From her atelier in the 18th arrondissement, Kocher offered a preview of the 10 looks, each a flamboyant, couture transformation of everyday denim. Essentially, her vision manifested as two forms of experimentation: souping up classic shapes with exquisite ornamentation and dramatic volumes, as with a pair of lime green jeans with delicate plissé flaring open the legs, which were lined with beading. Or else creating elevated, dressier silhouettes and finding all manner of ways to integrate denim.
One particularly great example entails a full-length white denim skirt striped with pearls and strass and dotted with small tufts of feathers, topped with a bolero that Kocher described as a “flower bomb of feathers and denim” that is worn over a simple white tank embroidered along the edges. The delicate plissé reappears as a black skirt that cascades with denim paillettes, while a black halter dress in a lighter-weight cotton denim was pleated so tightly as to echo the work of Madame Grès. As an alternative to a stiff jumpsuit, Kocher made one that was cooler, somewhat Chanel-coded in diaphanous silk—the legs fanning out like a skirt—and added more denim embroidery between the pleats. The poufs of feathers and overall fluidity lend a 1930s feel to the creations—certainly not how we think of denim. “With the silhouettes, I wanted to bring this glam from the Golden Age, a very chic French couture feeling,” she said.
In Kocher, who increasingly divides her time between Paris and New York, Levi’s has zeroed in on a designer who brings immense expertise in tandem with a gritty vibe. For the past 17 years, she has been the artistic director of Lemarié, one of the specialist houses within Chanel’s Métier’s d’Art. Consider the array of handmade flowers, plummaserie (workmanship with feathers), pleating (with the Atelier Lognon), and complex textile work that factors into Matthieu Blazy’s latest collections (needless to say, those of Virginie Viard and Karl Lagerfeld, too) and this is all under Kocher’s remit. She launched her own label in 2015, which stood out for its “couture-à-porter” approach; beginning with highly embellished streetwear-leaning looks then shifting to a punkier Parisian register and eventually even hooking up with Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group to propose touch- and light-sensitive pieces. In addition to being an LVMH Prize finalist in 2018 and winning the ANDAM Grand Prize in 2019, she landed some marquee sports lock-ups around that time: with Paris Saint-Germain remixing their football jerseys, and then with Nike, creating football jerseys for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
