Between 1984 and 2000, Lecoanet Hemant created thirty-three haute couture collections, all odes to elsewhere. In 1994,
The Golden Thimble recognizes their "creative research." In 2000, Didier Lecoanet and Hemant Sagar left Paris to settle in New Delhi, abandoning the tailor-made nature of haute couture for the mass production of ready-to-wear. Today, enriched by this hybrid heritage, the Genes Lecoanet Hemant brand asserts an elegant style.
Their story is told in two parts: after having embodied the "Orientalists" in Paris for two decades, these two designers became the "Parisians" of India for the following two decades. Thus, this book traces the singular journey of this duo. Since their entry into haute couture, Lecoanet Hemant has known how to "break in," as the newspaper Le Monde titled it in 1984. Indeed, without an ounce of violence and with a ton of audacity, they go where no one expects them. Paris did not expect them, nor India. Through a collection of photographs, sketches, testimonies, and quotes, this beautiful book offers a chronology of a double journey taking place in Paris and then in Delhi.
The book gives pride of place to signature photographs.
From Dominique Issermann to Patrick Demarchelier, including David Seidner, Patrick Trautwein, Arthur Elgort, Jeff Dunas, Jean-Daniel Lorieux, etc., these images, mainly published in the fashion press of the time, from Vogue Paris to Harper's Bazaar, including L'Officiel and Joyce, nourish this element of dream.
A series of photographs taken recently in India demonstrates the modernity of 1980s haute couture silhouettes.
and 1990. Finally, the Genes Lecoanet Hemant line, a precise and precious ready-to-wear, is photographed by the talented François Matthys and Charudutt Chitrak.
The original sketches prove how precise the gesture is in terms of stylistic intentions, defying gravity and austerity in favor of splendor, corolla collars and draperies.