You can tell it's Casablanca almost immediately, even before you've seen any actual clothes. A camera pans down across the ceiling of a toy rococo chamber, so candied and dreamy that you could convincingly be in a particularly comical Vegas suite, or the authentic, proper French original it's falling over itself to replicate (it was, in reality, shot at the Hôtel de la Païva, the gilded home of a legendary 19th Century courtesan). But perhaps there's a bit of both. For in the ascendant label, there's a mixture of old school continental glamour, Parisian, Sobranie-tinged sangfroid and the spectacle of modern hip-hop, all under one swirling baroque roof. And in the label's A/W'21 release, the house that Casablanca built was fully realised.
Released as a film, because coronavirus, and titled 'Casablanca Grand Prix', because yesteryear race car driving is a clear and heavy influence throughout, the label hasn't pivoted to relaxed cosiness to sate our inner yearning for sadwear. Instead, it zeroed in on our need for escapism, to better times wherein everyone wore silk and wore sunglasses indoors and drank Veuve from the bottle. That meant a jaunt to Monaco. "It's a fascinating place: a small city, French and yet independent of France," Casablanca's founder and creative director Charaf Tajer told Esquire. "In the Sixties especially, it was a playground of casinos, race cars, beautiful architecture. I was inspired by the unique combination of the different characters in a beautiful building like the Casino de Monte-Carlo; gamblers, tycoons, drivers, all impeccably dressed and so much opulence with the backdrop of the south of France."
Womenswear took much of the spotlight this season. That makes sense: this is Casablanca's debut in launching a fully-realised co-ed collection. But there seems to be little delineation in each arm of this ever-swelling brand. In the playing card motifs, and the Sixties flare, and the Wes Anderson palette, it's very much Casablanca™ throughout, which is quite remarkable given the brand's relative youth. Charaf Tajer, an alum of Paris streetwear label Pigalle, among others, launched the label in just 2018. We've an identity, a signature and, most refreshingly, something actually a bit new. All of that can take some brands up to 30 years. Casablanca has done it in just under three.
Mid-way through the film, party-goers clamour around a roulette table, and we get a camera spin of the signature Casablanca wardrobe: silk shirts in hand-painted vistas of fabulist locales; pearl necklaces; print-heavy overcoats (over shoulders, naturally); track jackets; one really great zippered cream safari suit and, perhaps the simplest but most Casablanca move of all, a monogrammed neck scarf.
Is it a bit early-Michele Gucci? Yes, it is. Is it a bit Chanel? Yes, it is. But Casablanca essentially Casablancas its references to pay respectful homage rather than offering us carbon copies. The collection is replete with Liberace-like references, but instead, he's starring in a Collin Tilley music video. Ms Coco Chanel's ghost lives on in the edge-to-edge boxy co-ords, but she's just gone for an elasticated waistband instead for an afternoon bunning it by the pool.
Granted, we've seen this stuff from Casablanca before, but it's still unlike most things we've seen elsewhere. If anything, we need this early repetition to cement Tajer's vision, to let us know and get what Casablanca is. We get it alright! And if the brand's prior success with a New Balance collab is anything to go by (something that saw a reappearance in this collection), then there's every reason to believe that, once again, we'll actually get it too.
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