Two years and one baby later, Ester Manas joyfully bounces back into Paris Fashion Week. Its collection, “Somehow I Manage,” borrows its title from the book of The Office’s endearingly cringeworthy boss, Michael Scott, and turns it into the motto of parenthood, ready-to-rear. How does a woman remain her most unapologetically glamorous self when her daily life asks for comfort and constant availability? The brand answers in partnership with the lingerie experts of fellow Belgian brand Primadonna.
When a woman gives birth, the gifts go to the baby. Blankets, rattles and tiny shoes arrive by the dozen, while the mother receives flowers or massage vouchers at best. Ester Manas’s new collection is the gift she deserves. Shirts with room to move and lace that flatters without constraining leave her free, and every bit as glamorous, in the Manas way. As the lights go down and the show is about to begin, the room falls silent, save for a child’s cry. Nobody planned it, and it sets the tone before a single look appears, since parenthood has taken its seat in the room. Then Whitney Houston’s I’m Every Woman starts, and the models step onto a floor divided into zones of artificial grass, pink and violet. Woman first, or mother first? The collection refuses to choose. Bras show, in fuchsia or in sheer leopard, and a sublime transparent trench coat hides nothing. Then a purple dress slips off the chest over a leopard turtleneck, in a nod to breastfeeding, an act still too often kept out of sight, here worn with pride on a runway.
Founded in 2019 by Ester Manas and Balthazar Delepierre, the House rests on the principle of One Size Fits All, a promise to dress every body that remains its DNA. Its collections also draw on the lives and convictions of its founders. For Better or for Worse, staged at the American Church in Paris in March 2023, took their approaching wedding as its script, and they married that year. The Elephant in the Room, in September 2024, was its last show and answered the retreat of size inclusivity on the runway. The two years outside the official calendar have also seen the House pivot from traditional wholesale to direct sales.
Primadonna is the specialist behind the lingerie. Founded in Germany in 1865 as a corsetry workshop and Belgian since 1990, the brand is known for its fit across more than 90 bra sizes, a range that mirrors the House’s own promise to dress every body. The designers went into its archives, and the programme records how time altered the palette, with the yellow of an ancestral lingerie set turned beige and the raw blue of a brief turned ocean blue. About forty pieces, bras and bodysuits, were developed by Primadonna’s own patternmakers and seamstresses. The partnership made its debut on the Cannes red carpet, in a custom look.
Ease is built into the cut. Creased taffeta, the fabric of princess dresses, becomes oversized shirts and slip skirts with elasticated waists and deep pockets, where the hands go straight in. The opening look pairs a cream shirt with lace leggings piped in white, and a lilac shirt with sharp shoulders sits over a periwinkle skirt edged in lace. Corset bodices in aubergine and navy meet a ruched orange skirt or a gathered slip. A leopard print dress is panelled in pale yellow lace and finished in tiers of ruffles, and its navy twin is built entirely in lace, with tulle at the hem. The programme counts 22,000 bows from Primadonna’s dormant stocks, climbing a patiently hand knitted skirt. As it puts it, the sexy may mingle with what we sometimes assume does not belong to that category, technical taffeta jackets and everyday skirts included.
Ester Manas and Balthazar Delepierre come out to greet the audience with their child in their arms, smiling and waving. Nothing has been given up, neither glamour nor joy, and the applause is for all three.
