The dresses and ensembles were all
black, set on stands amidst steam rising from the floor. The setting, in a
Lexus showroom in Paris, evoked the past as well as the future – old-world
elegance and modernity, with a Gothic wind blowing through
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| Xuan stands amid her designs. |
“I started out thinking of colour,” said
Vietnamese-Dutch designer Xuan-Thu Nguyen, her petite frame in a long white blouse among the dark dresses. “But then everything became black.”
Still, black doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of
colour, she emphasized. “When you’re fully dressed in black, you see more clearly all
the colour around you. So, black attracts colour, in fact."
Her Spring / Summer 2019 Couture
collection was noted for its “wearability”, but one would be wrong to assume tameness in this case. All
the gowns and dresses signalled a kind of daring beyond the sophistication,
with distinct shapes, lines and texture. The use of mesh sleeves, folds of fabric and
cinched waistlines contributed to the impudent stylishness.
Xuan’s design house is based in Paris,
with production in France and the Netherlands, and through the clothes, one can
feel the blending of cultures, the boldness of standing out. Here, black leads
the pack of all hues. - Tasshon
