Eschewing the traditional catwalk presentation, Stephane Rolland presented his Fall/Winter 2014 Haute Couture collection through a 7-minute film, “L’Échappée,” shot by Diane Sagnier, which followed Spanish model Nieves Alvarez and actor-director Jalil Lespert through Paris.

Rolland said the decision was a challenging one as it required his team to finish the couture piece two weeks earlier than usual, but it was also the opportunity to “break” the rhythm of his work which he said “had become a bit too repetitive.”

“Filming my collection wasn’t a sudden urge. I’d been thinking about it for a long time,” he explained in the notes of his program. The designer added the new medium allowed him to elaborate on his DNA and to emphasize the importance of the details in his creations, “which aren’t always noticeable in the flurry of a fashion show.”

As for the collection itself the designer played with mesh to conceal and reveal, cutting strategically through his velvet fabrics to create beautiful skin revealing patterns that teased elegantly.

The collection, while still pure in lines, with elongated silhouette, had less of the minimalistic approach Rolland has become known for. Instead, Rolland let his creativity run free, painting fabric like a Japanese calligrapher or a watercolorist and adding details like gold fringes seemingly dripping of gold paint from a hip and shoulder or embroidering colorful feathers through mesh in the back of one piece.

If anything the collection was a bit more aggressively sexy that in previous seasons, for a woman confidently oozing sensuality perfectly embodied by his muse, Alvarez. Most provocative was his use of gold chain to create a cage-like effect over transparent tulle on a torso that left little to the imagination.

As first published on BlouinArtinfo.com