COMPLETE COLLECTION

PARIS, January 24, 2011

By Tim Blanks

"I'm fascinated by asymmetry," said Bouchra Jarrar after her show. "I'm looking for the harmony in asymmetry, because this is life, I think." And what harmonious results her search produced, from the white-piped almost-military precision of her first looks, to a final Smoking outfit, sleeveless, sensually severe. If cut is one measure of a couturier's skill, then the bouncy, intense Jarrar is one of the most promising new stars in French fashion. Her perfectly tailored trousers—navy piped in white—could become cult objects. And her thought-out, soup-to-nuts (or rather, navy-slacks-to-leather-jacket) approach to a woman's wardrobe put her on a Phoebe Philo wavelength. But Jarrar's personal mission to harmonize the irregular added not so much a twist as a slash, like the subtly violent streak of red that intersected an asymmetric square of ivory silk satin, or the cuts that opened the front and back of a black crepe sheath. Something deep is going on there.

On a lighter note, a blouse in navy silk satin furled open to reveal an ivory lining. It was such sinuously graphic flourishes that made Jarrar's show a reflective pleasure.

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