Bouchra Jarrar (Q3942)
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Bouchra Jarrar is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Bouchra Jarrar |
Bouchra Jarrar is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Twenty-twenty is a tough year for a comeback. Bouchra Jarrar returned to the haute couture calendar in January after a four-year absence with a collection that picked up where she left off. She called it “Edition n°1.” Jarrar’s signature is a rigorous yet sensual sartorialism: Her lines are clean; her details are lavish but discreetly applied. And her succinct shows are subtle ripostes to the bombast often seen on other runways. They’ve gained Jarrar a loyal following that appreciates her brand of luxe minimalism.Sadly, the shutdown made producing the spring collection impossible, but nevertheless she persists. Edition n°2 is smaller and tighter than last season. Reduced to its essence, it’s a collection of 10 looks in black and white. Jarrar was compelled to work without assistants and with upcycled materials that she had on hand before the pandemic began. But she’s quite sanguine about doing more with less. “I don’t want to be part of the system—we produce too much. Quality over quantity; I’m completely focused on timeless silhouettes.”The coronavirus is impacting the industry in profound ways; the early months of the crisis brought precipitous drops in fashion spending. Naturally, designers are questioning their practices. The most pressing line of inquiry: What will women want when this is all over? Jarrar, for her part, traces fashion’s current problems back to almost 20 years ago. “In 2002, I was at Balenciaga [working under Nicolas Ghesquière] and I remember when they asked us to do more, to make another collection. I saw the change in fashion,” she says.Her current business model seems well adapted for our time. Whether or not we have reduced circumstances of our own, this moment has given many of us a newfound appreciation for the value of handwork, for the importance of traceability. There’s an intimacy to Jarrar’s process that translates to her customers. It comes across in the sumptuous Lesage embroidery on a bustier worn with tailored trousers, and again on the sequined revers of a smoking. “Focusing on the creative process I forgot about the horrendous situation we’re all in,” she said. Wearing Jarrar’s pieces just might produce a similarly salutary effect.
8 July 2020
“I wanted to do fashion that resembles me,” Bouchra Jarrar said moments before her comeback show.Staged in her own luminous apartment, with a slender sheaf of wheat leaning against the wall and raw quartz crystals displayed under a glass dome on a marble mantel, the presentation of Edition n°1 brought together a dozen or so of her very recognizable signatures, primarily influenced by menswear. A backless gilet was ticked out with feathers and pearls. Ample trousers were grounded by a tour-style T-shirt. Feather Maasai-inspired bracelets reprised her russet-blue-white sports stripes, a pattern that was picked up everywhere when Jarrar first launched it as ribbing in an earlier version of her namesake line.Standout pieces included a very pretty fringed bias-cut tweed top; a graceful khaki overcoat with silver buttons; a shiny, black sleeveless puffer, and a flawless perfecto with ribbed shoulders. The presentation was a lesson in Parisian style: Take a white shirt, impeccably cut black trousers, and accessories—either a two-tone scarf with an integrated belt or a fringed Berber-weave scarf—and suddenly you’ve gone from standard to elevated chic.Jarrar called those Berber weaves “ethnic with a perfume of couture.” A Paris-based couture artisan with whom Jarrar has collaborated everywhere she has worked, from Balenciaga to Lacroix to her own line, makes each one after Jarrar picks the yarn and the dyes. She chose a russet hue, for example, in tribute to her Moroccan roots. “These are my colors. They remind me of how my grandparents wore their shawls. They carry all the warmth of my origins,” she said.For couture clients, the designer also offered up a minimalist, backless dress in midnight satin crepe, and a long jersey dress with a slit in front. Most women, however, will likely gravitate to Jarrar’s strongest suits, like a smoking in black gabardine paired with a crepe de chine blouse or a pair of ivory gabardine trousers with beaded tuxedo stripes.Jarrar’s tightly edited “ideal wardrobe” was an exercise in seduction and timeless French style: Never reveal too much, and always leave them wanting more. Her loyal base will be satisfied, but might still be wanting.
24 January 2020
Amid all of the guessing the past few months about who will fill the empty creative director roles atChristian DiorandLanvin,Bouchra Jarrar’s name has rarely, if ever, come up. Perhaps because the scope of her work remains somewhat narrow—she’s focused primarily on tailoring, dipping into eveningwear just occasionally, and she only shows on the runway during couture—she’s not as well known as she might be. Jarrar deserves more attention than she gets, because what she does she does exceedingly well, and she should certainly be considered for Paris’s top design jobs.You won’t see a more finely cut pair of pants this week than her navy gabardine tuxedo trousers with black satin stripes down the side piped in yellow. Slung from the hips, they flared elegantly to the floor above sturdy men’s shoes—not an easy proposition without an assist from a pair of high heels. Sailor uniforms were a starting point for the designer this season, and her Sergeant Pepper’s coat with its brocade lapels and galloon trim was best in class, too. Elsewhere, a tailored coat with badger trim persuasively mixed the raw and refined, as did an ivory redingote smothered with feathers, a nice elaboration on previous seasons’ feather harness vests. She tempered all the menswear with delicate white Chantilly lace whipped up into a Victorian blouse, a mid-length dress, and a frothy jabot.As for eveningwear, Jarrar only dabbled in it here, and that’s too bad, especially with awards season upon us. But what she did show was typically soigné. A backless slip dress cut from a luminous ivory panne silk was actually two pieces—how’s that for getting your couture money’s worth? She used the same material for a longer, more languid slip dress. It was gorgeous, but equally matched by the houndstooth coat woven with mohair she tossed over it.
26 January 2016
Tatiana Maslany, the Canadian star ofOrphan Black, wore an ivory Le Smoking byBouchra Jarrarto theEmmys last month. Admittedly, there wasn’t much in the way of competition, but she was easily among the chicest women at the ceremony, elegant where other actresses looked try-hard or just plain wrong. It’s nice to see Hollywood waking up to Jarrar’s red carpet potential; she’s putting a new emphasis on dress-up clothes at her couture shows. For ready-to-wear, presented in her premier arrondissement atelier, which is becoming increasingly crowded as the seasons progress, she’s focused on a more everyday kind of elegance.In a first for Jarrar, there was a tailored pantsuit in a dark-rinse denim, the softness of which defied expectations. Softness was truly the order of the day, be it a caramel-color shrunken leather blouson and matching skirt with an arching slit or a navy viscose trench with a high storm flap and epaulets. But Jarrar was equally concerned with the collection’s graphic punch, juxtaposing the high-contrast animal print of an elongated gilet with the black lace of a long-sleeved top, or piecing together a sexy asymmetrical tank top with patent shoulder straps from diagonal slices of tech fabric and leather. We can’t help circling back around to her smoking jackets though. Does anyone anywhere cut one better?
30 September 2015
Haute couture is essentially an after-dark affair. The fact that she focuses mostly on daywear has been a point of difference for Bouchra Jarrar from the beginning. On the one hand, it's an asset. She's developed a loyal clientele for her beautifully made gilets and trousers. On the other hand, it's held her back. Jarrar's are not typically the kind of clothes that end up on the red carpet and, subsequently, on the celebrity pages in magazines. She has little of the name recognition that the stars of Paris couture week enjoy—and profit from.That might start to change with the collection she showed today. With its languid, 1930s lines and nearly bare back bisected by a gold leather strap, a long dress in bias-cut champagne satin charmeuse was nothing short of breathtaking. Likewise, a midnight blue long dress embroidered on one side of the torso with a rich array of crystals cried out to be worn to a glamorous movie premiere or gala. The stylist who doesn't put those two at the top of her pull list is falling down on the job.Jarrar's focus this season was a general widening of her repertoire. Historically, there's been a good deal of rigor to her tailoring. While it was as precise as ever today, it also felt loosened up, softer. The first coat out in striped silk was modeled after a man's robe. She compensated for the boyishness of the trousers she paired it with by skipping a top in favor of a silk bandeau. The boudoir proved a font of ideas. Beneath pleated chiffon skirts, she layered dresses with the cling and the coverage of an old-fashioned girdle. The combination was revealing yet discreet, and paired with one of the densely feathered gilets she calls her "oiseaux," it was a thoroughly modern idea for either day or night.
7 July 2015
If you want to understand the ways in which the runway can be bad for a designer—and for fashion in general—look at the career of Bouchra Jarrar. She's never once put her ready-to-wear collection on the catwalk in the five years since she launched her company, and—guess what—she's got one of the strongest, most consistent voices in Paris fashion. That's because she listens not to magazine editors and image makers, but to her clients and her own heart.The large, light-filled space in the first arrondissement that she moved into late last year seems to have gotten her creative juices flowing. The new Fall collection was Bouchra, but amplified. There were the perfectly cut pants she's known for, but now in more silhouettes, the best and timeliest of which was an ass-hugging velvet flare. There were coats of many colors, including a gorgeous double-face ocher, a trench in an oversize menswear check, and an olive green style with fuzzy army-blanket sleeves and a luxe fur collar. (More often, the coats were shown with Jarrar's signature ribbed-knit or fox-and-buckle snoods.) And—here is where the line is really growing—there were prints: black-and-white zebra on wispy silk blouses and bold leopard spots on a cocoon coat.Jarrar isn't on her way to global domination. She enjoys the intimacy of working with private customers one-on-one in her salon too much for that. But her expanding repertoire means she'll attract new and different kinds of women with this collection. She's still not showing on the runway, but she won't be Paris' best-kept secret for much longer.
4 March 2015
This time of year, fashion reporters like to talk about the red carpet. It connects our rarefied business to the real world better than anything else, the thinking goes (if you can call five-figure dresses and armies of stylists, hair, and makeup people the real world). Bouchra Jarrar has never gone after celebrity: Despite showing on the couture calendar for the last five years, she had yet to put an evening dress on her runway. The fact that she finally did so today seemed like a statement of intent: "Hollywood, here I come."With all the money that exchanges hands between fashion houses and stars (many are paid to wear the dresses they choose), it's probably unlikely that Jarrar's bias-cut, open-back gown in ivory silk will make the trip from Paris' premier arrondissement to Los Angeles. Too bad, because what a story it would be for the stylist who took a chance on the relatively under-the-radar Jarrar. Two names made at once: that of the actress and that of the couturier—not to mention what it might do for the stylist's own résumé.All that said, the success of this collection won't be judged on whether or not Jarrar's name gets uttered on the E! network. She's always made chic daywear the centerpiece of her collection; it's what sets her apart from the couture club's more long-standing and higher-profile members. As usual it was her main focus this afternoon, but there were some developments. To start, miniskirts. Jarrar is a pants girl, but she did a bang-up job on her minis; with their diagonal zips (an echo of her signature Perfectos) and super-short hems, they'll go down as the sexiest things on any catwalk this week. The shiny black PVC pants were a different kind of surprise. They added a touch of kink—a testament, maybe, to the fact that Jarrar, who has moved her atelier from the second to the heartbeat of fashionable Paris in the first, feels well situated enough to let her freak flag fly. Otherwise, a metallic-shot tweed coat with a generous fox-fur collar may have been familiar—Jarrar has long had her fabrics woven specially for her—but it was still fabulous.
27 January 2015
Bouchra Jarrar is in growth mode, with new sales agents in Japan and the Middle East, and plans to bring her Spring 2015 offering to New York for a week in October. Alongside those developments, there was a fresh spirit to the collection she showed at her atelier today. Jarrar comes from haute couture—her métier istailleurrather than flou—and her ready-to-wear has inherited her couture line's flair and polish. Today's English gabardine trench with its peaked storm flap, and the wool version of July's peplumed leather moto jacket both made that point distinctly. What was really notable, however, was the collection's casual new energy. Not only in terms of color (a bold pink several shades away from girly) and silhouette (trapeze dresses with a generous frill of pleats below the drop waist) but also in terms of fabric. Believe it or not, Jarrar has never used cotton. The humble material suits her current mood, and so there was a great-looking pair of cropped khaki chinos, which she teamed with another first for her, a simple boy's button-down (also cotton), and a shrunken blazer in exuberant blue-and-pink jacquard.Slow and steady has always been the Bouchra Jarrar way, and it's paid off. More and more you spot chic, understated types wearing her designs during fashion week. Up until now she was less concerned about her clients' off days. Here's what they're going to want to wear on the first sunny Saturday next Spring: marine blue cargo-pocket flares and avareuse(like a polo shirt without the buttons) in the leopard print from Jarrar's latest couture runway.
27 September 2014
Bouchra Jarrar's true love is tailoring. She is a master—both technically skilled and inventive. But we're already well aware that she cuts the best pants in Paris, and we've ogled her Perfectos, in leather or hand-woven tweed, for seasons. The challenge for Jarrar going forward is building on this strong foundation; for her reputation to grow, she needs to build her repertoire. She took several steps in that direction at her show today: sampling from the world of sport; tweaking her signature Perfectos; and, most persuasively of all, because it's so far removed from her usual formula, experimenting with flou.First the sport: Jarrar's silk track pants were as faultless as the pleated wool trousers that came later. Polos and jerseys made from metallic thread tweeds accented with black leather and finished with striped rib looked cool—more casual than anything she's previously done. Fashion has been borrowing from activewear for a while now, but if this part of the show registered slightly familiar, it didn't detract from the appeal of an outfit that teamed a black leather vest with a pleated full skirt boasting a ribbed athletic waistband. To update her Perfectos, Jarrar added sculptural fillips of fabric at one hip, as if your favorite biker jacket had gotten together with a hot little 1950s cocktail number and reproduced. The effect was sexy and charming. Newsiest of all the developments were the multilayer leopard-print chiffon plissé dresses. A single trapeze dress required an astounding 50 meters of fabric because of the layers and pleats, and yet it was completely effortless, with a buoyant sense of movement. We're looking forward to more of this kind of thing from Jarrar. At the opposite end of the flou/structure divide: The black-and-white-striped pheasant feather vests were subtly spectacular.
7 July 2014
A trip to Bouchra Jarrar's atelier makes you realize how dangerous the runway can be for a designer. How it makes them do unessential, excessive, even silly things. A short list of the ridiculousness we've seen this week: two heavy winter coats when one would do, triple fisting handbags, and evening dresses made out of a material used for boots.Jarrar isn't a silly woman. She opts out of the catwalk for her ready-to-wear collections. With her, clothes are clothes, designed to be worn. She lets the cuts do the talking, and her cuts are exceptional. For Fall, she's done a fantastic lean-legged flare, but most of her pants have a sporty sixties mien, cropped north of the ankle and featuring ribbed stripes down the sides. Sleeveless coats familiar from her Couture show reappeared here in more everyday yet still unique fabrics. She works closely with mills to develop exclusive weaves, even colors. And speaking of color, Jarrar had a beauty on her hands with the hot pink she used as an accent on an army green side-zip jacket. It was a surprise. She typically uses black, navy, and charcoal gray. More proof that some of fashion week's most singular pleasures are to be found far from the runway.
26 February 2014
It's official. In December, French fashion's governing body, the Chambre Syndicale, granted Bouchra Jarrar an haute couture appellation. This was an upgrade from her guest-member status and a seriously big deal. She's secured a place in couture's history books, joining the ranks of pre-war women designers like Chanel, Vionnet, Grès, and Schiaparelli. It's been more than thirty years since a woman was named agrande couturière.Thirty!And so there was good reason for the newfound swagger in her exuberantly embellished jackets and gilets."J'ai des oiseaux,"she said backstage. "I have birds." And she meant it. Jarrar used ivory feathers last season, but here they were packed closely together in natural shades of brown and black or were dyed a gorgeous sapphire blue. There were probably more colors in this show's plumes than in all her previous collections combined. More crystals, too. They encrusted the front, back, and sleeves of a Perfecto, or, more subtly, were tucked among the long "shard" sequins of a bolero jacket, only now and then catching the light. Jarrar was just as attentive to her tailleurs. A devastatingly precise blazer and redingotes (with sleeves and without) were made from custom-dyed handwoven threads. They gleamed.On the couture runways, glory tends to come from gowns destined for the red carpet, or maybe a royal wedding. Jarrar, a little like Coco Chanel before her, is obsessive about clothes for everyday, unapologetically so. This season, there were military flares and tuxedo trousers that made a persuasive case for pleats. Glittering accolades? Meh. Ask any woman, there are few things more glorious than a great-fitting pair of pants.
20 January 2014
If you've been paying attention to the headlines, you'll have noticed that France's big fashion conglomerates have been in major acquisition mode lately. The designers in whom they're investing are mostly out-of-towners, and mostly men. Their prerogative. But why hasn't one or the other of them snapped up Bouchra Jarrar? Jarrar doesn't receive the editorial attention of a J.W. Anderson or a Christopher Kane, partly because she presents on the runway during the Couture shows and not ready-to-wear, and partly because she specializes in real-world chic. But her clothes are worth getting excited about—really excited, if you're the kind of woman who can appreciate a perfectly cut trouser, a leather biker jacket that isn't trying too hard, or a draped, asymmetric dress in a patchwork of tonal silk and crepe.Jarrar's Spring ready-to-wear collection, which she presented in her atelier today, was a clever diffusion of her July Couture show: similar shapes, more attainable, everyday fabrics. The ivory bead-encrusted vest that nabbed so many raves was redone here sans embellishment, save for a zipper-trim martingale that gave it a dose of cool. The patchwork dresses lost their extravagant drape; in two different shift styles they looked more office-ready. And a black and white striped cotton sleeveless coat would make a versatile fashion investment. Jarrar has built a very nice business on her skills, but just imagine what she could do with a supportive, smart backer.
25 September 2013
"Couture du jour." Bouchra Jarrar's PR man coined a catchphrase backstage before her show today, and there's a good chance it'll stick. No other designer working in couture approaches daywear with the same conviction. "It's my signature," Jarrar said. "I just think a woman looks most elegant in trousers."It was hard to find fault with Jarrar's stitched-crease pants, cropped a couple of inches above the ankle. But she's always been obsessed with fit. This season she gave her perfect trousers an extra helping of attitude, slinging multiple belts from the waist, some with heavy-duty silver chains attached. Sculpted metal necklaces and cuffs added more edge. On top, she proposed gilets in handwoven geometric patterns, an epaulette-shoulder vest in menswear wool, or a tweed Perfecto. All unzipped and sans shirts underneath them, or with midriff-revealing draped jersey wraps. "I wanted to see skin," she said. As another option, Jarrar had fluid, silk satin pants. Their high waistline was fairly leg-elongating, but they didn't have the same kind of gravitational pull as the cropped ones. A black leather style was especially lust-inducing.For evening—Jarrar didn't ignore the category completely—there was a pair of bias-cut trapeze gowns vaguely 1960s-ish in feeling with plunge-front V-necks and high slits, the more compelling of the two in a color-blocked combination of blush-pink crepe, black georgette, and ivory charmeuse. But like the woman said, she loves her pants; the two best outfits here made a showcase of them. The first came with a harness embroidered in ivory feathers and amber and mirrored crystals; the second with a tailored vest studded allover with iridescent beads.
1 July 2013
The Musée Galliera's Olivier Saillard put a dress from Bouchra Jarrar's January collection side by side with a Chanel frock from the twenties in the newParis Haute Coutureexhibition at the Hôtel de Ville. Jarrar's days as Paris' best-kept secret may be coming to an end. More proof of that came at her showroom presentation today—a label representative reported that the coats from that runway show were particularly popular with retailers.With outerwear so well represented in January, Jarrar's new collection was focused more on wardrobe basics like high-waisted pants, contrast-trim cardigans with deep shawl collars, and silk crepe blouses and dresses. Except that nothing is ever quite basic in Jarrar's hands, least of all a "total look" black and white checked pantsuit that she showed with a couple of her signature graphic scarves. The designer goes to great lengths to deliver uniqueness. The geranium red of a leather shift dress was specially made for her; same goes for the camel gabardine of her high-waisted pants. With Jarrar's profile on the rise, maybe it's time to move that January show a month back and combine those highly detailed clothes with the simpler ones here, so the larger crowds of ready-to-wear can see what the fuss is about.
27 February 2013
Flowers and romance have emerged as major themes at the Spring Haute Couture shows. Not for Bouchra Jarrar. She's not averse to seduction, but she does have a serious sensibility—urban, unfussy, even (that dreaded word) practical, but all the while chic.Now in her seventh season on the Couture runway, Jarrar has established her codes. She favors pants and cuts some of the best we've seen anywhere. This season she showed them tapered and cropped in a gorgeous shade of midnight blue. She also loves a bit of drama on top—"envelopée," she calls it—and achieves it by draping the neck with fox fur, tweedy bouclé, or Shetland wool. Sometimes the swaths of fur, held in place with strappy black patent leather harnesses, stand in for tops—that's where the seduction comes in.Jarrar's coats are cut as precise as her pants. An oversize black and white houndstooth vied for best in show with a belted ivory number with big brass buttons. Both had a high-fashion quotient without looking trendy, a boon to customers even in the rarified world of couture.For news, there was a stripey marinière sweater, noteworthy for its casual attitude, and a matching snood. To keep growing her business, Jarrar should continue to broaden her repertoire. It's Couture week, after all—bring on more gowns.
21 January 2013
"I would waste my time if I wasn't doing things women could wear." Some designers should have that tattooed on their arm to remind them of their raison d'être. Not necessary in Bouchra Jarrar's case. She's built her prêt-à-porter business on the strength of her made-to-measure work—real one-on-one interactions with clients that have taught her how to cut the perfect black leather perfecto, for example. But hands-on experience is one thing; what makes Jarrar a talent to watch is her eye. She paired that perfecto with an A-line tweed top and a full skirt. A woman would cut quite a swath in that outfit. A couple of swingy little dresses also made a big impression. At first glance, they looked rather simple, but their construction, from curving pieces of different fabrics cut on the bias and layered one over the other for a moiré effect, is actually quite complex. Still, the results are effortless. We also liked the look of a white leather shift with a black V-neck, especially when Jarrar accessorized it with a graphic black belt.
26 September 2012
Bouchra Jarrar has been showing at Couture for six seasons and has yet to put a single beaded ball gown on her runway. Rigor is her stock in trade, and there was more of that at her Musée Bourdelle show today. She opened with tailoring. It's as precise as ever—she cuts a mean pair of trousers. But notice the ruffle at the hem of the first look's ivory vest. That small detail told the whole story of the collection, which was notable for its new sense of femininity."Everything has a waist," she said backstage. "It's very constructed, but A-line and flared." A year ago, her jackets were boxy and her frocks were almost egg-shaped. Here, belts played a starring role, whether cinching dresses made from shirting stripe fabric or buckled over the black, peplumed bustier that topped a pair of gabardine pants.Women have fallen for Jarrar because she's given them something new to wear for work. This season, seduction is the order of the day. A silk gown in a lily print turned to reveal a plunging draped back. Another long dress was made from shifting layers of georgette and crepe de chine in black and a green she aptly called "veryprofond"; the effect was captivating. And, yes, she even did a beaded gown, or at least it was partly beaded on its bodice. Lovely all around.
1 July 2012
Bouchra Jarrar is making a success of her made-to-measure business. So much so that she's been able to open an atelier and a showroom in the second arrondissement and produce the ready-to-wear collection that she showed today.Admirers of Jarrar's sharp tailoring and simply elegant dresses will recognize her signatures: the spare tailleurs, the contrast piping on understated A-line shifts—if anything, the pieces here are even more reduced. For a bit of fun, she incorporated the print from her January couture show, using it as the body of a wool sweater that she showed with a generous knee-length skirt in a tiny houndstooth.There weren't many pieces in her debut, but a hands-on preview was proof enough that they're among the best made that we'll see this week. Jarrar has also launched her first bag. It's classic and uncluttered, like her clothes.
29 February 2012
Bouchra Jarrar is a big talent who prefers the small gesture. The ready-to-wear collection she showed at the Musée Bourdelle put in sharp relief the frivolousness of some of the haute couture paraded elsewhere today. Sounding a lot like Phoebe Philo, another smart woman designer who's made sharp tailoring the defining aspect of her work, Jarrar called her new offering a "continuation of the wardrobe, of the story I've been telling since the beginning."The designer's focus, as always, was on cut. Trousers were at once stricter through the hips and fuller through the legs than they were last season, and jackets had a more masculine swagger, thanks to double-breasted silhouettes, bolder shoulders, and brass military buttons. On the other hand, a pair of backless gilets—one in fox and the other in black-tipped white feathers—were all femme. Jarrar latched on to snoods; in fur and stripe knits, the circular scarves accessorized sleeveless coat-dresses, as well as simple coats.But the real news for this label was prints—a contemporary woman's wardrobe isn't complete without them, after all. Jarrar has never used them on the runway before, so she started off subtle, draping a silk floral wallpaper motif into a soft shirtdress and a wrap gown. We can already picture the bow-front blouse in the deep-forest-green print taking root in the front rows next season.
22 January 2012
Couture week means a lot of crinoline, tulle, and taffeta. The word "fusty" comes to mind. Bouchra Jarrar cut through all that like a knife today with another collection that confirms her technique is just as sharp as her vision. Knives are no accidental metaphor. The jacket of an elegantly cut black tailleur was sliced open with a slash slightly askew of center, and teardrop cutouts accented the bodice of an otherwise understated little black dress.Jarrar loves bold, graphic lines. Vivid stripes of pulsating blue and white bisected a simple gray shift, trimmed a charcoal tweed sleeveless coat-dress, added interest to knits. Backstage, the designer said she was interested in playing with the contrast of masculinity and femininity, but it's that luminous blue that people will remember. It was particularly striking on a vest interwoven with natural-color yarn, whose handwork made it the show's truly haute-est piece. Jarrar's collection may not be couture, per se—it's sold at Ikram, Jeffrey, Kirna Zabête, and Bergdorf Goodman—but its unfettered modernism gave it an edge on the first day of these Paris shows.
3 July 2011
"I'm fascinated by asymmetry," said Bouchra Jarrar after her show. "I'm looking for the harmony in asymmetry, because this is life, I think." And what harmonious results her search produced, from the white-piped almost-military precision of her first looks, to a final Smoking outfit, sleeveless, sensually severe. If cut is one measure of a couturier's skill, then the bouncy, intense Jarrar is one of the most promising new stars in French fashion. Her perfectly tailored trousers—navy piped in white—could become cult objects. And her thought-out, soup-to-nuts (or rather, navy-slacks-to-leather-jacket) approach to a woman's wardrobe put her on a Phoebe Philo wavelength. But Jarrar's personal mission to harmonize the irregular added not so much a twist as a slash, like the subtly violent streak of red that intersected an asymmetric square of ivory silk satin, or the cuts that opened the front and back of a black crepe sheath. Something deep is going on there.On a lighter note, a blouse in navy silk satin furled open to reveal an ivory lining. It was such sinuously graphic flourishes that made Jarrar's show a reflective pleasure.
23 January 2011
If the clothes that Bouchra Jarrar showed for her second haute couture collection weren't quite as severe as the austere stonework of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs that provided their backdrop, they definitely had a classical rigor about them. Jarrar set out to offer a complete wardrobe—from jackets, dresses, and a trenchcoat to the goddess gown that closed the show—in a way that reflected the breakfast-to-bedtime ideal of traditional couture. That meant her emphasis was on what she felt was essential, and things were pared down to the max. The palette, for instance—navy, black, ivory, with gold accents. And the silhouette, streamlined for an athletic impact that felt very much now (the trench was sleeveless).There was delicacy in the balance of a two-piece outfit in ivory crepe that met at a single point on the waist. The slashed wool pieces with a glint of gold lamé underneath had a subtle glamour. But the most encouraging aspect of the collection might have been Jarrar's faith in her own voice as a designer. After the show, the Balenciaga and Lacroix alum counted "my maturity, my age" as influences. If enough customers feel the same way, then Jarrar's voice could become that of contemporary couture, too.
4 July 2010