The historical Collège des Bernardins – a 13th-century former Cistercian monastery and college of the historic University of Paris was formerly a space of study for Monks attending the university, then a prison, a storage space, a fire station, and today hosts public debates, art exhibitions, concerts, and theology courses through the École Cathédrale.
It’s also the locus of Australian label Aje’s spring summer 27 runway show, held as part of Paris Fashion Week. The setting felt fitting – one need only peruse the history of the space, to focus the collection on the reverence of nature – both through hyperreal botanical imagery on the garments themselves, as well as an immersive installation by artist and gallerist Vicki Lee.
Lee’s multidisciplinary practice explores florals through painting. And for this presentation, she created a mixed media and immersive installation, where banksia, bottlebrush, grevillea and milk thistle emerge beneath the water, immersed in drifting hues and atmospheric depth – an abstract depiction of light, colour and shifting wavelengths.
The collection was titled Unfurled, an homage to the first stages of bloom. Here, “sculptural silhouettes unfurl through floating organza and heightened textures”. The palette was pulled from the Australian landscape itself – and hyperreal botanical prints melt into dimensional floral adornments.
The collection felt overwhelmingly delicate – a nod to the spindly, soft and fragile early stages of blossoming. Paper-thin organza, silk and pleats billowed over naked torsos in an Aphrodisian manner. Tufts of monochromatic feathers sprouting from jackets and tunics.
Wherever there was heaviness, it was met with an equal and opposing force. Leather jackets paired with lace bloomers. A structural, padded blazer worn over a liquid sheer slip skirt.
There was an air of reverence to the collection – not least of which was imparted by the cathedral-like setting. Designers Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest created something both ethereal and grounded all at once.
