Roland Mouret quits

Only one week after I purchased my first Roland Mouret dress, the designer quit from his company, and his name.

As a self-taught designer, Roland Mouret is famous for the drapes on garments and by the process he designs clothes. Instead of drawing 2D pictures on paper, Roland designs clothes by hanging fabric on women's bodies and letting the fabric drape. Looking at my own dress closely, I realized that it was made of one piece of cloth with folds and drapes. "It was like in the movies, when you would see a couple in bed after making love, and there would be the woman, with just a sheet wrapped around her." Roland explained his concept in an interview with Telegraph Fashion. It is exactly how I feel wearing the dress. It's quiet yet very sexy.

Roland Mouret received financial support from Sharai Meyers five years ago to produce clothes under his own name. As return, Roland Mouret essentially sold his name to his business partner. Once Roland Mouret quits from the company six months later, as the consequence, he will not be able to design clothes under his own name again. It is an extremely sad situation especially for such a talented designer like Roland Mouret. According to Telegraph Fashion, Roland is currently on sick leave suffering from stress.

One of my friends said that she never realized how tough it was to be a fashion designer. The truth is that it is an extremely competitive industry, and often times, the designers who have true talent have to sacrifice to gain financial support. We saw Jil Sander leave, we saw Helmut Lang leave, and now we saw Roland Mouret leave. All of them are talented designers, yet all of them gave up their own names.

Sharai Meyers made a comment that Roland Mouret was always part of a team, and she hoped that the team could continue. Does it work? Will the team able to develop the designer's ideas after the designer departs?

Roland answered, "I was the only designer. If there's something I'm proud of, it's my technique. I do not sketch on paper or think in 2D, I drape on the body, and I evolved that in the studio with technical people, who then made the patterns. Yes, they own the patterns. They can make re-editions. But I do not believe that when women are spending £800-£1,000 on a dress, that they want to buy a copy - of the past." Mrs. Meyers apparently forgot the difference between a designer and a technician.

Feeling very sad about Roland's departure, here I am sharing my favorite Roland Mouret designs with you. I went through all his past collections on style.com, and it was quite a journey to look at how Roland evolved over the past five years. I am sure that Roland Mouret will continue, and no matter where he goes, I will follow.

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FW '00



SS '01


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FW '05




SS '06