Every once in a while a designer comes along who sets fashion editors’ hearts aflutter.
In a week when Pierpaolo Piccioli is scheduled to show his first haute couture collection at Balenciaga, and Duran Lantink will make his couture debut at Jean Paul Gaultier, a small independent designer from London has made his presence felt.
Since winning the inaugural Savoir-Faire award at the 2024 LVMH Prize, Michael Stewart had not shown his creations in Paris. Anna Wintour was among the 150 guests who gathered at the Irish embassy for the debut of his Standing Ground label at Paris Couture Week.
Stewart said he spent the 200,000-euro prize money — and then some — on perfecting his sci fi-infused designs for fashion’s biggest stage.
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“Paris is where the work should be,” he said. “The past year-and-a-half, almost two years, have been a study in cut and form, and my technique, and pushing it forward.”
He used his signature covered beading to structure tailored looks, opening with a gray jacket with a scarf collar and hook-and-eye clasps. A pearl gray capelet-back coat was solemn enough for the Galactic Senate, but Stewart knows how to do wearable too: his black pantsuit was guaranteed to give you an edge in a Silicon Valley board meeting.
For a more decorative effect, he played with exposed beads in different materials, tracing lines of rock crystals or synthetic rubies down sinuous black velvet column gowns.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, he dressed Kristen McMenamy in a sheer bridal gown made of Carrickmacross lace from Ireland. It took nine months for a team of women ages 21 to 95 to complete the motif, featuring blackberry thorns and dragonflies.
Stewart’s precision-molded bustiers were as sleek as car panels, but he’s best known for his deft hand with jersey, which has earned him comparisons with Madame Grès and Azzedine Alaïa. In his color palette and architectural lines, there were also echoes of Ralph Rucci.
The designer has remained in touch with Delphine Arnault, the force behind the LVMH Prize. With her support, he was able to commission Maison Vermont to embroider a molded corset with what he dubbed a “cosmic crocodile” motif. Watching that priceless creation fly past on a cramped runway was the only source of frustration in an otherwise absorbing display.
Stewart insisted he’d rather spend money on the collection than on his presentation, though with his longtime stylist and consultant Tallulah Harlech, he pulled together a stellar crew, from musical director Michel Gaubert to casting whiz Piergiorgio del Moro and Duffy on hair.
His next steps will be closely watched. “Can you imagine what I could do if I had a budget?” Stewart said with a wry smile.
