Each year, Philipp Plein hosts a resort show at his villa in Cannes at the tail end of the Film Festival. The reasoning seems obvious: The French Riviera city has become a hotbed for fashion, as models and influencers outdo each other on the red carpet and at events like the amfAR Gala. But for Plein it’s less about catering to that specific pocket of the fashion crowd and more about connecting with his customers. “What we like about this is the intimacy we get with clients, a few selected people coming to our home,” said the German designer. “When you do something bigger like we do in Milan, some people complain because they get lost in the crowd and don’t get to take a picture or talk, but this is the exact opposite.”
Plein was to host his show yesterday afternoon, but had to push it a couple of hours to the evening due to an impending thunderstorm. “That’s life, we keep going,” he said with a smile, walking through the show’s set—his home—over Zoom with the familiarity of a friend pacing around their apartment sharing some good gossip. Walking out of his living room to the pool area (“that’s the dog!”), he paraded down the racing flag runway, passed by a vintage Mustang (“cars used to be so much better, now they’re made of plastic and PVC”), and found his way into a room where models were getting ready: “Sorry we are delaying the show, girls! I really am.”
About that racing flag—Plein said he chose racing as a theme because of the Monaco Grand Prix happening this weekend. “People come to the South of France for the race and for film, so we said that’s a nice combination.” The film in question would be Grease, which came up in the hair—lots of hairspray and gel—and in the music: “Summer Nights” and “You’re the One that I Want” by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The Johnny Depp movie Cry-Baby was another reference here, one most fitting to Plein’s brand of bad-boy camp.
Plein focused the Zoom on a short dress covered in crystal flames, moving on to a longer version and their corresponding matching clutches. “This dress is completely made of single stones, it took a week to get it done,” he said of the mini, which will retail for around $35,000. Another frock was covered in crystal chains, and yet another cut in silk printed with flames all over.
The designer said that when he puts on this kind of show—which he does twice a year, the other being at his Bel Air home over Oscars weekend—he whittles down his collections to their most special elements and focuses on womenswear only. “When I started in fashion 26 years ago, we did men’s fashion week and women’s separately, very traditionally, but then we started to mix them up and it was successful.” Womenswear is a growing business for Plein. The way he sees it, women’s fashion at the moment is leaning towards “very sporty looks.” Ever the contrarian, he’s betting on offering evening options, particularly dresses. The operating word here is “glamour,” he said.
