SANDRINE PHILIPPE:  UNPLUGGED

January 23, 2016

By Marcellous L. Jones

Photos by Robert Jacob

Paris, France – Sandrine Philippe is one of the best menswear designer in Paris to not YET be a household name among the fashion elites. But her time is coming. She cemented that as an inevitable fact yesterday with the presentation of her new Fall Winter 2016/17 menswear collection in Paris. In it we found the compelling codes that make her work in menswear so intriguing.

The French designer opted for a storybook like presentation of her collection. Deep music and a dark background formed the setting of her show. The silhouettes mixed and overcame their setting. We find the designer’s passion for reworking leather into unfamiliar textures. She uses them in her coats, jackets and tank top shirts. She pairs these items with her slim leather trousers. In fact though she does provide some space for movement in a selection of her pants and in some ensembles such as the jumpsuits, they generally tend to be dominated by the slim cuts.

Rough edges and unfinished angles are what we find in the jackets. Sandrine Philippe shows her penchant for draping by infusing it into a number of her pieces. It would appear that Philippe is not a fan of button up shirts. True or not, she clearly has a preference for rounded necklines and large, banded collars.

This current work for Fall Winter 2016/17 may be considered as dark and mysterious. But one must realize that it is precisely this sense of the unknown that makes her work so compelling. And all must agree that Sandrine Philippe is a master storybook teller as she writes new pages that force us to consider the unknown side of menswear.