JULIEN
_
FOURNIE
Julien Fournié presents his Haute Couture collection via a new form of expression for a fashion designer: for the first time, he is directing his first movie entitled “First Storm”. “In the post Me Too, post Black Lives Matter era, in the middle of a world health crisis, I consider it my duty as a couturier, to suggest a vision that includes enchantment and magic and promotes imagination,” declares the founder of the House which, since its inception, has consistently supported feminists and diversity. “It is about doing everything within our power to avoid the totalitarianism of gloom. “ In this movie, Julien Fournié introduces three young women into a contemporary, dreamlike and glamorous environment. As if attracted by a helter-skelter or a roller-coaster in an amusement park, they explore five different surroundings. In each of them, they experience a new test, like the heroines in a fairy tale. Immersed in the fashion designer’s fetish worlds and under his secret guidance, they will find their own legend. In other words, they will highlight their true personality. Constantly trying to stretch proportions on the female body thanks to an essentialized cut, Julien Fournié is focusing on sleeve architecture, sharp bust sculpture, and movement in chiffon dresses and tulle petticoats. Elongating women’s bodies, Julien Fournié’s designs favor expert needlework, particularly with inlays, realized with embroidery, in semi-sheer materials, in feathers. His designs add lightness to refinement, with tight pleats, ruffles of chiffon and layers of transparency. Both film and collection aim to re-enchant the vision of women. A lifelong cinema lover, the couturier immerses his muses into symbolic worlds, winking at all the film directors he respects and admires, from Georges Méliès to Quentin Tarantino, including Jacques Demy.
10 | Lookbook Magazine April 2021
HAUTE COUTURE
