Alain Paul choreographs clothes around the body, a vision at the heart of the brand he founded with his partner Luis Philippe in 2023. Both earned their stripes inside the industry, Paul at Vetements and Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton, Philippe in merchandising at Colette, then in wholesale for Balenciaga, Jacquemus or Alaïa.
Winners of the Special Prize at the 2025 ANDAM Fashion Awards and finalists of the LVMH Prize the same year, they now carry the artistic vision of clothing as an extension of the muscle beyond ballet, into the rave, where the body exults, freed. For the House’s first live performance, dancers begin slowly at the centre of the room, led by choreographer Eric Christison, shaped by the ballroom and nightlife scenes of his youth and classically trained like Paul himself. Then music takes over, energy erupts.
Composes by Senjan Jansen with London artist Shygirl, the rhythm possesses the dancers, wildly – sweat dreams! – and their vitality radiates across the room. The models wearing the collection circle the dancers, walking the edge of that power. A classically trained dancer turned designer, Alain Paul presents the wardrobe of a dancer leaving the theatre in whatever she grabs. Rehearsal tights wrap the torso above tailored stirrup trousers, an elastic at the back of single breasted jackets pushes the forward shoulder further and sharpens the waist, and an oversized wool skirt, with its internal elastic and several button positions, lets the wearer set the waist and the fall. The nylon tracksuit goes to evening, with balloon sleeves and drawcords reaching pencil skirts and dresses, silk borrows the dry hand of nylon, nylon the fall of silk, and mousseline gowns run on cords and stoppers the wearer pulls or releases.
Jacquard panniers, ivory over black jeans and black over dark denim shorts, having fun. A pink satin slip carries the messages dancers write on worn pointe shoes, and a distressed white tee carries Pina Bausch’s words, dance dance otherwise we are lost. Leather turns utilitarian, with pockets on skirts and vests and a knee pad worn on the leg or carried as a bag, black knit shorts unravel into fringes, and denim is bleached and silver foiled beneath an organza top woven with metal thread. The finale pares the tutu down to a gown of a thousand individually applied ruffles.
Thanks for the energy!
