Because model Abby Champion doesn’t have a gamine haircut, you are forgiven for not associating the Blumarine FW 2023/4 campaign with Joan of Arc. In fact, that is where the design season began and the runway show as well, for Blumarine designer Nicola Brognano.

Reeling back the creative impulse further still, the young creator saw a ‘90s image of a young Milla Jovovich with a Joan of Arc close-crop that captured his curiosity. This discovery took him to Luc Besson’s movie ‘The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc’, shot in 1999, with Jovovich as the Maid of Orleans, and she who was burned at the stake for her role as a fierce military leader during the Hundred Year’s War.

It’s no exaggeration to say that she saved France from the English by standing by the side of Charles VII of France. Her star fell quite a lot in the ensuing months and she was captured by Burgundian troops loyal to the English, accused of heresy and being demonic , stood trial, convicted and burned alive.