Olivier Theyskens ROCHAS.

Byline: Mark Holgate

Olivier Theyskens learned a thing or two when he was in New York last May for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute gala in honor of its Coco Chanel retrospective. A couple of days after the party, he went to take a second look at the exhibit. In particular, he wanted to examine more closely Chanel's experiment in flou. (Flou is an old French haute couture term for soft, bias-cut clothes, as opposed to the stricter, harder tailleur that Chanel made her name with.) "I was really interested in seeing what happened when she did the flou," Theyskens says, "because she was working in the territory of designers like Gres or Schiaparelli. Chanel could have-bang!-fallen flat on her face."

Theyskens was intrigued by this particular moment in Mlle Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's career for two reasons: because he knew there was a parallel in his own desire to give Rochas, the refined French label he designs, a softer, more flowing look; and because he had no desire himself to-bang!-fall flat on his face. "I'm not so sure that she got it right," Theyskens admits. "She seemed more comfortable when she went back to a much more structured look. Well, she was the queen of that."

At 28, Theyskens is the youngest of the talents that make up Vogue's Magnificent Seven, but he has a sophisticated and calculating intellect when it comes to advancing the cause of Rochas. Ever wondered, for example, why there hasn't been as much as a single pair of pants on the Rochas runway? Because Theyskens won't show pants until he has figured out what a Rochas trouser should really look like. (So far, all he's decided is that they should have "little or no details-and a leg that's a really great shape.")

Months before the Chanel exhibit, Theyskens had begun the work of softening the Rochas took. At the ...