Last week at Church Saint Merri, French fashion house Coppélia Pique debuted its fall/winter 2016 collection, titled “A Bloody Love Story,” as a part of Paris Fashion Week. Inspired by paintings of the tragic romance between Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, and Charles Baudelaire’s poem The Death of Lovers, the collection illustrates a woman, wounded in adolescence by unrequited love, who gradually embraces herself and ascends as a deity.
Gold-faced models highlighted the show’s mythical “modern Renaissance” setting, while scarlet red belts and layers evoked stab-wound imagery, emphasizing the idea of transformation through the sword. Standout moments in the Coppélia woman’s transformation included a white dress, splashed with gold from a brush with divinity; a broad-shouldered black suit, silhouetting a woman with no male counterpart; a bright red swirl-ruffled dress, showing the woman’s surging metamorphosis; and a crimson kimono-style robe that closed the show, featuring ruched hanging sleeves and a gold-embroidered trail, expressing her ultimate deification.
Courtesy of Coppélia Pique.
