For her first collection flying solo, Minuit’s Laurie Arbellot wanted to focus on freedom, and looked to the loose sexiness of classic Charlotte Rampling. Filtered through a Lower East Side lens from Arbellot’s years in New York and morphed for the Millennial Parisienne, the result is high-waisted flares, slinky slipdresses and long-line smoking jackets that exude chic confidence.
Arbellot’s devotion to textiles is in some ways the foundation of the brand — she works from the fabric up once she finds something she’s in love with — and this season she experiments with coated cotton for a crisp cream pant-and-coat combo, topped with a dramatic faux-shearling collar to glamorous effect. Another “coup de coeur” was a quilted emerald jacquard, which was transformed into a shrunken bomber and miniskirt suit. It’s one of the few pops of color in the tightly edited collection.
The designer debuted accessories with a scarf that doubles as a belt and logo-flocked tights. Plans for bags and shoes are in the works, but for now she wants to build the brand on smart staples. A sheer puff-sleeved dress has become a signature piece — “It was the first thing I sketched,” said Arbellot — and gets an update this season in cornflower blue, and a poplin button-down with subtle pleats at the shoulder brings a boyish sexiness that will keep clients coming back for more.