Solstiss/Bucol Mingles With the Gods and Rootstein Mannequins
NEW YORK—When one of the fashion industry’s leading manufacturers of fine lace and fabrics collaborated with the world’s leading mannequin-design company, the result was a fantastic party of Olympic scale.
Solstiss/Bucol, the Paris-based high-end lace and fabric mill, teamed up with elite fashion mannequin manufacturer Rootstein Display Mannequins on Dec. 6 to celebrate the textile producer’s 20 years in the United States. The fashionable fecirc;te took place at Rootstein’s New York showroom, which was transformed into a “Garden of Gods and Goddesses,” thanks to Rootstein Creative Director Kevin Arpino. Wall-to-wall guests enjoyed free-flowing champagne and light fare while mingling among Arpino’s Greek-inspired art installation. (Think Olympian gods—or, in this case, mannequins—posed on gold-leaf furniture and against stark-white columns and wearing yards of frothy white silk and gold lace.)
“I was happy to do the whole fantasy thing because I think visual should be ’not real.’ We have real life all the time,” said Arpino, who is based in London, where Rootstein is headquartered, and who has held the company’s artistic torch since its original founder, Adel Rootstein, passed away in the early ’90s. “And our showrooms are always a bit theatrical,” he said.Solstiss/Bucol’s New York–based Executive Vice President Sandrine Bernard was also on hand for the festivities. “I think it’s fabulous what Kevin did,” she said. “It’s very haute couture. I think it is very much in the same spirit of what our clients do with lace and silk.”
Solstiss/Bucol is the subsidiary of the two French textile companies Solstiss and Bucol, which provide luxury laces and silks to the world’s most exclusive fashion houses, from Paris and Milan to New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
“Rootstein is the No. 1 mannequin company all around the world, and Solstiss/Bucol provides high-end lace and fabrics to designers all around the world,” Bernard added.
“We work with many of the same people, so it was very natural to get together for this event.”
Arpino agreed that both companies were definitely on the same level. For this particular evening, it’s safe to say that level was set high, certainly reaching the elevations of Mount Olympus. —Joselle Yokogawa
