Emily in Paris: the phrase took on a whole other, very delightful, slant at the Theatre du Chatelet. From a viewpoint looking up from the footlights, almost everything about Emily Adams Bode Aujla’s show was sparkling, either literally (there were lots of gold spangles) or simply because of the charm of her American family storytelling.
She was showing in the Paris menswear season—Bode did that once before, pre-pandemic, but this was very much more of a big deal, because, as the curtain went up, it was also quickly apparent that the designer was also debuting her first women’s collection. The difficulty of Americans impressing Parisians with their style—well, that’s the stereotype which is the whole running joke through Emily in Paris. The other Emily sailed right past it, moments after the curtain went up on the scene of a shingled Cape Cod house, a yard with a picket fence, a garden gate suggesting the sea in the distance, and the stars and stripes hanging on a flagpole in the near distance.
The models came out of the house and walked stage left, close enough so that every detail of the embroidery and embellishment could be appraised close up. There was a lot of it, and it looked great—well up to the standards of European production, edging men’s suits and decorating gold or green beaded flapper dresses
The Bode program notes spoke about how the designer looked for inspiration to her mother’s side of the family—the four Rice sisters. Janet, her mom, had a college job in the 1970s on the Crane Estate at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, with a 90-year-old lady who kept to the old social formalities of her class, and would descend for dinner in dresses which went back to the 1890s through the 1940s. Somehow, that story got mixed up with Emily’s memories of family life, from every day dressing to celebrations over the years. By the time a dress came out that was clearly a Christmas tree, hung with baubles, everyone was won over.
Most of all, the success of the show was to prove what a range Bode has as a brand. The gliterry shimmy dresses apart, she also pulled out some drop-dead American-glamour ’30s/‘40s evening dresses in emerald green sequins or red velvet. On top of that, her all-gendered, novelty-type knits are already real stand-outs in stores. Bravo.
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