 |
 This
fall, while in Montreal, we had the opportunity to sit down
with French fashion designer and artistic director, Beatrice
Puyssegur. Visiting from France, Beatrice was in Montreal
for the cultural hot-spot’s fashion week, where she was
showing her spring 2010 collection. Beatrice wrote in her
blog of her first trip to Canada, and if you’re lucky
enough to be a French speaker, you can read it here,
Otherwise, we’ll translate: “The main point of the
week was of course the runway show of French designers (Tuesday,
October 13, 2009), which I participated in, but it was also
a chance to meet with Canadian boutiques and North American
Buyers,” says Beatrice.
The eponymous line, Beatrice Puyssegur is a visceral extension
of the creative spirit of the driven woman behind it. Her
current role as designer of her label has been achieved through
a rich and diverse personal history. Moving beyond the insular
circles of fashion for inspiration, Beatrice is voracious
in her search for inspiration in painting, opera, architecture
and in the life that individual cities take on themselves.
She describes herself as a sponge, absorbing the world around
her, her eyes and ears always open.
Beatrice began her fashion career shortly after she met her
husband. She started sewing costumes for many of the theater
productions in the couple’s hometown of Lyon. Before
long, Beatrice developed an outstanding reputation and this
prompted her to move to Paris to pursue a second degree in
fashion. In 1985 she launched her label and has grown the
brand from small intimate home sales, to its current store-front
location in Lyon and its presence in boutiques across France
and in Belgium.
“When creating a garment, I put in everything that nourishes
me, music, shows, architecture, chocolate, champagne, my romances.
This act brings arousal, balance in a place of calmness, a
time interlude,” says Beatrice. Her pieces are made with
pride in France and sold throughout the country and in Belgium.
Beatrice focuses much of design around quality fabrics and
spends countless amounts of time working to select a material
that expresses her vision. She describes her creative process
on her website, “The joy of touching materials, creating
a universe of textures and colors, to find oneself in it,
weave in emotions, to have a vision and to change it mid-way,
to let the scissors drop and finally to yield to the female
form.”**
For spring 2010, the line exudes a delicacy and simultaneously,
a strength that is nearly indescribable, much like the diminutive
designer herself. Inspired in part by cloudy skies, each piece
floats. Materials in silk, cotton and satin, blend together
to create a look that is at once incredibly wearable and fresh.
It’s almost as though Beatrice has captured a fraction
of a second of spring in the folds of her skirts and the seams
of her blouses: the lightness, newness, and the sharp and
sweet air is eternally present. Beatrice also produces a line
of T-shirts with quotations offering an explanation for her
own inspirations that are hugely popular in France.
Designing for French women who are incredibly savvy shoppers
has its challenges, but this also allows Beatrice to create
at price points that qualify as investment pieces. The looks
are timeless and as any French woman knows, it’s not about
quantity, it’s about quality. And, personality is not subordinate
to fashion, style is seamlessly integrated into the fabric
of personality.
To watch French designers’ (including Beatrice’s)
runway collections from Montreal’s Fashion Week Spring
2010, click
here.
While her visit to Montreal brought Beatrice Puyssegur to
this continent, we’re hoping her next trip will be to
meet with U.S. buyers putting the label and her French savoir-faire
a bit closer to home.
To view the fall 2009 line, visit the website: http://www.beatricepuyssegur.com/
You can watch a video of her fall 2010 lookbook shoot by clicking
here.
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