Olivier Saillard Models Never Talk

Axelle speaks of how a jersey dress with ample folds by madame Grès influenced her gait on the catwalk.
Amalia, by means of a few well-chosen gestures, shrouds herself in the memory of an Yves Saint Laurent dress.
Whether it be Anne, Charlotte, Christine, Claudia or Violeta, each of these models has kept in their minds the memory of the shell of a garment for which their bare flesh was the positive or negative duplicate.
The setting for the play reflects the backstage area found on the other side of the catwalk.
Minus the clothes. Here the fashion world is reduced to ashes and memories. Hands fastening a belt that has faded away, or lacing up a corset that has melted away... such details restore these works back to the carbon paper drawings of their designers. Arms enveloping a long since vanished overcoat, or draping a stole, smoke rising from it, evoke the reality of bodies caught in the sway of cage-like garments. Here, words, banned from the catwalk arena, take on the function of wardrobes of the senses.
Words become the embodiment of a velvety, muslin-inspired nostalgia. The accompanying gestures serve as motifs and imprints. A form of writing springs up from beneath this naked artifice. One which sets in motion a design imbued with the couturier’s gaze or the photographer’s sharpened focus.