The press notes read like a fairytale: “Once upon a time, there was a boy in Paris who grew from a child swaddled in a basket of sable, to a young man learning from his father the art of living a luxurious life. That young man became an adult and left Paris for New York City to establish himself as a designer.”

On Tuesday, the man in question – Gilles Mendel – marked a homecoming of sorts. He returned to his hometown as a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to debut the J. Mendel haute couture collection there. The moment added him to the small but significant list of CFDA Members who have shown as part of the haute couture calendar in the past, including Ralph Rucci, the late Oscar de la Renta for Balmain, and Rick Owens for Revillon.

The collection featured silk chiffon gowns with elaborate hand-pleating and fluting and Italian sequins, crystals, glass beads and seed beads. Some patterns recalled the formal plan for the Tuileries gardens, but New York, Mendel’s hometown of choice, also played into creative narrative via Russian broadtail and velvet mink intarsia off-the-shoulder maxi coats that recalled the best of Eighties Gotham.

“My goal with this collection was to integrate all the facets of beauty that informed my sense of style as a young man, mixing these with the contemporary codes of the house of Mendel,” the designer said.  “This is the story of my life and the story I want to share.”