January 31, 2006

"I'm a diehard romantic," said Véronique Branquinho as she reflected on the logic behind her latest presentation. "I wanted the feeling of partners in crime, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez…" So couples stood motionless, posed against a blank wall as if for a mug shot, wearing "his and hers" versions of the same item: a trench, a parka, a three-piece suit, Arran knits, a peacoat, all things Branquinho described as "my favorite pieces ever."

There was some ingenuity to the project—for example, in the way pinstriped trousers transmogrified into a skirt, or a tuxedo shirt dyed blue was extended into a shirtdress. They were the most obvious ripostes to any notion of unisex (an idea that appeals to Branquinho not a jot). That said, the designer was also happy on occasion to let the variables of gender-sizing communicate the ideal of the masculine and the feminine—witness the three-piece suit in white corduroy, or a white peajacket over a black rollneck.

This last ensemble looked like the sort of pleasingly narcissistic outfit Lou Reed and Nico might have shared at Warhol's Factory in the mid-sixties, a time and place Branquinho continues to be irresistibly drawn to.

— Tim Blanks