As a designer, you have to remain part of society, she explains.
How do youfeelthe world if youre not in the middle of it?
Im going to keep that one for winter.
WORK IN PROGRESSTrotter at work in her Paris studio. Photo: Courtesy of Carven.
On her feet: the chisel-toe Vendome mules, which double as house slippers.
RADICAL CHICFrom Louise Trotters fall 2024 Carven collection.
Photograph by Rochelle Marie Adam, courtesy of Carven.
RADICAL CHICFrom Louise Trotter’s fall 2024 Carven collection. Photograph by Rochelle Marie Adam, courtesy of Carven.
Its hard not to fangirl over Trotter.
Now in her second season at Carven, she seems very much at home.
Madame Carven wanted women to live their best lives, Trotter says.
SETTING UP HOUSEMarie-Louise Carven fitting a model in 1950, five years after founding the label.
She had a utopian view of life, and was really quite radical.
An early adopter of the plastic zip, Marie-Louise used her talents to help women get dressedand undressedwith ease.
She was a woman creating clothes for women, Trotter says.
She wanted to inspire confidence in them.
There was anamenfor me in that.
(The trousers she designed at Joseph still enjoy cult status.
Modeled on workout pants, they preempted the rise of the clean-girl aesthetic.)
In 2018 she moved to Paris to become the first female creative director at Lacoste, departing in 2023.
When preparing her first Carven collection, for spring 2024, Trotter gave herself a mantra.
Its just a first chapter.
Lets not say too much.
Lets not take a stab at overimpress.
My imagination exploded, she says.)
SETTING UP HOUSEMarie-Louise Carven fitting a model in 1950, five years after founding the label.
Shes my size, so we share everything.
Day to day, Trotter likens her job to a home renovation.
You start with the foundations, what you want to say: Whats the feeling?
Most importantly: Who is the woman?
And then you slowly build.
Its here that her runway looks will be styled and fitted on to models.
We embark on a kind of sensory-laden house tour.
As I hug myself, the curved shoulders take on the grandeur of an opera coat.
I like things to be practical and useful and beautiful at the same time.
In the ground floor boutique at Carven HQ, I pull on a pillowy silk T-shirt.
It is now evening in Paris.
I snap a mirror selfie and begin drafting an email.
To: Louise Trotter.
Re: Lucky dress?
