Icosae's Urbane and Avant-Garde French Revolution

 

Brothers in arms, French designers Valentin and Florentin Glemarec. Portrait by Shoji Fuji. Cover picture and all other photographs by Elli Ioannou



We look at the rise of Icosae, an urbane yet avant-garde French label created by two young Parisian brothers, Valentin and Florentin Glémarec. The designers studied painting at the École du Louvre  and art informs all of their work. The spring 2018 collection offered a new vision of menswear at Paris fashion week, one that combines both the creative and conceptual, writes Antonio Visconti. Photographs of the SS18 collection by Elli Ioannou

Riveted studs and checked trousers
spell out Icosae in numbers

SINCE Icosae's launch three years ago, Valentin and Florentin Glémarec's collections have offered an exhilarating and seamless blend of urbane high fashion, sportswear and outstanding tailoring with a memorably sleek silhouette. The collections' fabrics and prints are created each season with original paintings by the designers. Parisian-born, the Glémarec brothers, may only be twenty-one and twenty-two years old but they have already made a name for their label. Independently funded, Icosae's sophisticated and sharp tailoring combined with a strong creative and cohesive vision has meant the label has a growing roster of clients including Paris' Le Printemps, New York concept store ODD and Barney's in Tokyo and Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong.

Valentin and Florentin studied Fine Arts at the prestigious École du Louvre before going on to study graphic design in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers (ENSAAMA decorative arts academy) and fashion design at the Atelier Chardon Savard school. Apart from their background in art, the designers say their great-grandfather, who was a tailor in Britain, is an important influence on their work. Tailoring is key to their designs, especially well-defined shoulders and structured shapes, their signature back cut and serial numbers on the jacket's lapels.

The suited yet relaxed vibe of the collection
was inspired by summer evenings in LA 

When the Glémarecs established the fashion label in 2014, they chose the name 'Icosae' that originates from the French word for the icosahedron, a twenty-faced geometric figure. They decided their collections would be produced in France and Belgium, as the designers want to use highly-skilled European ateliers. Their latest collection for SS18 was shown under the dramatic lighting of the famous Faust nightclub, located below the Pont Alexandre III in Paris and the collection was on the official Paris Fashion Week's schedule. Entitled the 'The world has music for those who listen', the range was full of Nouvelle Vague tailoring with a contemporary edge.

The collection was inspired by warm, glimmering Los Angeles nights with friends getting ready to go out at sunset. The designers wanted a relaxing theme that would suit a summer evening in LA when the skies are turning pink, a colour that runs as a leitmotif through the collection, the starry night reflected in glittering embroidery. Amid the beautifully-cut jackets were stone-washed jeans, unstructured bomber jackets, sweatshirts with spliced shoulders and prints from what Valentin Glémarecs describes as their "season Muse painting" on silk and wool coats. The jackets, both long and short, have details including rivets and an embroidery of a literal Heartbreaker motif. The designers referred to William Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Le Fou, L'Amant and Le Poète found on sweatshirts.

 

Long jackets with embroidery, studs and
numbers on the lapel

The duo wanted to work on all aspects of the suit, as they believe it is one of the most difficult garments to make, as they take their inspiration mainly from tailoring. They even created a "constructed" parka, which is a sportswear piece but remade in a tailored style. Denim was used as a whole look, both raw or acid-washed with a focus on pink silk shirts and short jackets.

The word “Icosae” translated into numerology is used in the check-print of the suits, the collars and even make-up of the models. The brand detailing was included on the clothing, some with 2500 rivets, but the branding is almost invisible unless you are looking for it. The designers don't want Icosae in huge letters on the clothing, only where you can find it in the details.

The recurring serial numbers 82.141.814 ~  meaning Icosae ~ are hidden in the tartan pattern for the tailored jackets and even on the models’ faces. Valentin Glémarec says each collection they like to explore different techniques, this time using laser cutting, acid printing and mixing handcrafted elements like bullion wire embroidery and branded rivets.

Every season the brothers agree on a painting that will be the print of the season. This decidedly artistic side of the label, influenced by the Valentin and Florentin Glémarec's study of art at the Louvre, gives Icosae's collections that rare combination of desirable creativity along with wearable designs.

Tap on photographs for full-screen slide show

Tailored jackets with the special Icosae print and pastel pink jeans shown at the Spring 2018 collection in Paris were inspired by warm, summer nights in Los Angeles

 

Pale pink ran as a theme through the collection reflecting the inspiration of LA's sunset on summer evenings and starry skies recalled by the Louboutin glittering boots

A riveted, furry vest in mahogany added a dash of punk disruption to the sleek collection  

Acid-washed denim made a comeback with strong colours, studs and cut-offs combined with a shoulder-spliced black and white-striped leather jacket

Sequined gold boots gave the SS18 collection a rock star glamour that lifted the dark, long jackets

Silken white bomber jacket with checked trousers specially designed by the brothers



Beautifully cut long jackets with this season's signature print

 

Embroidered details on Icosae's collection of jackets

 

Dark denim rules with red stitching with a symbolic hearts and stars t-shirt and pearl pendant

 

The lunatic, the lover and the poet printed on a sweatshirt with spliced sleeves at the Icosae show at Paris' Faust nightclub

 

 

Yuima Nakazato: Digital Couture Creates Custom Design for All

The mystical haute couture presentation in Paris created by Yuima Nakazato, showing his vision for the future of a couture for all. Cover picture and all photographs by Elli Ioannou

Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato is part of a new generation of avant-garde couturiers showing on Paris' official haute couture schedule. This season, he presented a collection made entirely with his new technology creating digital couture that allows custom-designed clothes to be accessible to everybody, Jeanne-Marie Cilento writes. Reporting and photographs by Elli Ioannou

Designer Yuima Nakazato with his
digital couture clothes

NUMINOUS and otherworldly it may have been, but Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato's show in Paris, presented a revolutionary new technique that could make couture clothes available to all. The couturier has created a digital technology which could change fashion with made-to-measure clothes for people around the world. 

An informative film like a 1950s British documentary explained the concept and then showed 21st century holographic forms with runway models wearing the clothes appearing in a darkened space with mystical music, enhancing the sense of the dawn of a futuristic age. 

Yuima Nakazato purposely altered the format of the traditional runway show, that usually takes only a few minutes, to a longer presentation that included film, music, models and mannequins.

 

The designer wanted guests to have a more intimate connection to the designs and ideas behind the collection. "I used to do a lot of costume design and I still do a lot of design for the stage and recording artists," Nakazato explains. "Working and communicating with them directly and designing a piece just for them. When these artists wear my designs they are always very happy. It is quite different to designing something for mass production. I wanted to give this experience of having a uniquely designed piece to everyone." But the designer says the big question was "how" to do this.

"I wanted to give this experience of having a uniquely designed piece to everyone"

"Obviously haute couture is very expensive and mass production is very cheap. And the customer cannot communicate to the designer. So I thought technology could provide a solution and help realise my idea. So that was the staring point. When I design clothes I want to see people happy wearing them and enjoying life. Haute couture is the best design but as that is not possible for everyone, it is my aim to find a solution." 

Nakazato says his new technique is a breakthrough discovery in fashion technology. He uses a digital technique that creates a system where clothes are adaptable and grow with you ~ upwards or outwards ~ and that can incorporate wearable devices, be easily fixed and even be passed down to and adapted to your children. It sounds like the ultimate in sustainable dressing.

Riveted squares of

digitally cut fabrics

 make up Nakazato's

new designs

"I feel couture is the future of fashion," Nakazato says. "This technology is sustainable, so if your body changes you can customise the clothes or if you damage some part of it you can just change it ~ so you don't just throw it away. The clothes become like another skin and you can even give it to your daughter, just changing the design and size."

This digital haute couture uses 3D techniques to produce garments for every type and shape of body. The nine different designs shown by Nakazato in Paris, were all created with digitally cut squares of fabric. 

Instead of a traditional fitting where the body is measured, the wearer is scanned through a device before numbered squares of digitally cut fabrics are riveted together to form a perfectly fitting piece. 

His new 1950s-inspired collection includes evening dresses and a version of Dior's classic Bar suit as well as jeans and a leather jacket ~ all created with digitally-cut squares of fabric. Nakazato said the major breakthrough was finding a way to use everyday fabrics like cotton, nylons and wool which are difficult to control using digital fabrication.

 "That was the most difficult part," he says. "But in the end we succeeded. We can design every type and shape of garment to be a precise fit to the wearer's figure. Digital fabrication is very useful mainly for PVC, rubber or plastic. But I wanted to use traditional fabrics and although these are hard to control using digital tools we found a way of doing it."

"Mass customisation is possible because my team have removed the major constraint of using needles and thread"

Custom-made clothes, particularly haute couture, are out of reach for most people. But Nakazato argues his technology would change that: “We want to create a world where everyone can have tailor-made garments. Mass customisation is possible because my team have removed the major constraint of using needles and thread." The designer has developed the technique in Japan with engineers, 3D designers and sculptors so clothes can be adjusted to be a precise fit to the wearer's figure.

"With this system we are now able to build all silhouettes imaginable," Nakazato says. "It is like creating a garment from a dress pattern but with even more flexibility." The designer has been working for six months on the new 3D clothes-making technique using natural materials like cotton and wool plus nylons. 

While the designer admitted that his work was very much at the experimental stage, he insisted that "future mass customisation" is possible. "There is still a lot of work by hand in putting the clothes together," Nakazato explains. "It is like technology and craftsmanship put together." The designer says that aesthetically his digital creations still had a long way to go to reach the perfection of classic haute couture which must be made by hand.

For his latest collection, Nakazato wanted to combine his new way of constructing textiles with the past so that they melded together. "We have a long term vision for the future as we develop and show the evolution each season," Nakazato says. "For this collection I chose the 1950s as the theme, which is an interesting era for me, because it is a very strong period for haute couture after the second world war. Couture gave a lot of energy to people with its elegance and drama. At the same time, the post-war era was also the starting point of mass production for jeans and bomber jackets. It is interesting that these things that are totally different but happened at the same time. "

"We have a long term vision for the future and we develop and show the evolution each season"



Yuima Nakazato with a bomber jacket

 and fitted coat using his new technology

The designer began to be interested in fashion as a student because at his high school in Japan they could choose to wear whatever they wanted, unlike most Japanese schools where a uniform is de rigueur. "I liked looking at fashion magazines ~ there was no Internet then ~ so we were reading magazines and seeing the "street snaps," a very typically Japanese part of culture with pictures of people standing on the street which I really liked." 

 But he decided that fashion would be his career after seeing the first Japanese designers graduating from the Royal Academy Antwerp in 2002. "I saw their graduate collections in the newspaper and they looked so colourful and interesting I was shocked. Seeing these designs changed me dramatically and inspired me to go into the fashion world more deeply and immediately I decided to do Antwerp's fashion degree as well."

Nankazato's show included film, music, models

and mannequins 

Today, when Nakazato is designing a new collection he begins with with key words and a story as a starting point, afterwards he begins the research. "For this collection, I spoke to many different people including sculptors, architects and engineers to get inspiration and knowledge," he says.

"Afterwards, I shared it with the rest of the team and we started the research together, studying materials and textiles. But the vision and story is the most important part and then finding solutions with digital fabrication, 3D printers and stories from history." 

But ultimately the designer is looking for a way of creating fashion design that makes people feel happier. "That is why I would like the clothes of the future to all be unique and different as I think that makes everyone feel good. Right now we have to wear mass produced clothes because of the cost. But that is all changing with this new technology and it makes for a very interesting moment in fashion."

Tap on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato with his new creations in Paris

A model wearing Nakazato's digital couture dress

Guests at the Yuima Nakazato show take a closer look at his revolutionary new system of making unique garments

After Nakazato's haute couture show, guests examine the clothes on mannequins

A striking denim and pink gown made using Nakazato's technique of digitally-cut squares of fabric that fit the body

Leather riveted ensemble of trousers and jacket created with Nakazato's new technology

Elegant, fitted dress that seems both contemporary and related to Dior's New Look all made with Nakazato's digital technology

Fitted jacket and trousers created using designer Yuima Nakazato's riveted technique: "When I design clothes I want to see people happy wearing them and enjoying life."

Bomber jacket and longer tops on mannequins after the runway show. Today, when Nakazato is designing a new collection he begins with with key words and a story as a starting point, afterwards he begins the research. 

Detail of the riveted jeans and pink squares showing Nakazato's technique

 "I feel couture is the future of fashion," Nakazato says. "This technology is sustainable, so if your body changes you can customise the clothes or if you damage some part of it you can just change it ~ so you don't just throw it away."

 

Chanel Haute Couture Paris: Behind the Scenes of the Show

Take a look behind the scenes at Karl Lagerfeld's latest haute couture collection for Chanel in Paris, with Kristen Stewart, Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and Pharell Williams. We also see the Chanel atelier and the exquisite workmanship that creates this iconic fashion house's couture collections, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento

THIS season, the Eiffel Tower is the monument chosen to symbolise Chanel's new Autumn Winter 2017/18 haute couture show. Karl Lagerfeld created a 38-metre high version of the tower inside the Grand Palais, with wooden garden chairs set out beneath like a Parisian park. The designer pays tribute to Paris with a scene for his latest haute couture show designed to be like a beautiful autumn day. "It’s a vision of a revived Parisian woman, it is all about cut, shapes, silhouettes. Here the line is very delineated and graphic, it’s very modern," he explains. His Parisiennes step out in hats, wearing booties or thigh boots buttoned up high. This season the tweed jacket comes as a long tunic, or is cropped and double breasted; its sleeves are cambered or dressed with fingerless gloves and bouquets of feathers.

"In this collection, there are feathers treated like fur," says the designer. The designs are worn with domed or wraparound skirts, tubular dresses or wide-cut jumpsuits. The silhouette is graphic, supported by tweeds, mohair, and grey, black and white wools, autumnal palettes in navy blue, burgundy and green. The collection has long, straight volumes that flare into A-lines or contrast with rounded on voluminous coats, peplum jackets and frock coats with cinched waists. At the end of the second runway show, Karl Lagerfeld was awarded the Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris medal by Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris. This medal, that represents the highest distinction in the City of Paris, recognises his creativity and his impact creating Parisian fashion that has influenced design around the world.

Interview with Karl Lagerfeld: Chanel Haute Couture in Paris

Creative director of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, talks about why Paris is best known for high fashion and how the Eiffel Tower is the monument that best symbolises his new Autumn Winter 2017/18 haute couture show. Beneath the soaring glass dome of the Grand Palais, Chanel created a 38-meter high version of the tower, with wooden garden chairs set out beneath like a Parisian park, a runway designed to invite a leisurely stroll and a rediscovery of the city, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento 

Chanel's Eiffel Tower disappears among
the clouds. Photo: Olivier Saillant

DESIGNED by Gustave Eiffel for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest edifice built by man and symbolised the industrial era. It inspired many artists including the painter Robert Delaunay who visualised it with Neo-Impressionist and Cubist lines. Today, Karl Lagerfeld pays tribute to Paris with a scene for his latest haute couture show designed to be like a beautiful autumn day.

"It’s a vision of a revived Parisian woman, it is all about cut, shapes, silhouettes. Here the line is very delineated and graphic, it’s very modern," explains Karl Lagerfeld. His Parisiennes step out in hats, wearing booties or thigh boots buttoned up high. This season the tweed jacket comes as a long tunic, or is cropped and double breasted; its sleeves are cambered or dressed with fingerless gloves and bouquets of feathers.

 "In this collection, there are feathers treated like fur," says the designer. The designs are worn with domed or wraparound skirts, tubular dresses or wide-cut jumpsuits. The silhouette is graphic, supported by tweeds, mohair, and grey, black and white wools, autumnal palettes in navy blue, burgundy and green. The collection has long, straight volumes that flare into A-lines or contrast with rounded on voluminous coats, peplum jackets and frock coats with cinched waists.

At the end of the second runway show, Karl Lagerfeld was awarded the Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris medal by Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris. This medal, that represents the highest distinction in the City of Paris, recognises his creativity and his impact creating Parisian fashion that has influenced design around the world.

Alchemists of Minimalism: Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi

Alchemists at work at Palazzo Litta in Milan. Designers Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi of Mist-o examine their glass designs for Ichendorf.  Portrait by Ilaria Cilli

Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi create designs evoking the beauty of simplicity and a Zen-like purity of form. This Italian and Japanese duo discovered a common language and opened their studio, Mist-o, five years ago in Milan and Tokyo, aiming to create a cultural bridge between Europe and Asia. Today, their clients include iconic Italian brands such as Cappellini and Tod’s. Last year, they received the EDIDA Young Japanese talent award by Elle Decor Japan. Jeanne-Marie Cilento asks them 10 Questions about their life and work. Portraits by Ilaria Cilli at Palazzo Litta in Milan

Designers Noa Ikeuchi
& Tommaso Nani

ON a hot summer evening in Rome, standing high up on the grassy knoll of the Emperor Trajan's imperial forum, jazz music drifting up to the leafy crowns of maritime pines, Milanese designers look disdainfully across to the ancient exedra of the red-brick market below. Their Roman counterpart, Apollodorus of Damascus,Trajan's loyal architect, designed the market in the 2nd-century and its complex of grocers, apartments and the world's first shopping mall. The stylish Northern Italians are more interested in seeing their own new sleek designs exhibited in the great, vaulted hall, still strewn with ancient fragments of Corinthian columns and reliefs of ancient battles. Despite their Modernist forms, some of these 21st century pieces were hand-carved in Carrara marble, linking this new generation of sophisticated architects back to their forbears 2000 years ago. One of the designers who looked on with pleasure at this baroque party, held at the heart of the emperor's former Roman kingdom to celebrate the opening of a new Italian design exhibition, is Tommaso Nani. Warm and jovial in person and interested in everything around him, the designer creates pieces that are so stripped back to their essence they seem Japanese. And there is a strong element of Japan, as Tommaso Nani works with Noa Ikeuchi at their studio Mist-o in Milan and Tokyo.

Speaking to a keen audience in Milan
at their Palazzo Litta exhibition

The duo opened the design studio five years ago and their work includes slim, fine furniture and small, limited edition objects and interior design projects. Both Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi live between Japan and Italy, working in the two countries to develop their own design language. Even if their backgrounds are very different, they discovered a shared sensibility for the poetry of simplicity with a certain formal discipline combined with functionality. The designers work with artisans all over the world and they believe this working method enhances their understanding of local cultures. Today, their clients include well-kown Italian brands such as Cappellini, Ichendorf, Living Divani, Oluce and Tod’s. In 2016 they received the EDIDA Young Japanese talent award by Elle Decor Japan.

Noa Ikeuchi and Tommaso Nani
with their glassware designed for Ichendorf 

1. Where did you grow up and does this place inspire your creative work?

I grew up in Italy, and Noa in Japan and the cultures of our countries have been an important influence on both of us. The societies shaped each of our personalities in a very different way. I am much more a “city boy” ~  I grew up in Milan which is a big town that gives you a lot different influences, stress and forces you to live fast ~ more or less like every big city in the world. However, Noa grew up in the countryside, on the Izu Peninsula, South-West of Tokyo on the Pacific Coast, a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. It is set amid nature and, of course, life is slower and calmer. Later he moved to Tokyo before coming to Italy to study.

We have both been shaped by these different environments and our work is a reflection of that. The interesting thing is that we met when we were quite young and became good friends at around nineteen years old ~ an age when humans are still very receptive to stimuli, so we influenced each a lot with our different ways of being. Together we shaped our vision of the world and our way of seeing design. It is difficult to define ourselves, but in our work we are looking for a sort of delicacy mixed with a strictness and functionality that gives life to logical, simple shapes. We try to give them a unique character, and perhaps our designs can be seen as a sort of summation of our way of being.

 "In our work we are looking for delicacy mixed with a strictness and functionality"

The Mist-o exhibition of Ichendorf glassware
 at Palazzo Litta during Milan Design Week

2. Why did you choose design as your artistic metier?
If you are a curious person, design gives you the possibility to explore many different things and not to repeat the same day every day. Of course, there is a routine, but it is a profession in which you can learn many different things and it gives you the possibility to deal with various projects and situations. For example, you can be involved in designing small products hand-made by an old artisan, but also design products for the mass market that come from a big, technological machine. Or sometimes the project involves both of those things, starting with a primitively crafted object and ending up with an industrial product. Good design is not easy and is often much more complicated than this, but there is always a new journey at the start of every project.

3. How did you get your break into the design world and have your work manufactured and sold in stores or galleries? 

We started with the Salone Satellite in 2010 at the Milan Furniture Fair because it is a fantastic place for young designers to show their first projects and fresh ideas and show them to a large and cultured public. From that point, it took us some years to established our studio and to find the right companies who were interested in manufacturing our ideas, but in that period we kept doing research to feed our ideas and start shaping our design language. Mostly in the last few years we have worked with companies that produce and market our projects, but we are very interested in collaborating with galleries or editors, it is something we are looking for, especially to explore more deeply the cultural research behind a design.

Hand-weaving the Daydream Daybead,
designed by Mist-o for Living Divani.
Photo: Alberto Strada

4. How did you and Noa meet?  How has working together had effected your design careers so far?
We both studied in Milano and we first met at university, we were class mates. We became friends and for the first year we were just close friends, and after a while we realised we have similar aesthetic sense, and that we are both very curious about each others culture and very interested to see things from a different perspective. We came from places that are almost polar opposites, so this mix was perfect to fulfil our curiosity. This was the experience that had the greatest impact on our design career, not a specific person or a training but this very personal and unique exchanging of culture.

5. Today, your studio is based between Milan and Tokyo ~ what does each city give you creatively?
If you are curious, both cities give you have many opportunities to experience and to learn beautiful things. Both cities are full of energy, and both have a sort of very unique intimate atmosphere. Milan is a city that is quite small in size but the quality of living and the atmosphere is very European and yet it feels international. Tokyo is a huge city, but it’s replete with small things, tiny gaps between buildings, narrow streets, short distances between very different districts… So I always find this contrast very unique and fascinating, and it also gives you a feeling of warmth.

"Tokyo is a huge city, but it’s replete with small things, tiny gaps between buildings, narrow streets, short distances between very different districts…"


Ichendorf Tequila Sunrise Carafe by Mist-o
2013-2016. Photo: Aberto Strada

6. Do you find your creative process when designing is more rational or instinctive?
It is very instinctive at the beginning, we start quickly from a rough idea without thinking too much of designing the right shape or doing something pretty. We try to keep a sort of fresh approach. But later our process is very rational and logical, and we try to find the essence of a design, in order to give life to a clear concept, and not just to design a minimal object. We look for a deep and comprehensible simplicity. We also have to be very clear and logical to understand each other, we both work on all projects together so we need to eliminate all the unnecessary things that creates "noise" in the process.

7. What do find the most challenging aspect of working as designers? And what is the most challenging aspect of your work technically?
The most challenging aspect is also the most interesting ~  to keep the uniqueness, freshness and even naive approach to design, in order not to repeat ourselves. And this means you have to be extremely curious and you should have broad cultural interests and a fascination with many different things to feed your creativity. Technically the most challenging aspect is that design is not only drawing a pretty shape, but it is always a new journey with a lot of unknown endings. For example, new technologies and new production methods, different budgets and contracts plus your relationship with the clients are not always the same. Each time we have to be very quick to understand a situation or a context and learn to deal with the people involved. If we take on a project we want to know as much as we can before we start designing, in order to make the journey as smooth as possible. We are still quite young and I think the more our careers grow the more we learn, but with design there will always be unknown and unexpected situations to deal with.

 "We try to keep the uniqueness, freshness and even naive approach to design, in order not to repeat ourselves"

Fruit bowl prototype by Mist-o designed in 2011
Photo: Alberto Strada

8. What part of the designing and making process gives you the most happiness? 
Every part of the design process has something that gives us happiness: when you come up with some good ideas or when you solve some problems with the design, or when we take the pictures of the final products, and many other things ~ we are passionate about our work! But also being a duo as designers sometimes can also be frustrating, for example when one of us thinks he come up with some great ideas and the other doesn’t agree…We have to put our ego aside and find a common ground and it is not always easy. But most of the time this leads to unexpected and better solutions. It is probably the part of the job that every creative duo has to deal with.

9. Do you have a set schedule of working creatively everyday or is the process more fluid?
Our team is geographically spread all over the world for most of the year, so the work process is well organised. For example, when we are in different countries we make a Skype call every day (early morning in Italy, late afternoon in Japan) to update on the what has happened during the day and to decide about what are the most important daily tasks. On the other hand, the creative process is fluid and it takes time, although you always have to deal with deadlines and appointments so the process is not random and programming is crucial.

 

"Design is a discipline that if it is done well and with deep thought and research can offer positive improvements to life"

 

Mist-o's Atlantis Flower Vase designed for Cappellini.
Photo: Alberto Streada

10. In our digital age, what does design give us as an art form?
Design is something with a very wide meaning and it can be applied to almost every aspect of life, both physical and digital, but the real issue is what kind of culture you bring to it, which is that certain uncontrollable thing that gives the elegance and the character to a design.
In any age, good design should improve our lives.  Through design you try to solve things: you try to find a solution to both very small problems to big issues dealing with social and economic hardships. Design is a discipline that if it is done well and with deep thought and research can offer positive improvements to life.



 

 

Fashion & the Future: Interview with Christian Lacroix Creative Director Sacha Walckhoff

"I believe you can still say a lot through fashion. I think there is the possibility to express something really interesting," says Sacha Walckhoff, photographed in Paris by Elodie Dupuis. Cover picture, backstage at Issey Miyake Paris, by Elli Ioannou.

Christian Lacroix's Creative Director Sacha Walckhoff talks to Jeanne-Marie Cilento from his Paris atelier about fashion, creativity and the future. Photographs by CG Watkins 

TALL and handsome with an infectious laugh, Christian Lacroix's creative director Sacha Walckhoff brings his ebullient artistic energy to the house's menswear and lifestyle collections. After the eponymous couturier left the house five years ago, Mr Walckhoff has brought a fresh vision to the French brand. He worked closely with Christian Lacroix for 17 years so has a profound understanding of the house's artistic origins.

Sacha Walckhoff & Christian Lacroix
during the glory years with the couturier

Speaking from his Parisian studio, he says: “Today's collections are also very close to Christian Lacroix the man, even if we are not working together anymore. I'm still faithful to the spirit, the origin of the house. People associate Lacroix with very colourful prints. But I think there is another level of the brand which is about an artistic vision.” As a designer, Sacha Walckhoff works on many different projects for both fashion and interior design and brings a very passionate approach to his own creations. “I think everything in life is about what you feel, so feelings for me are very potent,” he says. “They are the foundation of the Lacroix brand too ~ it is all about creating emotions first. Then of course there are colours and prints. But the reason why the house is still alive is because it is built on feelings. I think that is why so many people are attached to Christian Lacroix.”

"Feelings are the foundation of the Lacroix brand ~ it is all about creating emotions first."


Sacha Walckhoff with actor Julie Delpy
 at Lacroix in the early 1990s

He says the ideas behind the men's SS16 collections and Nouveaux Mondes home ware are contemporary yet still connected to the history of Lacroix. “I want to express tolerance and being open minded, this is what society should be. But it is very important for me to have an eye on the past and know where you are coming from. You have to know your past to go into the future. This is the theme of the collections this year. We still use the symbols of Lacroix, like flowers which could be quite traditional such as roses and peonies. But we put stripes on them and create a graphic statement and suddenly the flowers seem very modern.

"At Lacroix we have a story and yet we find a way to make it relevant. In the beginning, when I was appointed artistic director five years ago we went through the archives but I didn't want to change the designs otherwise people wouldn't recognise them. But we also realised very quickly that the things we took from the archives were not successful ~ because they were made at a special moment and now the times have changed."


Urban hubris SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

Looking at fashion on the streets, Sacha Walckhoff sees it as increasingly casual. "The problem with casual is that it is not very elegant ~ a very French statement! But you know in Paris in the 14th and 15th arrondissments, I see guys with beautiful suits and girls wearing beautiful dresses, jackets and hats. So the street style can look very good. But today people are lot fatter now than in the past and this is related to why they choose more casual wear."
As far as current trends in fashion, he still sees a slender aesthetic."People are wearing very slim lines, slim outfits and slim trousers, the young generation are still very body conscious."

The men who buy from the Christian Lacroix boutique in Paris are a heterogeneous group of artists, architects and lawyers from 25 years old upwards. "They are looking for something amusing with a good cut and good print with exquisite designs and fabrics. We are close to our clients. I am always trying to make the perfect shirts and suits. Pieces that you are happy to wear every day and then find them again in the next collection.When men find what they love, the right cut of pants or shirt ~ they don't want us to stop!"

"I believe you can still say a lot through fashion, you have the possibility to express something interesting."

Nature rules in the Paris suburbs. Photo: CG Watkins

Today, the fashion world has changed as luxury brands have some of their biggest clientele in Asia not Europe: "They were starving for fashion because of the political situations in their countries. I think what they are going through now is what we went through in the 1960s and 70s. Europeans are not our largest clients anymore. We have other situations that are very difficult here: people are too busy fighting for work, for places to live, really struggling. It is a difficult moment to talk about fashion in Europe because it is very frivolous. But I believe you can still say a lot through fashion. I think you have the possibility to express something interesting and the more that is expressed the better."

But the designer comments that he is surprised that many young designers are not expressing themselves as creatively as in the past with what they wear and design for themselves. "Today, when you look at men's collections that are very trendy, colourful and full of strange shapes ~ it is made for people to talk about and not to be worn. In the 1980s, we were making strange clothing but we were wearing it. We wanted to have originality and if you couldn't find what you wanted we made our own clothing. But now it is different as all of those young guys who are designing crazy outfits don't wear them. They are still wearing jeans and t-shirts as the designer and coming out on to the runway. It is very bizarre to me! It is like they are presenting clothes that they don't want to wear themselves.

"People do not wear what they are designing today. We need people who are a bit crazy and creative not only for the runway but also in real life."


Sacha Walckhoff as a young designer in Paris

"We were designing clothes and wearing them because we wanted to really express ourselves. I think fashion is becoming just an image ~ it is not real any more. Truly it is a feeling I have right now that people do not wear what they are designing. We need people who are a bit crazy and creative not only for the runway but also in real life." Mr Walckhoff  has an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion and can explain the history and provenance of a new jacket going back to influences from the Renaissance to David Bowie. But he thinks that the way new designers often just take ideas from the past directly without creating something new is very dull. "I don't think inspiration should be so literal as it is today ~ you need to transform it. I know the history of every piece of fashion. This is why at Lacroix I am always reworking designs from the past ~ but it never looks like the original. This is what is interesting in our world. I think it is a bit boring when you just take something and you reissue it. It is not something I would like to do."

Talking about the power of the fashion image today the designer believes it is more difficult to make an impact because we have visual overload. "We are bombarded by images today with the Internet and social media. It is difficult because you have to edit them all of the time. I am a bit afraid of being insensible to images in the future because there are just too many to filter through your mind. Even when you wake-up there are so many images to digest ~ even before having your coffee." Mr Walkhoff is also concerned about the increasing mechanisation of everyday life that makes us more distant from hand-crafted designs and
nature.

"We are bombarded by images today with the Internet and social media. I am a bit afraid of being insensible to images in the future."

Colour & embroidery SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

"I was talking to [Dutch designer] Marcel Wanders, we were saying the machines will take over ~ they don't need food or rest ~ and one day there will be robots on the runway and robots making the collections and robots buying the clothes. We will be left at our country houses out of it all!" he says laughing. "With the new menswear collection, maybe it is about the fact that in an increasingly mechanised world nature is still much stronger than anything man can create. Maybe it is something unconscious trying to say that nature will always win ~ that is really the theme of this menswear collection."

Working with designer Jose Gandia, head of Lacroix's Studio Homme, on the collection, Sacha Walckhoff wanted to design classic clothes with a young and modern twist. There are very well cut suits in beautiful fabrics with linings made out of silk as well as prints and embroideries. All of the sweaters are from cotton so they are very breathable with others in Jacquard with embroidery. "The house is known for its mix and match, combining different things like prints, flowers, bright colours such as fuschia that in the end really work," says Mr Gandia. "This season we found the colours of Paris suburbs interesting, you feel like you could almost be in LA. It was very nice to shoot there."


Industrial Paris SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

For the collection's photo shoot, nature and the city were big inspirations. Mr Walckoff worked with photographer CG Watkins to shoot the pictures in the suburbs of Paris. “Nature is always stronger than man-made cities ~ here in the Parisian suburbs even though the plants grow in small spaces and on balconies ~ there is still a spirit of wildness. So we wanted to have the pictures taken in places which were quite built up but at the same time nature still managed to grow there." The photographer, who grew up in Australia, was very attracted to the idea of going to the outer suburbs in Paris to shoot. "It was really interesting and it was so busy ~ I didn't think the suburbs were so busy," Sacha Walckhoff says. "We went to a squat and saw this whole universe of people who are free and living with a certain wildness. They are constructing a new way of life. In some ways, it is a spirit that for me is quite close to what Lacroix is all about.The collection is based on both human nature and the wilderness which is coming out in the cities ~ despite the concrete."

"I like to have a creative dialogue with my colleagues when I am working ~ I feed them but they also need to feed me."

Mr Walckhoff say the menswear collection expresses his vision of Lacroix. "Collaborating with CG Watkins who is British but raised in Australia we talked a lot about the dessert. You can feel it in all of his images. It is always good to have a link with the young photographers and the young magazines because it is the kind of customer we want to share the collection with. We have a lot of customers who are faithful to the brand. But it is also important to be connected to the young generation ~ it is a great way to do it working with young photographers."


Christian Lacroix's Nouveaux Mondes collection

The first collection of Christian Lacroix lifestyle was created in 2011. Mr Walckhoff is now responsible for overseeing the design of the menswear collections, eye wear, sunglasses lines, scarves and leather goods collections as well as home décor. The lifestyle and home wares collections have been very successful along with the menswear, but the creative director doesn't rule out a return to designing women's fashion again in the future.

Sacha Walckhoff has a special way of working artistically with his team at Lacroix. Designer Jose Gandia says: "It is a real pleasure working with Sacha as each season I discover something fresh as he presents a new book, a new artist for our inspiration. We share ideas then we work out what we want. We talk about the exhibitions we have seen and how that inspires us."

As artistic director, Sacha Walckhoff makes a presentation to his team twice a year and then the other designers have an input for specific collections. "Sometimes they propose things that make the designs richer," he says. "I like to have a creative dialogue with my colleagues when I am working ~ I feed them but they also need to feed me. I need interaction, this is my way of working. If I don't like something I just say it. But I love it when an idea comes from the studio and makes the concept deeper and more interesting. I welcome new ideas while keeping the vision of Christian Lacroix."