As Andrew Gn goes on his merry way—he is one of the most successful indies in Paris—the more he’s come to realize that he’s “no longer satisfied with only one thing,” as he put it during a recent interview.
Which is not to be taken as a bid for overconsumption—quite the contrary. What the designer has been mulling is the many different ways women may choose to live today, and their melting-pot origins, as evidenced by this season’s look-book model, a beauty of Dominican, Spanish, and Chinese descent.
Gn, likewise, is a man of multiple ancestries, a collector of many different kinds of beautiful things, and also a renowned foodie. Cultural cross-pollination comes second nature to him, which is particularly evident on his Instagram feed and in this collection. Riffing on the diversity of influences around him, the designer roamed from Paris’s toniest shopping streets to the African neighborhood known as the Goutte d’Or and beyond.
The city of Lyon, whose fortune stemmed from 19th-century silk textile production, got a tribute in a gown with a custom-woven bronze floral motif in fil coupe. Elsewhere, what seemed like a bronze windowpane check on black or white tweed was in fact custom-made, hand-placed passementerie, and a brocade was inspired by a 17th-century portrait by Bronzino.
But African-inflected prints are where Gn really pushed into new territory: A series he might as well call Haute Barbès had stripes of emoji brights zigzagging down a caftan or spilling down a sleeveless black midi dress. A pale magnolia on a lemon-yellow dress was hand-painted in Gn’s studio but is rooted in the Chinese silkscreen tradition, with an African flair—a reference to the flow of Asian cultures in Africa today, the designer noted. Some of these looks were truly for the bold, but then again the designer’s base is not known for wallflower tendencies. Whether they go for long or mini, in maximalist print, brocade, feathers, and jewel tones, or a comparatively minimalist look in simple black and white, Gn’s ladies will find lots to love here.
