As with just about everything, the French say it so much better. What we in the States might call an alley is in Paris referred to as a "passage"-pronounce it softly, like "massage." Last Wednesday night, in one that dates back to the 18th Century and is filled these days with a world-sourced mix of importers, food markets and hair cutters, weavers, and braiders, recent LVMH nominee Christelle Kocher staged her third season of .

What's important about the setting is what important about the brand: Central to Christelle's work is the act of putting highly technical and exclusive craft into the mainstream-into the very lifeblood of urban centers. Koché uses Christelle's fine, couture background (at her day job, they create specialized embellishments for, like, Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel) to reimagine basketball shorts and jigsaw velvet and paillettes into easy dresses you can throw on over a pair of jeans.

You've heard before of designers who apply couture techniques to ready-to-wear, but very few do it so well, and with such extremes.

At first, on that night in Passage du Prado, you didn't necessarily have to wait for the collection to emerge to sense the dichotomies at play.

Where earlier in the day we had been to grand ballrooms and inside exclusive gilded rooms (the fantastical Fashion Week norms), this particular location was chosen because it's incredibly common. It's full of immigrants and working class folks, and although the event was timed for after the shops had closed, Christelle and her boyfriend Julien Lacroix, who acts as the brand's artistic director, encouraged the residents and occupants to stay.

A thumping, buzzing, really, really good soundtrack filled the corridors and as a wild mix of spectators gathered, Christelle's team passed out artful zines and addresses for an after party. You might say the whole thing was DIY or grassroots; Lacroix used the term 'guerrilla.'

Christelle told me later that a DJ duo named Aamourocean was responsible for the music; their name means Love Ocean. She smiled and laughed when she told me that, and brought the conversation back around to the diverse neighborhood and all that has happened to Paris in recent months. Love Ocean. She said if there was an overall message of the evening, and even of the brand, it would be, "Don't be afraid."

When the models-actually, only 11 of the 43 were actually models; the rest were friends and street-cast real girls-took to the alley, they were anything but afraid. The sense of confidence, strength, and female power was palpable.

It was sometimes hard to feel where the edge was; where the runway stopped and the rest of us started-except that at the end of it all the models did pause and hold their places for just long enough to be completely and wholly observed.

And then they scattered off into the city. And so did we.

A few days later when we reached the showroom-a gorgeous white-on-white space with crown molding and chandeliers to die for-it was definitely easier to see the velvets and jerseys and silks and assemblages, but it occurred to me that we knew them better that night on the street.

Still, it was a pleasure to experience them up-close and in the light.

In that environment, certain things became more clear: oblique and overt references to sportswear, for instance. Christelle isn't just bringing sportswear codes into high fashion, she's mixing Chanel-quality feathers and lace with motocross prints and draw-string hoodies.

When I spoke with the Central Saint Martins-trained designer about this juxtaposition, she told me about growing up outside the lines of the city and eventually wanting to marry the comfort she knew and craved with the finery she had learned to make a living with.

http://blogs.nordstrom.com/fashion/files/2016/03/Koche-2.m4a

Christelle told me that it's her hope that Koché will establish and continue a dialog-a way for that art and craft to communicate with the alley and the street and vice-versa.

If comfortable luxury, the absence of fear, black lace and orange velvet are the dialogue, I'm tempted to go back to the sentiment that started this story: The French-and Christelle in particular-have such a lovely way of phrasing things.

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-Laura Cassidy