PARIS, Jan 22, 2008 /FR/--- The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl has a name that tells it all: Quetzal is a brightly coloured Latin American bird and Coatl means serpent in the Nahuatl language. Put together it is nowadays the most well known deity in the Aztec pantheon.

Dupré Santabarbara have taken this exotic god as their inspiration, or rather a present invented story that they have quoted in their press notes: “A young call girl from the Mexico slums, under the influence of drugs, is possessed by Quetzalcoalt. She then starts a quest for the gold of the Incas in the middle of the favelas.”

Mixing various types of materials (for instance couture’s traditional fabrics with hosiery) has been, since they started to show for the spring 2004 collection, the trademark of the designing duo formed by Michel Dupré and Christelle Santabarbara. Indeed this innovation did justify their presence at first among the invited members of Haute Couture, even though everybody knew right from the start that they should after exploring new ways, turn to the ready-to-wear section and found their brand in a serious manner with a business goal in mind.

However, from collection to collection, Dupré Santabarbara are not holding their promises of development and seem to be insisting desperately to show in the couture category when their designs, once more, have very little chance of finding customers in this field and do not either present the necessary creativity or innovation.

The designing duo has explored its far-fetched theme for the season in a most hazardous way, mixing old leather with traditional fabrics and lace, colouring feathers and adding them to snakeskin for a result that has nothing to do with couture, and that can hardly be seen as ready-to-wear, as the pieces all seem difficult to produce in numbers and do not present the characteristics of ready-to-wear, which implies that many potential customers can identify with these clothes.

Instead, an aged leather jacket is wrapped around the waist and made into a skirt at the height of their innovative spirit; the strap over the left shoulder of an evening dress simply consists in a full-width band of natural snakeskin wrapping itself behind the neck to come back over the right shoulder and be left dandling full length for an animal effect on the body… What woman can desire wearing these pieces is not clear.

After now nine runways shows, it is time for Dupré Santabarbara to reconsider seriously their future. Even if they did seem to some to be a promising name four years ago, their evolution since then has not really confirmed their talent yet, and their collection for Spring 2008 is showing once more that their design direction might lead to a dead end.