The art of joy may be the hardest one to learn. Even though the web is saturated with courses and content promising spiritual enlightenment, money gets spent and results rarely arrive. Throughout his career, Jacquemus has always pursued it. Each of his collections has touched on themes often dear to the sphere of happiness, from love to art, from friendship to childhood memories. And yet, however close each show seemed to come to the shores of this discovery, a veil of melancholy always appeared to dim pure carefreeness. In the specific case of Simon Porte Jacquemus, one feels the absence of his late mother, the pain of not having her in the front row to rejoice in turn, heart to heart with her son.
With Le Bonheur, however, Jacquemus changes register. Hosted in the magnificent setting of the Phare de la Pietra, the historic lighthouse in Corsica overlooking the Mediterranean, with a star-studded front row that included Alexandra Leclerc, Isabelle Huppert and Tina Kunakey, the show presented clothes that seemed sewn with new conceptual threads, giving life to a renewed and mature awareness that finally offers a vision of what it takes to be happy. The art of joy? It is the art of letting go.
Soft Volumes and Ethereal Textures: Serenity According to Jacquemus
Jacquemus has always moved between almost opposing ideas of volume. On one side, geometric and sinuous lines, perfectly embodied by his signature dress, the Saudade, where the drape feels soft while the cut remains structured. On the other, wide and airy designs, like the clouds of taffeta and lace that appeared at Versailles with the Le Paysan.
In this collection, the guiding word is lightness. Organza, cotton, silk satin and appliqué feathers create an image of perfect airiness, where everything floats and sways as if carried, with gentle grace, by maritime winds. Skirts billow, tops ripple like waves across the chest, even the bags follow the body’s movement with docile ease, while the hair becomes tousled with such naturally spontaneous order that it seems choreographed.
A Sea of White, the Color of Lightness
The designs also bend toward this new awareness. Shirts are worn open, skirts feature elastic waistbands and open like corollas along their length, while long dresses alternate straight lines with tank necklines or generous robe-like sleeves reminiscent of the 1930s silhouettes and deconstructed forms of Paul Poiret. Even the hats change position, becoming low knots at the nape in which to gather a chignon. Ocean blue, orange and an evening red then dissolve into a sea of white, the collection’s central color, which better than any other shade recreates the sensation of a soul freed from oppression. With semi-transparent ballet flats, new oversized bags recalling fishermen’s sacks and the omnipresent Valérie bag in different sizes and shades, everything in Le Bonheur reveals the discovery made by Simon Porte Jacquemus: to be truly happy, one must learn to be serene, releasing the weight of worries and transforming even melancholy into a sublime and deeply intimate form of beauty.
