Rahul Mishra, Julie de Libran, Imane Ayissi new names on Paris Haute Couture calendar

By

Chenu Alexis

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Dec 19, 2019

The steering committee of the French Haute Couture’s Union Chamber met on November 20 to draw up the calendar of the next Paris Haute Couture Week, scheduled from Monday January 20 to Thursday January 23. Three new members have been invited to join the calendar to show their Spring/Summer 2020 collections.
 

The first is French designer Julie de Libran, the former creative director of Sonia Rykiel. She presented a first collection of 20 dresses off-calendar last season, and will now be joining the haute couture’s major league. 
 
The second new name is Indian designer Rahul Mishra. He has been showing at the Paris Fashion Week Women for the last five years, and in July surprised everyone by presenting a first couture collection, in the hope of joining the haute couture’s official calendar.

Mishra’s style blends high-quality fabrics with appealing cuts and impeccable details and, while far from folksy, it features plenty of embroidered motifs made using traditional Indian techniques.

The third new name is Cameroon-born designer Imane Ayissi, another regular at the Paris Fashion Week, where he has been showing since 2013. He started out as a dancer for the Cameroon national ballet company, then modelled for Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent before launching his own label in 2001. Ayissi, 51, has now attained for the first time the Holy Grail of haute couture, and will show his creations, a blend of Africa and Europe, on the official calendar.

The great come-back of Bouchra Jarrar 

Besides these three new names, the Paris Haute Couture Week next January will be notable for the return of Bouchra Jarrar. A regular on the haute couture catwalks, the designer had paused her eponymous label to become the creative director of Lanvin from 2016 to 2017, and will relaunch her label next season.

The calendar is still provisional, and it also includes collections by Aelis, Aganovich, Antonio Grimaldi, Azzaro Couture, Christophe Josse, George Hobeika, Guo Pei, Iris Van Herpen, Ralph&Russo, RR331, RVDK / Ronald Van Der Kemp, Ulyana Sergeenko, Xuan, Yuima Nakazato and Zuhair Murad, all of them showing as guests of the haute couture's Union Chamber, alongside its more illustrious members like Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Schiaparelli and Jean Paul Gaultier.