Commune de Paris 1871 is a French urbain chic brand with a store in Paris. The Designer – in – Chief is mr Alexandre Maisetti with whom we had a chance to chat when visiting the brand new store in the Marais for a presentation. Most of the wear is made in Portugal and like in most haute gamme collections the presentation is accompanied by a full range of accessories, from cologne / perfume to what are probably shoes, bags and wallets – as goes the branding trade today in this range.
The style is refreshingly and recognizably French in its light pastel colorings and shades, and its easy going style called decontracté in French. That sporty easy going urban chic look. Hard to capture but much wanted and not easily found. Probably why Saks carries it as it is definitely something that sells well in the upper range and something that stays discrete and is therefore quite classy. But most French stuff usually is. Wouldn’t call it BCBG however – it’s too refined for that and too poppy. The bourgeoisie likes to flaunt you know, whereas this is quite discrete and therefore elegant and refreshing.
Signature of the SS17 collection is the Doux Rire Brutal, translated as ‘(soft) brutal smile’ in English, which is a scoop off of a quote by 19th century French bad boy boogie and dead poet Arthur Rimbaud, but which perhaps would read better as ‘evil smirk’ as in the various concepts surrounding the collection the signature smile is set against prison bars. Nothing dark about it though, but everything surprisingly light, stylish, elegant, and refreshing. Would look great on the runways no doubt, but sometimes runways are best shunned maybe just so as to leave the brand as something intriguingly exclusive. Commune de Paris 1871. Something just for connaisseurs, aye, something perhaps for idle youth.
“Idle youth, enslaved to everything …” — Arthur Rimbaud
Posted by Sandro and photos from Commune de Paris press office.
