This past Saturday afternoon at Rockefeller Center, a crowd amassed on the plaza level, looking down at Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace, the roller rink that opened there just last April. There were no skaters on the rink (yet), just a runway covered in Fabienne hand-painted hibiscus wallpaper, a design inspired by Haiti’s national flower and created by Victor Glemaud in partnership with Schumacher. The designer’s show was about to begin, and showgoers stormed past the tourists and daytrippers, trying to find the entrance. One insider in clunky platform shoes accidentally stumbled into a sightseer who could be heard shrieking, “Fashion people!”
While this precise interaction isn’t what Glemaud had in mind, the two different crowds were exactly what he'd hoped for. “I like that energy that non-fashion people bring, and I feed off of that," he told BAZAAR. This isn’t his first time showing in a public space; his last two shows took place at Moynihan Train Hall on W 33rd Street. “Only in New York can these shows happen. In Paris or Milan, with public shows, they’re still in these closed-off spaces,” he said. New York might also be the only place where you can find a venue that comes with roller skaters to hype up the audience before the models arrive.
The motion didn't stop once Glemaud’s latest collection hit the runway,. The designer is known for clothing you can move in—the skaters were dressed in his knit shorts and onesies—and the Spring collection featured catsuits with capes that streamed seamlessly across the rink. Everything this season was inspired by American sportswear, and Glemaud namedrops some of the greats, whose work he researched at the Museum at FIT, while discussing the design process.“Bill Blass, Donna Karen, and Stephen Burrows! These are designers I really admire, and it’s important to understand what came before, but not have to be derivative of that.”
While the show opened with sheer silk crochet tunics and dresses in black, Glemaud eventually layered in a vibrant color palette inspired by a recent trip to Harbour Island in the Bahamas with his husband. “These soft Caribbean pastel colors were really beautiful, like the pink in the show. I wanted to sort of twist it too, adding in leopard.” The metallic silver flats and pumps by Jimmy Choo were also a nod to the Caribbean light, and the natural abaca-hemp- and raffia-trimmed hats, made in partnership with milliner Gigi Burris, brought an island ease to one of the most bustling locations in New York.
“I don't think we're at the stage to start talking about lifestyle, but it's the world of Victor, and having these shows allows us to show all of the different things we've been working on,” the designer explained. If one thing is certain, it’s that Victor’s world is the kind that’s open to everyone—whether they’re expecting it or not.
