Olivier Theyskens She Walks in Beauty

The first complete monograph on Olivier Theyskens surveys his twenty-year career and documents the highly anticipated return of his eponymous label.

Olivier Theyskens’s refined sensibilities earned him international acclaim as the dark prince of late 1990s couture. From his first saturnine collections, to his new vision for Rochas, to his patterns and textiles at Nina Ricci, to his years designing for Theyskens’ Theory, the designer has proved himself a master of couture, semi-couture, and prêt-à-porter. Celebrated for his fine tailoring, romantic silhouettes, and gothic palette, Theyskens transforms each house he helms. This distinctive volume charts the twenty-year development of an extraordinary aesthetic vision, rendered across countries, cultures, and the shifting sands of the fashion landscape.

Newly commissioned texts connect the threads of the Belgian-born artist’s diverse practice. Drawings created for the publication accompany photography from each period of his career. At both Rochas and Nina Ricci, the designer crafted ethereal garments with unorthodox silhouettes, mixing sheer fabrics and old-world bustles with subtly subversive punk elements. Theyskens then broke ground in 2011 with his trailblazing partnership, Theyskens’ Theory. With a special focus on the designer’s return to the runway at the head of his own line, this is the definitive work on a fashion visionary who, like the girls he designs for, changes form, but walks in beauty wherever he goes.

Kaat Debo is director, and Karen Van Godtsenhoven and Elisa De Wyngaert are curators, of Antwerp’s ModeMuseum. Vanessa Friedman is chief fashion critic of the New York Times. Lydia Kamitsis is a freelance fashion curator and writer. Wim Mertens is conservator at MoMu. Dan Thawley is editor in chief of A Magazine Curated by.