The Tamesis
Not long after Lou de Betoly presented her standout Fall 2026 collection—another of her odes to the body and what happens when you let it interact with lingerie, embellishments, and yarn, all presented using couture techniques—she was pondering what inspired her to create this collection. “I have to say something,” DeBertoli said with a smile. “Sometimes I feel like I’m repeating myself. You know that book? style exercisesby Raymond Queneau? “Unfortunately I told her I didn’t. De Betoly helped me fill in the content. “It’s a very small book with only one short story, which he repeated 99 times, but always from a different perspective. When I remember reading it, I feel better because I keep thinking, actually”—she starts laughing again—”that, yeah, I’m just repeating myself. “
Here we can say that de Bertoli was both humble and brilliant. There’s no doubt she’s chosen a specific style – nudity, glitter, bustiers and bras – which is heightened by her choice to only show off once a year. Yet free from these self-imposed limitations, she’s been able to create magic – magic that’s humorous, cool, hardcore, captivating and unapologetically sexy. Her latest collection, a seamless amalgamation of lace bodysuits, molded second-skin dresses and beaded stockings, was a supremely perverse — or perversely sublime, if you will — result from the rigorous challenge de Betoly set herself: She would only use three things she’d collected over the years. That means she’s been hoarding boxes of buttons, piles of yarn and mountains of vintage bras since she was a kid in the 1990s.
It was a testament to her talent that she could create a collection full of creativity and energy from these three elements: bra cups were deftly deconstructed into kneepads on tights or hip carriers and shoulder pads on jackets; buttons were installed on minimal dresses with Lesage-like precision. Yarn is combined with what started out as lace lingerie and becomes the hottest, chicest ensembles. French-born de Betoly worked at the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion house in Paris, and this is evident. If I may say, she knows her stuff. The other thing I can boldly say is that when stylists everywhere start looking for outfits for their A-list clients to wear on the stairs of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first Monday in May, when the Costume Institute’s new body-centered costume art exhibition kicks off, they should slide into DeBertoli’s DMs to see if she can make the magic happen again.
