In the year In 1998, Olivier Teskens reinvented the fashion goth

Welcome to The Forgotten Runway, a deep dive into some of the most iconic presentations in fashion history – still influential today. In this series, writer Kristen Bateman interviews the designers and people who make these products happen, explaining what makes each one special.

Olivier Teskens’ Fall 1998 show perfectly encapsulated the New Wave Goth aspect of the 90s. Authentic leather corset tops adorned with stunning boning, blood-red veining woven into linen, and powdered faces adorned with mannequin hands affixed to the heads and waists of models floated down the runway shouting famous women – including Elizabeth Taylor. Suddenly, last summer And Jodie Foster breathing heavily The silence of the sheep. “I used to do everything myself,” said the designer, who came from his Paris studio on a recent afternoon. Sheer bodysuits and transparent skirts that resembled couture plastic bags were the first signs that the designer was going to be big. It was Heskens’ first show in Paris, and it was the one that finally put his design on the map, cementing him in the canon of great design legends – and later cementing his position as creative director for Rochas, Nina Ricci and Theory. .

For the designer and the industry as a whole, the fall 1998 Olivier Tuskens show opened the doors to an incredible vision—and it still does. The best shows are a mixture of emotion, novelty and, at the best moments, a little comfort. This presentation had all that and more.

In the year The Fall 1998 collection is not only one of the designer’s personal favorites, but also lives on as a great homage to the subcultures that flourished at the time. Today, the same gothic look, with heavy patchwork and cycling, is everywhere – and Huskens helped define the Paris fashion scene in the ’90s. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Heskens’ fall 1998 collection was that he didn’t associate it with the Gothic code at the time: “I had no clue what Gothic was back then,” he laughs. “To me Gothic was associated with churches and cathedrals. I was naturally driven to find the girl, to make her beautiful and sophisticated.

The show marked the second collection of the designer was held in 1998 in an abandoned place Housing Winston Churchill on Paris Avenue. A year ago, Heskens premiered his Gloomy Trips collection at a group show in Belgium. (He was encouraged to give a presentation in Paris by a French press representative, Cookie de Salvertes, who was involved in helping Raf Simons gain fame.) Tuskens lived in Brussels, Belgium, where he was a former colleague. A student who recently left the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre to start his own line. There, he only upcycle fabrics; For the most part, his grandfather gave him traditional French textiles. “My family in France were very simple people living on a farm,” he says. “I always loved it when I was a kid, because in the 19th century they had all these old linens on the bed.”

“These very early sets, especially in the spring of 1998 and 24 years later. I got involved with these sets because they were just what I wanted to do. I was driven by some kind of unconscious energy. I was working like crazy and not just thinking. Like, ‘Oh, what do I do? What’s the color of the season?’ I was doing my best.'”

Back to the show: Cropped, flesh-shaping, Victorian-style sweaters mixed with midnight-dyed hair followed the wooden floor, while models showed off revealing bodysuits with bloody hearts. Heskens’ focus on form and craftsmanship was on full display in the wickedly structured corset coat skirts, which were finished with hooks and eyelets down the front. Lace bodysuits and low-sung pants have come together with the novelty of an ancient appeal; A pink-and-red striped coat dress with high shoulders and matching boots for a color with high craze.

The coolness factor was there – and in fact, it contributed to the show’s extreme sensuality – specifically: the mannequin hands. As they walked, they covered models—most of whom were friends of the designer. “In my paintings, I had the right proportions and details. Many designs have these hands holding the face. It was a way for me to imagine that these girls were armed or captured,” Heskens recalls.

The resulting discomfort was completely intentional. “We were using a lot of things that felt very oppressive,” he said. “From the reaction I got at that time, a lot of people who were there, some of them didn’t feel very well.” Despite all that (and even though nothing Iteskens designed was for sale), industry insiders visited him more than a week after the event and praised his work. In the year In 1998, the same week he graced the Fall runway, Madonna wore a satin coat dress designed by Ariane Phillips to the Oscars, making the industry take notice of the young, largely unheard-of Belgian designer.

Adding to the ensemble’s unique charm was the intense makeup created by fellow Belgian makeup artist Peter Phillips. “I met Peter when I did my first presentation in Belgium; It was a multi-brand show,” Huskens says. “He had a bit of carte blanche. Looking at my designs, he really wanted to make one dangerous relationships, Defeated face. He was brushing his eyelids with concealer, and there was this super defined red lip.

Immediately after the presentation, Heskens broke down in tears. “The show was pretty much a complete mess, which I always think is good for a first show,” he says. Although it cannot be discerned from the photos or thanks to the industry at the time, there was not enough room for guests, so the stage was converted into a seating area. “Literally, the girls change clothes in one of the rooms in front of a guest,” says Heskens. “And somehow, obviously, he was absolutely brilliant.”

In many ways, Heskens seems to be coming full circle in 2022. For the Spring 2023 show, which took place in September this year, the designer used archive fabrics and materials from his past collections – Including falling. “I am now. “I am doing as much now as I was doing in the beginning,” he says. “I make everything here in small batches. I’m not ashamed to continue loving some of these shapes. Shexens is a collector of objects of divine beauty, antique textiles and materials. This is what we see in each of his collections: his unique dark, artisanal look of collage; Popular today, as fashion turns its eye to dark beauty.