With emotive watchwords like quality and authenticity at the heart of the brand leitmotiv, Laura Petit Gauthier is the woman bringing a contemporary touch to the Made in France maxim with her signature brand, Fête Impériale. Forging her brand philosophy between Paris and London, the young designer looks to the sartorial legacy of these two style capitals to create a selection of historically accurate statement pieces that incorporates a touch of costume drama into every collection.

Following an unconventional avenue into fashion design, Laura cut her teeth at some of Europe’s most esteemed ‘Maisons de Mode’ – translating her digital design skills into her own namesake brand in 2015. Combining her passion for current trends and 19th-century traditional dress, gave her a unique avant-garde aesthetic – inspired by the second empire. Approaching each collection with her muse in mind, Laura is celebrated for her colourful, confident and sophisticated designs that borrow from past and present. Deconstructing history to find the essence of each garment, her designs are a melange of old and new – crafted to break with convention and offer a surprising new twist on traditional looks. Pushing the style narrative to the extremes, Laura is renowned for her obsession with antique prints and patterns – inclined to redecorate the walls, ceilings and entire rooms in her wallpaper motif du jour. A designer that sees her collection in more than one dimension, her showroom (an old art gallery) was completely redesigned to reflect the Fête Impériale aesthetic in a bid to totally immerse herself in the brand’s identity – and offer customers a new perspective on the core principles at play. Influenced by an anthology of modern day and historical heroines, each collection is centred around the style and substance her clients desire, offering a range of exclusive prints, imaginative tableaus and wearable art pieces that transport the wearer into another – more stylish dimension. The latest collection from Fête Impérial, ‘Le Jardin Suspendu’ for SS18 is a hyper-realistic ode to the parks of Paris with bucolic colour palettes and watercolour landscapes transposed onto ethereal fabrics with just a touch of luxury boho allure.