Carven: Autumn/Winter '15: Review & .GIF Goodies

Alexis Martial and Adrien Caillaudaud
Upon hearing of the departure of Guillaume Henry last year, I was saddened that Carven was to be without the man who transformed the sleepy couturier into one of the most commercially viable brands in the luxury market. The brand itself began to die as soon as Madame Carven's trademark styles were no longer considered a dream worth buying into, unlike the clothes of say Saint Laurent which are still considered timeless classics today. Guillaume Henry pumped the brand with sport inspired garments and a subtle amount of sex appeal until retailers couldn't get enough, in 2013 Carven was sold in over 600 stores, not bad for a brand that has been sold on more times than Alexander Wang's barcode print.

With Henry's departure myself and other fans of the brand were apprehensive for the arrival of not one, but two fresh faces taking the place as Carven's creative directors. Alexis Martial and Adrien Caillaudaud. 

Liliac mini skirts, white organza shirt with cloud puffs attached repetitively

Caillaudaud previously worked at Marc Jacobs and most recently Givenchy, alongside creative director Riccardo Tisci, where he worked on shoes and accessories. He is mainly responsible for the Carven autumn/winter 2015 collection which will be shown in Paris this month, as co-artistic director colleague Alexis Martial joined the company later.

Martial was poached from Italian label Iceberg, where he was creative director. Previous to that the Parisian was the creative director of Paco Rabanne in 2012 after a stint at Givenchy designing knitwear.

Modern foam fabrics and floral jacquards

Martial and Caillaudaud's debut however was everything and more that I hoped it would be, with  Adrien Caillaudaud stating they had 'electrified' the brand, "She is a nice Parisienne, but now we want to give her a nice twist, to electrolyze her." Liliac mini skirts, white organza shirt with cloud puffs attached repetitively. The collection was updated with modern foam fabrics and floral jacquards. 

Martial and Caillaudaud met 12 years ago—on their first day of fashion school—and have long plotted to work together. If this collection is anything to go by, I can't wait to see just how far they can go with their 'electrifying' of Carven.