False Innocence: Couture Autumn/Winter 2010-2011

Women with nipped-in waists, accentuated busts, voluminous puffed-up shoulders and allusions to the 1900s; this is the main silhouette, drawn from Visconti's The Innocent, underlying the ninth Autumn/Winter couture collection by Christophe Josse.

But it consists of a false "Innocence", because the lines, details and construction of garments are those of today. A corset supports the waist, but is flexible to enable easy movement. There are few stiffeners or linings in dresses that are airy and light, where volume comes solely from the brittle, voluptuous "touch" of the fabrics. Nevertheless the silhouette exists, and is delineated, with a precise contour. A frame to set off the quintessential sensuality of Laura Antonelli, but for a free woman, like La Duse, the rival actress to Sarah Bernard and Gabriele d’Annunzio's great passion.

Like the Visconti costumes, this new couture by Christophe Josse advocates opulence and dense fabrics with a rich feel and hang. There is tension between the fragility of pleated muslin and the curvaceous fullness of ink-black Lelièvre damask or delicate-bodied gazar. Gauze fixed tightly onto a dress embroidered with feathers interprets the same message. On dapple-grey charmeuse, a midnight blue velvet ribbon follows the line of the waist. Curly Astrakan fur takes on the colour of mist; there is the same work of relief in curled feathers emphasised with a "favour" in amethyst velvet. Pewter patinated metal embroideries subtly illuminate this wardrobe with no historical evocations or literal references to the Belle Epoque. The tortoiseshell embroideries of glycerine-coated ostrich feathers have nothing of the light panache of that period; they seem well-tried by time, and display a softened, more modern hang. Short cut clothes foster an endless, tapering leg line. Trousers follow the same slim silhouette, sharpened like a pencil stroke. More contemporary jackets reveal slightly pagoda-shaped shoulders, asserted but not exaggerated. The trouser flying suit mingles a camisole taken from a trousseau with a waistcoat borrowed from masculine "dress". Elsewhere, a mandarin collar morphs into a suit lapel on an ultra-precise jacket.

The wedding dress in a mixture of false whites associates seersucker organza with crumpled muslin and tulle, in organic, random pleats, opening out into a many-layered tulip shape.

Colour range: Turtledove, Amethyst, Black, Dapple-grey, Soot, Mist, Pearl Grey.