Alexis Mabille

“The most beautiful trait is to be yourself and own it,” Alexis Mabille’s show notes declared.

The designer has been nothing if not consistent in his aesthetic since founding his label just over a decade ago. This season, he decided to forgo a theme — always an artificial construct at best — and just follow his instinct.

“I didn’t want to restrain myself at all. I did what I felt like,” he explained backstage. “Lots of volume, lots of color to begin with. Afterward, it moved to scintillating blacks in order to highlight the cut, because sometimes the color and the embroidery makes you forget the structure.”

Indeed, the first look was arresting in its simplicity: a navy peacoat dress that was stripped of all adornment, except for crystal buttons. But it turns out that sometimes less is more: Mabille managed to make a Champagne satin shirtdress with a white bib look seductive, despite its tentlike proportions.

And minimal is a relative term for this fan of sculpted volumes. His signature bow detail appeared as a sleeve tied around the waist of a sweeping coral radzimir shirtdress, and an oversize loop of fabric that swooped around the hips of an hourglass-shaped black cassimere gown with an emerald green corset.

Mabille indulged his love of flounces with a wispy black lace slip, and created some major drama with an emerald bustier dress that sprouted a cloud of artfully pleated satin. But those sparkly black looks held their own, particularly a lampshade-skirted gown in jet lamé jersey with a crystal zip neckline. — Joelle Diderich