Rodarte: Cowgirl couture in a classical cloister

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jul 2, 2017

The cobwebs are being blown of Paris couture this season. And nobody is bringing down the ancient regime quicker than the Los Angeles maison of Rodarte, who staged an exhilarating cowgirl couture show to great acclaim on a sunny afternoon.
 

Sunday witnessed four new arrivals on the season’s official calendar; and last but definitely not least was Rodarte, who took over the early 17th century Port Royal Cloister in an elegiac moment of funky grace.
 
Too often the couture has been for many continental couturiers a question of tweaking classical fashion motifs. Rodarte, however, seized the opportunity to revolutionize the format – with a brilliant display of creative cutting and cultural cut and paste. Widely regarded as the one great fashion house based in California, Rodarte played with their favorite themes, Western romance, dissolute nightclubbing and gentile naturalism though with that soupcon more of finesse that is required, demanded even, in Paris couture.

High-heel cowboy boots anchored see-through chiffon columns in a saucy met seductive moment from the Rodarte duo of sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy. With After the Goldrush by Prelude playing plaintively, the cast finished their walk around the cloisters by gathering in the garden, done up with myriad plants and summer flowers, courtesy of Debaulieu. Each model bedecked in panicle flowers, woven around arms, hip, shoulders and even covering an entire head.
 

Highlighting the happy marriage between cowboy and couture was a remarkable white flamenco  with a multi petal neckline – made in glove like leather. Followed by sexy school marm’ dresses in see-through chiffon dissected with miniature metallic bows; and a superb gown made in a Bird of Paradise print, the model clutching the same flowers in her hand; or an outstanding jumpsuit in mohair mesh.
 
“We definitely wanted to respect the tradition and all the great couturiers who had worked in couture. But also give it our own twist,” explained Kate Mulleavy, standing in the cloisters garden post-show.
 
The setting was ideal. A royal abbey long associated with Jansenism, a movement obsessed with human depravity and the need for divine grace. A refuge where one of Louis XIV’s mistresses died giving birth to his child. This show, however, felt like the renewal of couture.