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There is no doubt that Charles de Vilmorin is a rising star of Parisian fashion. In April 2020, at the age of 23, he launched his eponymous label on Instagram, in the midst of a pandemic. Within months, the industry buzz around him saw one of his designs (a psychedelic bomber jacket) appear in an Apple commercial about American rapper Tierra Whack. Soon after, Jean Paul Gaultier sponsored him to be a scheduled guest at Paris Haute Couture Week in January this year. Two weeks later, he was appointed the new creative director of the famous French fashion house Rochas.

Founded in 1925 by French designer Marcel Rochas, the house was best known for its signature fragrance, Femme. After the death of the designer in 1955, the fashion branch of the company closed its doors, to be relaunched in 1990 under its perfume owner Wella, then acquired by Procter & Gamble. After four years of critical success under Olivier Theyskens as Artistic Director, P&G again shut down the brand’s fashion division from 2006 to 2008. Italian designer Marco Zanini then threw his hat into the ring, followed by Alessandro dell’Acqua whose departure in December 2019 led to a year in which the house was without a creative director.

De Vilmorin himself has an interesting heritage. Much has been said about the creator’s bond with the poet, novelist and socialite Louise de Vilmorin (her grandfather’s great-aunt), who was also a close friend of Hélène Rochas, wife and muse of the founder Marcel. However, neither de Vilmorin nor Rochas knew of their family ties when he was offered the appointment. And, yes, there is a castle that bears his family name, the Château de Vilmorin in Verrières-le-Buisson. But he never went. In fact, the designer says he spends most of his time crouching on his sewing machine on the floor of his Parisian maid’s room.

“It’s true that my family, in general, is super creative and taught me a lot about art and culture,” explains de Vilmorin, whose mother is an art teacher and whose father is financial director. “In some articles, [it is written] that I come from a very rich family and that I am [at Rochas] because Louise de Vilmorin was a friend of Hélène Rochas, but this is totally false.

Aged 24 and very calm, de Vilmorin spices up his speech with charming Frenglish superlatives such as “mega”, “totally”, “super” and “crazy!” (crazy). He studied at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Mode et de la Couture, (followed by a master’s degree at the Institut Français de la Mode). De Vilmorin’s universe is dreamlike and fantastic, its exaggerated silhouettes and cheerful palettes, mixing surrealism with streetwise. “The Charles de Vilmorin woman is a bit shy, a bit ‘trashy’. She doesn’t know where she wants to go, but she goes. she corresponds [more] for me she is naive and a bit. . . ”He stops, searching for the word. “Clumsy!”

The Charles de Vilmorin woman is a bit shy, a bit ‘trashy’. She don’t know where she wanna go, but she goes

His first collection for his own brand, a series of ready-to-wear aviator jackets, was decorated with pictorial prints in acid shades hand drawn by the designer. These pieces evolved into its couture offering of leggings, chunky bombers and dresses with puffed sleeves, dripping with painted butterflies, rainbows and enticingly colored clown prints, inspired by Chagall, Dalí, Matisse. and Niki de Saint Phalle.

How will he reconcile this aesthetic with that of the more classic and elegant Rochas? “The Rochas woman and the Charles de Vilmorin woman are absolutely not the same. These are two totally different stories, ”he suggests. “The Rochas woman has a past. She is more confident, more sophisticated.

De Vilmorin says that the founder Marcel Rochas created the brand in the service of his wife Helene in 1925, but he wants “to tell the story of a more independent woman who does not need the help of her husband. I love Rochas’s story, but I think now we need the story of a super free woman.

This is a vision shared by Fabio Ducci, President of High Italian Manufacturing (formerly Onward Luxury Group), Rochas’ licensing partner. The brand’s parent company, Interparfums, announced the extension of its partnership with HIM for the Rochas women’s line on the day of Vilmorin’s appointment: its ability to embrace the brand’s past while guiding it towards a new one. time.

De Vilmorin’s first collection for the brand, Resort 2022, has not yet been marketed. Although the collection has only been shown to a few buyers, Ducci notes that it has generated interest. “This collection is a deliberate break with the past, and it resonates most with our business partners who are forward thinking and experimental,” he says. De Vilmorin’s second collection, which will be shown in Paris on Wednesday, will take the starting point of a woman in the middle of a house fire, throwing herself frantically into her wardrobe to save her precious Rochas. The flame burns flame prints on golden pleated lurex, a trompe-l’oeil jacquard that seems to drip from the heat, and flame-colored shoes and boots.

When asked why he thought Rochas had chosen him out of a handful of hopefuls, de Vilmorin said: “I think they liked the fact that I was not afraid to do a parade with clothes embroidered with erotic patterns and weird stuff. I proposed something more transgressive, while remaining in the codes of French couture.

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