

Two and a half months of work to finally get three minutes on a podium.

It’s always frustrating… 

Our “Secret of an Haute Couture model” section aims to tell you in detail each crucial step of the making of an Haute Couture dress. 

We often start with one of my designs. This is the classic process of creating a model. But sometimes, it is the intrinsic nature of the fabric that makes the dress. It is in these cases that the magic of Haute Couture takes on its full meaning in our workshops.

For the Magie Noire Haute Couture dress, we first draped the perfectly transparent nude illusion tulle embroidered with black sequins and scratches on a wooden mannequin. 

The first obsession was to adjust the edged patterns to make the seams disappear as if by magic. 

Building a sheath sleeve and boat neckline in embroidered tulle was no small task. 

But it is when the desire to drape this sheath with a mysterious black tulle that all the mastery of the art of the hand takes its meaning. 

Asymmetrical draping, spiral multiplies and English seams will be the basis of this ghostly ball gown. 

Jean-Paul and Jacqueline cried out at the same time: “but this is a new ghost dress”. 

New ghost dress

Initially, when I opened the house in 2009, every season a wonderful ghost dress was made. For me, ghost dresses are transparent and light dresses, the making of which you can’t understand. 

I still have an obsession with “how it works.” 

To meditate on an audience and propose innovation in the Haute Couture catwalk is not an easy thing. 

The ghost dresses are recognized by our clients and remain a signature of the House.

Finally, on the anatomical cutout of the Magie Noire Haute Couture dress, at the hip level, we will hand edge, within our workshops, vintage sculpted motifs from the ’30s in jet (squares, hexagons, microsequins, and small spikes like sea urchins…). 

The fascinating haute couture dress by its transparency lets guess the whole silhouette of the wearer without ever showing anything. 

It is a breath, it is a spidery architecture and it is a masterpiece of technicality.