Caroline Hu made her Paris on-schedule debut, under the moniker Rêverie by Caroline Hu, on Wednesday in a tony town house near the Invalides museum with a two-part installation that included live models on the first floor and a trio of gowns suspended in a ground floor atrium.
Vertical swathes of fabric, positioned as screens in the show space or cascading around the exhibits, served to materialize the distance between people created by the past two years, the designer said.
Simple shapes, mostly circles and triangles, were teased into extravagant volumes, sometimes by the addition of overstuffed pillows. Hu also used layers to express that remoteness in more subtle ways, overlaying black tulle to mute bright colors, or pulling strands into cascading curtains on knitwear, a new development for the brand.
“I tried to be more commercial or ready-to-wear but I [have] a couture DNA,” the designer joked.
Simpler pieces, like the zippered blouson with ruched panels worn by Hu, did not come out for a spin but made for the bulk of her offering. Adidas Samba sneakers she spiced up with tulle were part of a sponsorship deal but she — and a number of attendees — hoped they could turn into a collaboration.
Rebounding from last year’s lockdown in China, the brand has recently opened its third showroom in the U.S. — the first two are in Shanghai and Paris — as Hu is steps up development of both her bespoke and rtw businesses in North America. The brand is distributed by some 20 stockists worldwide, including Joyce in Hong Kong as well SND and SKP in China.
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