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"  If Patti Smith and Lord Byron had a love child, he might easily have turned out to be Olivier Theyskens. Wan and poetic, with a mischievous streak, Theyskens is a hero to a generation of women who long for a darker kind of beauty. For the past decade or so, his innovative silhouettes and fragile elegance have functioned as personal\u2014if not political\u2014statements for devotees who not only wear their tortured hearts on their sleeves, but raise those finely wrought sleeves as agitprop against conventional modes of dress. For those in the know, Theyskens puts the cult back in appeal. With the launch of a (gasp) contemporary line, Theyskens&amp;#039; Theory, the Brussels-born 34-year-old is poised to become the patron saint of a different kind of woman\u2014one who has likely coveted the \u00FCber-hip classics he designed for Rochas and Nina Ricci and under his own name, but who hasn&amp;#039;t, until now, been able to afford them. That he is capitalizing on his rebellious allure\u2014real or, as the designer would argue, perceived though that cachet may be\u2014with a line for a resolutely unrebellious brand is, for some, tantamount to fashion treason. Alber Elbaz&amp;#039;s fall Lanvin collection for H&amp;amp;amp;M was one thing: fast, fun, and one season. But it wasn&amp;#039;t Elbaz&amp;#039;s main line, and anyway, Elbaz isn&amp;#039;t Belgian. Can you imagine Theyskens&amp;#039; high-minded compatriots going budget-friendly? Ann Demeulemeester for Target? Walter Van Beirendonck for H&amp;amp;amp;M? (If only!) Prior to his arrival at Theory, Theyskens could perhaps have been voted least likely to make that price-point leap. The designer shot to stardom at age 21 when Madonna wore his black satin hook-and-eye coat to the 1998 Oscars; the jacket was misidentified briefly as the work of both Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace, but fashion watchers soon figured out it had been designed by a certain long-haired L&amp;#039;\u00C9cole Sup\u00E9rieure fashion-school dropout. Presto: Theyskens&amp;#039; limited-capacity shows, with their stark sets, goth vibe, and hard-core romance, became the must-have ticket of the late &amp;#039;90s. In 2001, he was thought to be a shoo-in for the top spot at Givenchy, which Alexander McQueen was then vacating in order to launch his own collection. Word is, the wunderkind outpriced himself for the job (gossip he has never confirmed or denied).  Theyskens shuttered his short-lived line in 2002 and promptly went on to do battle with some of fashion&amp;#039;s more difficult corporate challenges in consecutive tenures as artistic director of storied French brands. He spent four years at Rochas, followed by three at Nina Ricci. Despite the struggles of business, he was never short on fans: His cocoon-shape jackets and chiffon-tiered gowns in sherbet colors for Rochas were snapped up by celebrities such as Kirsten Dunst, and the skinny pants and tunic-shape sweaters he created at Nina Ricci became collector&amp;#039;s items.  Still, Theyskens insists he&amp;#039;s never been an elitist. Plotting his return to fashion after his 2009 departure from Ricci, &amp;quot;I was thinking what I wanted to do next is to work with a brand that is appreciated by many, many people,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;To think how it goes beyond the strictly fashion customer.&amp;quot; Indeed, his early collections display a clear knack for straightforward tailoring\u2014white shirts and well-cut jackets and pants. &amp;quot;I feel very rooted to the Parisian culture of fashion,&amp;quot; says the designer, who recently made New York City&amp;#039;s West Village his home. &amp;quot;But I admire American fashion. I&amp;#039;d really like to create a bridge between urban and reality.&amp;quot; As artistic director of Theory, he will oversee his own line plus design direction for the entire company\u2014a $500 million brand. He first met Theory founder and co-CEO Andrew Rosen for lunch in early 2010 at the suggestion of mutual friends. &amp;quot;People were telling me I should really see what Theory is doing,&amp;quot; Theyskens says. Rosen says, &amp;quot;Everyone sees [Theyskens] as this quiet, shy guy but there is also this dynamic, incredible force behind that facade. He has amazing breadth.&amp;quot; He hopes bringing the designer on board will &amp;quot;move Theory back to the head of the class.&amp;quot;  The deal is a benchmark in a moment in which appetites for the extremes of high and low seem to be settling on the middle ground\u2014much as they did in the late &amp;#039;90s, when Theory first became all the rage for making the best rear-enhancing black pants on the market\u2014with a spate of new midpriced collections from Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, and Donna Karan. At Theory, the colors and fabrics that have long set Theyskens apart remain intact, partly because he&amp;#039;s brought on board the same European fabric mills he used for his own line as well as at Nina Ricci and Rochas. His collection hews to a palette of black and white but also includes impeccable grays\u2014harder to master than they seem\u2014and promises to update the working woman&amp;#039;s silhouette with cutaway cropped jackets, snap-front cavalry pants, and high-waisted shorts, a shift that is subtle but instinctually exciting. These are, after all, ideal Theyskens shapes, again\u2014the perfect tank, the perfect pants, the perfect jacket.  &amp;quot;I see the way girls feel when they put the clothes on,&amp;quot; Rosen says. &amp;quot;They perk up. The shape and proportion are just right. They feel empowered\u2014it&amp;#039;s perfect and just what they want.&amp;quot; This certainly seemed to be the case with actress Kate Bosworth, who happily signed up to model Theyskens&amp;#039; Theory for this portrait. &amp;quot;I love what he does,&amp;quot; says the actress, no stranger to fashion\u2014she recently launched JewelMint, a line of jewelry she designs with stylist Cher Coulter. Its premise is as democratic as Theory&amp;#039;s, if not more so: After completing an online style quiz, subscribers receive recommendations of what to buy from Bosworth and Coulter; each piece goes for $29.99. &amp;quot;We like our jewelry fucked up and raw,&amp;quot; says the 28-year-old, as Theyskens tries on one of her metal bracelets. &amp;quot;When you try to make cheap look expensive, it always looks bad.&amp;quot; Unless you&amp;#039;re Olivier Theyskens. With prices from $70 for a cotton tank to $1,150 for a leather jacket, you could hardly call Theyskens&amp;#039; Theory cheap, but his particular brand of rawness\u2014at the right price\u2014will sound heaven-sent to the designer&amp;#039;s anxiously waiting fans. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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