Carmen March (Q4031)
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Carmen March is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Carmen March |
Carmen March is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
For fall, Carmen March decided to review the three F’s—fabric, form, function—and streamline her vision accordingly.“Everything is moving so fast, at a certain point I wanted to go very pure to what I think our core values are,” she explained during a showroom visit.For the fabrics, she went all out on 100% silks, Shetlands, and soft leather, forsaking technical treatments and keeping it all as locally, responsibly sourced as possible. A classic film buff, she plucked form ideas from archival photos and a biography on Hedy Lamarr—a renegade in her time, Lamarr was the first movie star to appear nude and emulate a climax onscreen. She was also a pioneering scientist who many credit for inventing what we know now as Wi-Fi (she was posthumously inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame). March earmarked one part of the biography, in which the actress advises: “Ignore everything around you, work, and stick with what you believe is right.”What came out of those considerations looked elegant, focused, and for the most part eminently wearable, now and over time. Men’s tailoring fabrics with a dash of sparkle is trending these days, and March played the balance judiciously with an olive-tone Shetland bustier dress lashed with crystal straps. Even without sparkle or a Lamarr-style portrait neckline, several of those Shetland pieces looked feminine and timeless.Carmen March, like her base, loves a bolero, as well as polka dots to party in (look one being a case in point). A bustier dress—also in the tweed—looked striking and effortless, as did a long-sleeve asymmetrical dress in the season’s classic blue. Anyone wishing to channel the ’80s will be spoiled for choice—there were lots of body-con party dresses to choose from. The main takeaway, however, was that March proved how becoming restraint is for her brand.
27 February 2020
In Carmen March’s world, girls just wanna have fun. For spring, many of her looks were a party in and of themselves, strewn with a confetti of painterly prints, jazzy motifs, and ripples of glassy sequins and ruffles.If it rang a little proto-MTV, there’s a good reason for it: The designer has been listening to a lot of classic New Wave lately, which led her to mull over the granddaddy of New Wave TV series:Miami Vice. “I remembered all the techniques, I started going backwards and thinking about how those videos were made,” March explained, referring to the cop show’s slow-mo, music-heavy style.Flipping that cinematic aesthetic to a women’s wardrobe, in a color palette of mints, pinks, and light blues, she offered up a snap-up, funnel-neck Perfecto in butter-soft Spanish leather, and prints evoking Keith Haring’s graffiti-like signature, most successfully on a liquid blue technical fabric. A tailored seersucker in blue and white Prince of Wales check was a good option for daytime, but the Carmen March base loves the nightlife. To that end, the designer gave them a wealth of options with pumped-up volumes. But the watercolor mint evening gown had such restrained elegance it wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Kennedy White House, an ensemble done back-to-front in dévoré cotton, and a little black dress embellished with plumes of pink and silver struck just the right note. Throw any of those together with a pair of major rhinestone earrings, and there’s all theMiami Vicemileage a girl might ever need.
28 September 2019
Although she’s rightfully and understandably passionate about her Spanish roots, Carmen March tried to rein in all that emotion for Fall (somewhat), with varying results.Overall, a more relaxed look suits her. In lieu of skintight matador pants and boleros of past seasons, the designer is now looking into mixing her self-confessed love of skin and transparency with a looser, more languid vibe. By her own admission, she spent an insane amount of time zeroing in on “the perfect nude” for coats and separates (those bandeaus are big with her core customers). Then she filled out the collection with luxurious materials such as men’s suiting fabrics, butter-soft Spanish leather worked into a puffer jacket, and plush hand-knits.A leopard can never really change its spots, however. March has a thing about the 1980s, so there’s more than a whiff of decadence and sensuality—not to mention disco fabulousness—in her bonded-rubber tulle numbers; matte fuchsia floral lace; and transparent tops showered with silver spots meant to flirt with strobe lights or candlelight, take your pick. In a more restrained vein, a black suit with wide trousers nodded to the decade of excess without tipping into ’80s hangover. The double-breasted coats with big, fat buttons were more literal, however.“The ’80s are always with me,” the designer allows. “That was the best decade: It was fun, and there was something about how women looked wonderful that’s hard to forget.” She’s here to ensure we don’t, whether her customer actually remembers those days or simply wishes she were old enough to.
2 March 2019
For Spring, Carmen March issued a three-pronged personal manifesto. She’s a surfer, for one, but she’s also yearning for the kind of joie de vivre couture represented back in the ’80s. And, as is her custom, her Spanish roots are the baseline for her creative vision.The result is a beguiling combination of wet suit textures and streamlined cuts, for example, on body-con black hourglass dresses with taffeta flamenco ruffles in fuchsia or marigold, two colors borrowed from the matador’s world. Of March’s many tributes to the torero’s uniform, the cropped, flared pants are the most immediately obvious—those were cute, even if the low-scooped gilet she showed them with was a bit too literal.Elsewhere, a loose, tie-dye T-shirt draped over the hips showed versatility (solo by night, with leggings by day), and a pretty carnation print, a first for the young brand, illustrated how the designer is pushing into new territory.Ultrafeminine fabrics, like taffeta that crinkles when you move, and the traditionalmadroños—a folkloric tulle with black velvet pom-poms that has been a favorite ever since Francisco Goya was painting royal portraits—amped up the party spirit. For day, there are tailored Prince of Wales check suits of lightweight wool, in tangerine. A cape in pink technical fabric, a Spring 2019 must-have at many a house, was one of the best this season.Offered the designer: “I wanted to do a collection that makes me happy.” In these fraught times, who couldn’t use a little of that?
8 October 2018
Carmen March would like to set the record straight: That cropped-jacket-slim-pant-matador silhouette that seems to be cropping up all over Paris this season is, de facto, Spanish. She’s got that look covered, and she also has a few ideas about the ’80s that set her apart from the general current of nostalgia about the era. No doubt because she has early memories of watching the transformative potential of fashion.“Imagine coming out of a dictatorship. What I remember is the fun, the explosion of freedom,” the designer said, referring to time after the end of the Franco years. “There was La Movida, people had the feeling that anything was possible—it was all about the big hair, the color, the music scene, the clubs, you could see it everywhere.”For Fall, the Madrid-based designer channeled that energy into a collection that starred her now-signature bustier (either integrated or stand-alone) in a series of styles that made it look completely viable again, surprising as that may seem—and in a sophisticated vein. The best of these was done in fabric lifted from the menswear lexicon, worked as a black-and-white checked hourglass dress and matching, ample coat, or a jumpsuit in gray plaid. The overall impression was fearless. Equally strong were the night-on-the-town pop-over dresses in velvet, black fringe, or ultrasoft white leather.March is keen on fabric development, and this season she spent months focusing on texture and depth before turning her attention to silhouette. The fabrics included a light silk viscose jacquard with graphic red motifs on black ground—“Go out to dinner in Madrid, and you’ll see women in black and red,” the designer noted. In response to clients’ requests, she also made her first foray into red carpet wear with a single, strapless black velvet gown—an homage toPortrait of Madame Xby John Singer Sargent.
1 March 2018
At some point after last season’s emphasis on black and white, Carmen March realized she was missing color. While mulling over options, she found her hue from a rather unexpected source: a piece of poster board abandoned on a downtown street. “I seem to see beauty everywhere,” she said during a presentation. “And a city is about what you see.” As she tells it, such an assertive lilac surrounded by buildings got her thinking about high-achieving women who need clothes to match their powerful roles—whether in business or otherwise. These lookbook photos shot in a Madrid tower are the realization of that creative spark.Go figure, her use of streetlight red registers strongest, particularly in a foxy pair of leather pants that extend flatteringly from their higher waist. But other noteworthy pieces stood out for their material novelty: A crinkly silk infused with metallic thread, a wavy monochromatic jacquard, and foil-treated lace all enhanced March’s 1980s silhouettes with attitude. Arguably no look was moreWorking Girl2.0 than the mega-shoulder blazer worn as a double-belted minidress. A bit extreme for the boardroom, perhaps. But consistent with her original idea of finding value in waste, she recast the leftover edges of jackets and tops as surprising dimensional flourishes.By including variations on a Spanish bodice yet again, March has established a strongly feminine piece that is recognizably hers just three seasons into her relaunched career. Unlike her versatile leather separates, it seems destined to be a Carmen March total look, this time paired with belted ankle pants, Manolo Blahnik sandals, and arty enamel earrings. Even in typically drab concrete gray, you’d end up turning heads.
27 September 2017
By way of introducing her second collection, Carmen March explained that she collects photography. Google-search the late French photographer Lucien Clergue plus “harlequin” and Diane Arbus’s street style series, and you will see how the Spanish designer took a cue from these striking images in a purposely feminine way. Most obvious, there was the chic, dévoré harlequin jumpsuit, which alternated black velvet with chiffon diamonds, the frayed white borders hand-painted. As for the volume concentrated at the shoulders and sleeves of several looks, including a killer white piqué cotton dress and a tapered blazer with big resin buttons, she said she wanted to interpret the action of jumping by capturing the moment that clothes are pushed upward. A gathered dress in men’s suiting extending from a black leather bustier had the opposite gravitational effect, appearing as if seductively pulled down. Both directions made for a unique spin on power dressing that women will likely appreciate instinctively, if not knowingly, when wearing the pieces.Indeed, March’s vision has built-in panache, not just in technical terms—whether her soft corseting or the flawless sculpting of the leather pants and truncated tuxedo—but because it channels a certain Spanish sizzle while paying homage to unabashed ’80s glamour. Look no further than the LBD, with its cascade of netting punctuated with red Swarovski polka dots. By showing the same specialty fabric as a long-sleeved top with a simple leather neckband, March has also considered how to achieve the same frisson in a lower register. She already presented the collection to buyers during the pre-collection period; Saks Fifth Avenue has now bought in, while Net-a-Porter continues its support. Another explanation why her relaunched brand has probably gained such traction so quickly: The looks happen to be highly photogenic.
2 March 2017
Carmen March relaunched her namesake label after a long hiatus, during which she oversaw design for the Spanish label Pedro del Hierro Madrid. She showed the collection to buyers including Net-a-Porter during the pre-collection period—something that seems to be an increasingly common practice among independent designers. Thus, her low-key presentation in Paris this week mostly served to let the world know that she is, in fact, back. But enough time has passed—roughly six years—that her return needs to be focused on identifying how she can contribute to a market that’s more saturated with accessible luxury than ever. “I kept trying to get back to the idea of beauty,” said March.A first impression of three models would suggest she got there. Closer up revealed how. Because her silhouettes come dangerously close to the body, she employs draping and rigid ruffles as decoys. “You can eat and breathe in this,” March said of a yellow moiré silk bustier that hit just above the waist and was supported without boning. (Narrow pleated pants take care of the rest). She took advantage of local Spanish leather to produce a must-have mini and slightly shrunken jacket. Fabrics that might read as suede, velvet, or even plaster in photographs are actually all silk and linen—just blended in varying proportions. She used the black version to arrive at the collection’s defining piece: a head-turning, draped LBD enhanced by a structured off-shoulder décolleté slit at one arm. The highly suggestive colorless tulle jumpsuit patterned with hand-painted white brush showed off her couture skills combined with controlled glamour. March may or may not be able to ride her ruffle theme for several seasons, given its ubiquity elsewhere. But she wouldn’t have reentered the fray if she didn’t have more ideas up her sleeve.
1 October 2016