PARIS, Jan 23, 2007/ FW/ --- Felipe Oliveira Bapstista is now a recurring name on the haute couture calendar. In the collection he sent on the runway yesterday, his solid research work for this season was named ‘pop-up horses,’ an inspiration that showed through clearly, right from the first look.

Most girls in his show were wearing on their heads in the place of a cap an elongated sculpture of a horse head in the same material as the fabrics that the Portuguese designer had chosen for his garments.

Black and white, natural greys and a touch of ivory were his only colours materialized here on light cotton jerseys and woven wools.

Natural black or ivory horsehair was used throughout the collection on shoes or as embellishments. Foal was the only natural skin in a set of sculpted dresses which seemed to have popped-up and puffed around the girls’ bodies.

Baptista’s work on volume is certainly amazing. The elaboration of his three dimensional inlays reveal a masterful technicity, especially when it comes to playing on light jerseys trembling lightly on an architecture of rigid small pipings.

Garment structure contrasts then with the apparently fragile fabrics in a rectangular mini-dress in the shape of a flattened box with round angles for instance. Very elaborate silver inlays were crafted on beautiful trousers showing a couturier’s mastering on more wearable pieces.

The choice of his theme must probably be seen here as an exercise. Baptista seems to have chosen it as a pretext to explore an equestrian universe many a designer has already visited in previous seasons. And he treated it with his very own particular investigations on spatial geometrics. The result is certainly an utterly original laboratory collection that is coherent with his previous research.

Nevertheless, this designer might have to reflect more deeply about the scope to pursue. The outfits he is creating for his haute couture might well be among the favourites of museums throughout the world. But could they ever be worn elsewhere than on a runway? I doubt it for most of the pieces seen yesterday. Some couture client walking out of the venue and obviously looking for new talent to support seemed to think the same way.

Haute couture remains though a domain where designers can freely question their fantasies and push the limits of creativity. This is certainly what Felipe Oliveira Baptista demonstrated yesterday. The sponsorship he is getting from Portugal Fashion and their partners gives him that liberty. Full maturity might reveal, in his collections to come, a more targeted goal.

Felipe Oliveira Baptista

Felipe Oliveira Baptista

Felipe Oliveira Baptista

Felipe Oliveira Baptista

Felipe Oliveira Baptista

Felipe Oliveira Baptista