Inside Robert Clergerie’s Collabs With Self-Portrait, Saloni and Sonia Rykiel

As Robert Clergerie creative director Roland Mouret and CEO Eva Taub forge ahead with new initiatives for the brand, the pair also is teaming up on collaborations with some attention-grabbing labels.

Take, for example, Self Portrait, a collection featuring straps, buckles and metal eyelets across mules, sandals and slip-on sneakers.

Here, Mouret offers up some insight into why the partnerships with Self-Portrait, Saloni and Sonia Rykiel mesh so well with the Clergerie story.

Self-Portrait

A five-piece capsule collection for spring ’17 features straps, buckles and metal eyelets across mules, sandals and slip-on sneakers — an androgynous take.

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“He’s brilliant, and he’s loved Clergerie for years,” said Roland Mouret of the label’s creative director, Han Chong.

For his part, the Self-Portrait designer was drawn to Clergerie for its “balance of femininity and modernity.” They are “design signatures,” he says. “It felt quite natural for the collection to be a focus on contrasts, masculine and feminine, modern and romantic.”

“There was a tougher edge to our collection for SS17. The pieces in the collaboration are easy to wear, because we’ve mixed textures; suede, patent leather and hardware, the shoes are still quite striking.”

It was important for him, as a young label, to work with a brand with such a heritage: “I have always enjoyed playing with heritage and interpreting it in a new way. Self Portrait’s signature laces have their roots in the traditional fabrics of Malaysia, but I tried to update it for the modern women to wear day to day.

“Robert Clergerie already has such an iconic signature, it was a new challenge to find a way to incorporate it into Self-Portrait.”

Saloni

“Saloni Lodha told me she had been buying Clergerie shoes since she was young,” said Mouret, who collaborated on the footwear for the designer’s travel-inspired spring ’17 collection. “She wanted shoes to match the colors. You learn so much from working
with other designers; it’s a good reflection of the brand.”

Sonia Rykiel

For pre-fall ’16, Mouret teamed
 up with Sonia Rykiel artistic director Julie de Libran on a capsule collection that reimagined Clergerie’s Dylan platform with velvet, glitter and rhinestone embellishment. “The collaboration with Sonia Rykiel was so nice,” said Mouret. “They took one of our models and gave it that Rive Gauche attitude that is so unique. It’s a good reflection of the brand.”