Creative Director Natacha Ramsay-Levi looked to the Hungarian-born, New York–based artist Rita Ackermann for inspiration for the Chloé Fall 2020 RTW collection. Ackermann, a longtime friend of Ramsay-Levi’s, is known for her gestural, unabashedly feminine paintings that abstract the human form. Her work shares DNA with Chloé in the sense that it’s subtly rebellious, restrained but never severe, both diaphanous and thoroughly grounded.

“It’s about a community of creative spirits,” Ramsay-Levi said at a preview of the collection. “Yes, clothes are great, but I love creative women.” They seemed to have a rub-off effect.

Rendered in silk on button-front dresses, staring out from below lace shirt collars, or printed onto ankle-length wrap skirts and leather-trimmed bags, Ackermann’s women retained the same power they have on canvas. Ramsay-Levi’s overall palette—lots of golden browns, cool greens, shades of mauve and brick red—mirrored the painter’s, giving the whole collection a strong sense of cohesion.

Suits leaned ’70s, with easy flaring pants and rolled-sleeve jackets. Her blouses had delicately jeweled buttons and cuff links, and her romantic dresses were alternately inset with bands of crochet at the hem or decorated with enamel embroidery at their peekaboo necklines.

“Chloé doesn’t stand for any one thing,” Ramsay-Levi said back in the showroom. “It’s an open identity, something for the woman who wears it to define.”

Go backstage at Natacha Ramsay-Levi’s Chloé Fall 2020 RTW collection, presented at the Grand Palais in Paris.