WALK THE LINE
In this defined white space, on the other side of the strip that marks the area reserved for photographers, they appear one by one, glancing here and there at the lenses of those who call out their names in an attempt to capture the greatest face-to-face. Season after season, they walk the line.
Amid this immaculate starkness, so rare in these moments that precede a show, the signature geometric lines of the house start to be revealed, drawing the harmony of these shapes and textures that sometimes envelop, sometimes expose.
There is something I see about embracing fullness and emptiness.
The First Looks are like a collection of firsts; a time-space where pieces and silhouettes are slightly disclosed, while the first images are trying to be caught. In this vibrating pace, we rush to capture the archive of an essence we barely have time to look at. In the middle of this vibration, I wonder if this is what fashion photography is about, to memorise what we can’t see on time.
There is something I feel about a complex tension between gentleness and speed.
Under the glass ceiling, a contrast is drawn between the radical purity of the pieces appearing on this expanded brightness and the agitated tide of press people and teams, correcting, adjusting, screaming. Like a giant wave, the mass keeps moving around this single strip. In the middle of this rhythm, I wonder if this is what fashion is about, to find your own move and path on the right line.
And all together, at last, we try to walk the line.
Text photography by Hanna Pallot
Backstages pictures of Courrèges SS25 collection