After a four year absence pursuing other projects, French fashion design icon Bouchra Jarrar has returned to the haute couture scene.
Jarrar launched her first comeback collection this past January. The collection reflected her typical simple, elegant, and yet eye-catching designs.
Next, she debuted her Fall 2020 collection this past July. Though limited in resources due to the pandemic, Jarrar was unbothered. “Focusing on the creative process I forgot about the horrendous situation we’re all in,” she says.
Balenciaga, Jean Paul Gaultier – Bouchra Jarrar builds a haute couture career
Jarrar worked with some of the biggest names in fashion before making her own name known. After completing her formal education, Jarrar worked at Jean Paul Gaultier’s jewelry department. Then she moved on to Balenciaga. She served as studio director there until 2006, and soon after became the director of Christian Lacroix’s haute couture studio. Finally, she joined the Trade Association of High Fashion in 2013. Since then, she has been able to refer to her collections as “haute couture”, or high fashion.
In 2016, Jarrar joined the Lanvin fashion house, leaving her own eponymous label behind. She replaced the fourteen-year head of the house Alber Elbaz, taking on a company with rapidly declining revenue and investors.
Ultimately, Jarrar did not success in pulling Lanvin out of the ditch single-handedly. She left after 16 months. However, she was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters a week before her departure, “one of France’s highest honors,” writes Business of Fashion.
After this, Jarrar took a break from fashion and pursued photography, travel, and time to explore herself.
An early start in fashion
Jarrar was born second to last of seven children in France to a Moroccan family. She got an interest in sewing from her mother. By age 12, she had “mastered her sewing skills.”
In 1991, she joined the Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris to officially pursue her career in fashion. Jarrar launched her own label in 2010, specializing in elegant designs that accentuate silhouettes without exaggeration with many ready-to-wear pieces.
Outside of fashion, Jarrar also does portrait photography. View her recent Libertés collection here.
Amidst a pandemic, Bouchra Jarrar focuses on quality – not quantity
Jarrar introduced her comeback collection, called Edition No. 1, in January in the intimate setting of her own apartment. It consists of both classic “Parisian style” and Maasai and Amazigh-inspired pieces. Jarrar calls the combination of formal cut black trousers, white shirt, and a fringed Amazigh-style scarf “ethnic with a perfume of couture.”
The Edition No. 2 collection, a sequel to the first collection, was released in July and consists of only ten pieces. “I don’t want to be part of the system – we produce too much,” Jarrar says. Without assistants or new material, Jarrar’s collection features upcycled material available to her without further production. “Quality over quantity: I’m completely focused on timeless silhouettes.”
Bouchra Jarrar Fall 2020 Couture
View Jarrar’s entire collection here.
