At LdSS, beauty and the devil are the same thing
The collection, a collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, reads as an allusion to the quest of sin: its definition, its arbiters, and those with the authority to cast judgment. Yet to invoke Mapplethorpe without using the material most associated with his work would be nothing short of a sin indeed; thus black calfskin leather served as the collection’s material baseline, and I’d like to think of it as its sacred essence, too. The use of calfskin extended from Saint Sernin’s statement pieces such as the cleavage bralette, the iconic LdSS riff on bumsters (the generous butt-flashing pants adorned with lace-up cutout at the rear) to aviator jackets which nodded towards the photographer’s flamboyant self-portraits. That ‘leather attitude’ was likewise found in brilliantly flared cut pants, on look 8.
To contrast the kink — while evoking the contrasting nature of Mapplethorpe’s progression from early squarlor to later glamor — the designer turned to his extensive archive of still-life florals. Hand-cut velvet and lacquered appliqués were fused in frank fashion onto vests, slip dresses and blouses, while halter necks and gowns were given their fair share of the motif through meshwork encrusted in crystals. The iconography functioned not unlike the way in which bows are seemingly licensed onto every surface of our outfits in contemporary fashion; an overdose. Saint Sernin's flowers felt akin to geometrics in Cubism; they embodied a logo approved for its silent luxury. However, similar to when Do presented his color blocks in honor of Lang last season, the repetition exhausted its essence and thus left us feeling overfed. However, while their quantity ceased to evoke the poetry of their reference, the motifs still nodded towards Mapplethorpe-qualities — his ability to tease the devil out of the angel, “the darkly erotic in the ostensibly innocent,” as the show notes suggested.
Elsewhere, the silhouettes were clinched in an hourglass shape celebrated through use of belts, all crafted in leather with punctured steel-hole appearances. Saint Sernin has incorporated ropes into some of his earlier collections — an element that is dominant in several of Mapplethorpe's works, such as 'Bondage' and 'Unique.' Yet, the choice to swap the earthy for the gruff this season struck another blow for the BDSM inspiration behind this collection. Likewise, chests were bare (no hands on nips for this house!), yet I'm still impatiently waiting for a male silhouette to slide into a gown, given the brand's queer advocacy.
The devil, as they say, is in the details, and this season’s details were created in collaboration with Tous and Diego Villareal Vagujhelyi. “Jewelry is an understated but incredibly important part of Mapplethorpe’s work,” Saint Sernin observed, evoking a certain scene for those of us who have read Patti Smith’s Just Kids, where it takes Mapplethorpe hours to select his jewelry before heading out to Studio 54. These brass embellishments were conceivably more devilish, but then again, aren’t beauty and the devil the same thing?
The LdSS dedication to nudity and various states of undress was present even at the afterparty. The well-loved little shirt/big pants outfit recipe became leather harness/leather pants or no shirt/barely pants. I went home wearing fewer articles than I came with— nothing too scandalous, I just lost my tie, which is now likely somewhere in the trash out behind The Standard.
As we left, some guests despaired with the likes of, “I didn’t get to make out with anyone tonight!” and “I wanted to find love!” It pains me to be the one to break this to you all, but your soulmate will not be found at BOOM. This week, I spent more time there than I did in my own bed, and while I’m not complaining, I doubt that makes me wife material. Some places are built to make marriages, others are built to throw good parties. And, while you might not find love at Ludovic de Saint Sernin, you’ll be in for one Mapplethorpian night.
