Talking about moods, secret currents… there is the sparkle of colours fixing images à la Joséphine Beauharnais. There are black-and-white stripes, but also bougainvillea red and Martinique turquoise. There are tartans displaced by the force of the island sun, with streaks of sky blue and aquamarine. 

Talking about form, line, movement… there is a sense of lightness, as if a lukewarm breeze were blowing and, from time to time, a whirlwind overcame the force of gravity. Thus skirts project forward or pivot on large flounces and a defined waist. But there also returns a stylised silhouette of masculine inspiration: an important man’s jacket with slits at the back, yet in black-and-white striped satin and finished with a high shirt-style collar. 

Talking about fabrics, material, the substance that generates form… no georgette, no softness, but full-bodied fabrics that naturally assume the volumes suggested by the cut. Shiny satins in wool and cotton; matte gazars; substantial duchesse; silk shantung; taffeta doubled with wool and faille. 

Through secret affinities and apparent contrasts, opposites meet: the Paisley shawl printed on organza with a technique that gives mother-of-pearl reflections… scattered roses with three-dimensional effects turn into petals and bloom again on the evening dress… hues of powder and dried roses… impalpable lightness: ballgown skirts in hundred-layer tulle with infinitesimal fringed edges. 

Forms wrap naturally around the body, as in a painting by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot… currents of amorous sensation between forms and materials. The smoothness of silk chenille velvet, supple and satin-backed. The richness of grey cashmere flannel… the nonchalance of sleeves that appear casually turned up with a hurried gesture. A flash of gold in the staple seams of jackets. 

The warm splendour of wine in the garnets embroidering the deeply cut slip top… and the intensity of tortoiseshell and dark topaz shades, all the way to ebony.