Enfants Riches Déprimés marries military edge and bohemian ease in Paris

PARIS (AP) — Military regalia met bohemian ease at Enfants Riches Déprimés on Thursday, where designer Henri Alexander Levy once again proved his penchant for contradictions.

A military-looking, shiny-buttoned denim coat, cut with the sharpness of uniform, was paired with ’70s heeled boots and a model’s shaggy, Woodstock hair. It was counterculture refracted through bourgeois tailoring.

The edgy reputation of the house — whose name translates as “Depressed Rich Kids” — was intact. Levy gave Hedi Slimane-like preppy neckties a decadent twist with silver clasps and jeweled belts. White, wide pleated pants, almost aristocratic in their French country-house languor, turned rakish when topped with black leather and shades — the rich kid rolling back to family lunch after a lost weekend.

Founded in 2012 in Los Angeles, ERD has grown beyond its cult beginnings, now anchoring a presence in Paris and even opening an art-book-and-vinyl bar. The label’s cult status has also translated into a devoted celebrity following, with Jared Leto, Miley Cyrus, Courtney Love and Rita Ora among those spotted in its anarchic designs.

Juxtapositions are the brand’s core language. Since its inception, ERD has thrived on posh-punk pastiche — safety pins and raw hems offset by velvet, chiffon, and fine leathercraft. This collection continued the tradition: eclectic, bohemian, but also self-aware, always whispering, “we’re depressed, but we’ve got money.”

Levy’s staging and philosophy have often straddled theater and nihilism, from cardboard tanks and funeral processions to characters imagined out of paintings and collages. Thursday’s clothes were less about shock, more about mood — the decadent melancholy of youth with too much privilege and too much time.