This summer’s solar eclipse was a made-for-Marine Serre moment. Towards totality, the moon and sun aligned just like the brand’s recognizable crescent. There might have been a missed opportunity to create some content, if not merch (Serre’s capsule for the Louvre earlier this year successfully checked that box). But the timing may not have been ideal, given that weeks earlier the company had entered into bankruptcy proceedings.
Although Marine Serre isn’t on the official calendar this season, she stuck to the usual collection release timing. And it was encouraging to see how she seemed to approach the season like any other. Among the notable developments was a ‘Baby Moon’—so small that the flocked shapes on a slinky, light blue dress were only discernible up close.
Serre titled the collection “The Deep Shine” and said she was thinking about different ways light is radiated and reflected: metaphorically from within women to glimmering on the surface of water (with metallic fishing lures as jewelry, to boot). She also wanted to tap into how the sensuality at the core of Marine Serre can cross from evening over to day—and from beige tweeds and bronze-hued warm-up sets cut with ’80s volumes to vibrant pops of magenta, blue and yellow for parties by the beach. “I wanted something joyful,” she said. “I think fashion is not joyful lately, and I wanted to bring something soft but still strong.”
Most interesting was a trompe l’œil dress that merged an antique gray dress covered in delicate beadwork with a black jersey base. In another trompe l’œil twist, the studio photographed a lace-edged slip while it was wet on someone’s body, then turned this into a photo print on a black jersey dress, such that it gave a wet and curvaceous impression from afar.
Ten years into her brand, Serre’s commitment to upcycling and making high-fashion designs from deadstock remains laudable and it’s clear she still considers this her design laboratory, only now it drives some of the commercial pieces, too. A dress with an integrated silk scarf that could loop from the hemline up around the neck and concert tees that became handkerchief dresses captured how the brand can swing from more mature to more grunge while emphasizing pieces that are unique.
Serre, wearing a tank patterned in pale blue crescents and covered in transparent sequins—one of the key ideas for spring—confirmed that the company is already moving ahead on orders. As an independent business, she noted, they have made it this far without assistance. “Of course, then we are dependent on people; so when one of our clients has a problem, we have a problem.” Her outlook, though, came across as sanguine. “I’m really confident about my vision, and the women who follow me, and the product, and my team. I’m not so much worried about this.”
