Olivier Theyskens Jets Off to Manila for a Wedding
MANILA — The bride may have worn white — courtesy of Olivier Theyskens, no less — but everything else about the wedding of designer Kifu Augousti to artist Patrick Coard at a bucolic equestrian farm outside of Manila was anything but traditional.
Born in London, raised in Paris and now living in the Philippines, where she manufactures her line Kifu Paris, Augousti is the daughter of furniture designers Yiouri and Ria Augousti of R&Y Augousti. True to her unconventional upbringing, she did not walk down the aisle; rather, she rode sidesaddle on a horse along a tree-lined alley, wearing the first of three outfits that Theyskens designed for the evening — a lingerie-inspired gown with a satin corset bodice and a skirt featuring patchwork fabric and beading, with a long train.
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“My dress was actually based on a couture piece Olivier had made some years back that I loved,” Kifu Augousti said. Known for his approach to patchwork, as well as his fabric collection, “he created this amazing dress with fabric he had collected in the ’90s though they could have been from the 1800s — and it became this piece full of history and artistry that captured who I am as a woman, all the parts of me.”
“I’ve known Kifu since she was 14,” Theyskens said, “and I’ve had many opportunities of dressing her. But when she announced to me over the phone that she was doing her wedding, I just scribbled the gown in seconds. It was very obvious to me, and she was very clear about what she desired. And since we really know each other so well, we are on the same page all the time. We understand each other very, very well.”
As she neared the altar, she dismounted from the horse and stepped onto a platform, where her father was waiting to escort her to Coard. Both father of the bride and the groom wore custom white suits by Neil Barrett, who is also Augousti’s godfather. The silk twill of the suits was especially woven for the wedding by a small factory in Como; Barrett — “He’s so OC,” Augousti confided — was, up to the morning of the wedding, ironing the suits to make sure everything was perfect. “He hadn’t picked up an iron in years, he said, but he just had to do it.”
Barrett outfitted the groomsmen in similar suits, while the three bridesmaids wore romantic strapless gowns by Theyskens cut on the bias in pastel shades that evoked the shimmer of water. The young ones in the entourage, among them Augousti and Coard’s three-year-old daughter, River, were dressed by Bea Valdes in outfits that were “the color of hay.”
For the wedding dinner, Augousti changed into her second outfit, a recycled sheer high-necked patchwork lace gown she had previously worn to a ball, which Theyskens repurposed with boa feathers and Swarovski crystals. “Some of the lace was from Calais,” she disclosed.
Theyskens clearly understood the many facets of her personality, which each outfit highlighted, including the playful white minidress she wore, complete with a short veil, reminiscent of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” look, when the wedding after party began, and the Circus band, flown in from Paris, lured guests onto the dance floor.
“This is a very special moment for Kifu, and it’s so meaningful, the way everything has evolved with her and Patrick. And also, she loves clothes and loves to play with them,” Theyskens added. “She puts things together in her own way.”
Augousti said having Theyskens create her wedding outfits was a deeply personal exercise. “No one manipulates fabric like Olivier. Many designers do that — they design. But Olivier was the one who sewed everything himself. The vision of how he wanted the dresses to look came from his hand.”
Coard, who is Danish, had an outfit change as well at the dinner, donning a midnight blue barong — the Filipino men’s dress shirt made from piña, or pineapple silk fiber — which was designed by Barrett in collaboration with Filipino designer Jun Escario.
When Coard said he wanted to wear a barong, Barrett explained that he had to look it up first. Once he understood what it was, he realized that “the fabric can only be made in the Philippines, so I thought, ‘OK, I’ll send a detailed embroidery design.’”
His design was based on irises because “irises are about hope. I’ve used irises a lot in my work over the last 20 years.” It took two months to create the fabric, which blended piña with abaca, or Manila hemp, giving it more structure and less transparency. Even if Barrett was not in the country, he monitored every step of the barong’s fabrication. There were very few last-minute adjustments to make to the shirt, which in effect was transformed into a jacket. “The fabric is so delicate, I didn’t want to do anything to it. But I redid the sleeves. I don’t think men necessarily have to wear cuffs with shirts, otherwise you’d wear too many layers here, in the Philippines. So I attached the shirt cuff to the jacket.”
Theyskens made it clear that he was a fan of the barong, wearing his under a vintage black Issey Miyake blazer at the wedding. The next afternoon, following the post-wedding lunch, Theyskens and Barrett, together with the newlyweds, their parents and a handful of friends, hopped on a plane to spend a few days by the sea on the stunning southern island of Siargao, heralded by many as “the new Bali.”
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