I met Aurèle online and we ended up talking about fashion, fear, and the courage to create without chasing visibility. Our conversation moved between craftsmanship, the realities of the industry, and the need for fashion to feel honest again.
Here is our conversation.
Everyone talks about Paris and the aesthetic, the style, all of that. But I’m more curious about what it does to your head. Like, does living there actually change how you think about your work day to day, or is it just a backdrop?
When I first arrived in Paris, it felt a bit strange. I noticed that people were not exactly judging me, but they were looking at me in a certain way. Arriving in Paris initially was slightly intimidating. It really pushed me to question how I present myself, even down to how I leave the house and what I wear.
I would say my personal style has changed quite a lot since moving here. I have become much more attentive to detail. It is not that I dressed badly before, but Paris pushed me to the next level.
I believe that being in Paris, or in a major city like this while working in fashion, is crucial in some way. It gives you infrastructure and access to everything at all times, which is not always a good thing, but at the same time, the opportunities are far greater than anywhere I have been before.
You’re working with denim now. What drew you in that direction? Does it mean something to you, or was it just time?
Personally I change projects fairly quickly and often I don’t get to shoot stuff because I am already at the next project. The denim project was something I personally wanted myself for a long time and couldn’t really afford or find it in the way i wanted it, so naturally i did it myself.
Who’s catching your eye right now? Whose work actually makes you feel something?
Some personal favorites at the moment are Hed Mayner and Leo Prothmann, although this changes fairly quickly. But I never really reached the point where someone made me feel something in the way McQueen did. The theater, tailoring, and storytelling behind each collection are truly unique to me. I couldn’t really pinpoint what exactly draws me to him so strongly. I believe it is our shared background and initial start in the industry as men’s tailors.
Men’s tailoring is probably the most historically and technically perfectionist and precise discipline, but also a very humbling one. I believe that if you make your way out of the atelier, you cannot become too big-headed in this industry.
There’s an expectation that you have to blow up fast. Do you think visibility builds, or is it something you should chase from day one?
Blowing up is, of course, the optimal case. What is crucial is what you do if that does not happen. I think visibility is a two headed snake. Yes, you need it, but on the other hand, you should never create specifically for visibility, as that would strip the result of any integrity.
At the same time, I have to say that this industry tends to give excessive credit to certain people and almost none to others. It is a ruthless environment, very much survival of the fittest. As I personally do not come from strong financial support from my family, especially after becoming independent, it can feel hopeless at times. There is this strange expectation to remain an intern for a very long time before being given a chance at a secure job and a halfway decent income.
As an intern, it is usually close to impossible to survive on what you earn, but there is really no leverage. If you are too demanding, there is a boatload of people who would do it for free. This creates a deeply unbalanced bubble within the luxury industry, spending huge amounts on influencers and celebrities, while on the other hand interns, junior designers, and similar roles earn minimum wage, yet post on social media about all the “cool” things they do. They then go home to their 12 square meter apartment, which they can barely afford. This is something I really seek to change in this trade.
Is there a collection you’d like to talk about? Maybe one that still feels close to you and stands out in your memory.
Absolutely McQueens Shows. Collections like SS and FW 98, FW 06 and FW 08 have a special place in my heart. I have to say though, I am not a fan of nostalgia in fashion. But I can't talk about shows or collections without what McQueen did in the late 90s and early 2000s. His shows specifically had something confronting and raw, much more than Galliano's "dream worlds" at that time.
Recently, I thought that Demna's collections sometimes had something nice, I like when people are really focused down to the detail, taking for example our sense of smell into account at a show. I also really liked what Pierpaolo did at Valentino which I hope he continues at Balenciaga now, I totally loved when he brought in live elements like when aka twigs had a performance, on top of that the focus really is on a nonconforming woman, something that isn't forced. Although the list is short for "good" current shows.
When you’re deeply involved in your work, it can be hard to know when it’s done. How do you decide when something is ready to share?
I think you feel it when something is done. I believe it’s crucial to let something finished go, only then the mind opens up for something new. I think the worst thing to do is to keep an idea for a later point in time, saving it, for whatever reason. It hinders yourself from getting new ideas. And often an Idea or concept belongs to a moment in time and I believe that sometimes we are just the vessel to bring it to life. There’s a quote, “Creativity is the courage to abandon the safe”.
What’s your take on fashion right now? Because I feel like something shifted last season. The shows felt different, there’s been all these creative director changes, and it’s like the energy is moving somewhere new. Do you feel that, or am I just reading into it?
My current take on fashion is that I believe we have some great talent in the industry at the moment, including strong emerging designers as well. On the other hand, I think it has reached a point of slight stagnation, especially when taking into account the uncertainty of the global economy right now. I would assume that, at least for the foreseeable future, there will not be many big risks taken, particularly by the major groups like LVMH, Kering, and so on. What we mostly see are internal changes rather than real disruption.
If you look at Kering, for example, there have been shifts such as Pierpaolo Piccioli moving to Balenciaga, Demna to Gucci, and Alessandro Michele, who shortly before that went from Gucci to Valentino. Creative directors are essentially being shuffled around. I do like parts of their work, of course, but I feel that it lacks a truly fresh breath of air.
There are also cases like Balmain, where a new creative director was appointed after Olivier Rousteing left, but even there it still feels quite conservative. It is not something completely outside the box, where you would say, this is entirely new. The most exciting or best received creative direction in recent times has probably been Chanel with Matthieu Blazy, but even then, he is a proven designer. He is someone who can be trusted. It is not a situation where you genuinely feel fifty fifty about how it might play out. That uncertainty is what I mean by risk, and I feel that this is currently missing.
Overall, it feels quite flat. There is not much emotion and not much culture surrounding fashion right now, and I think that is a critical issue. When I was a teenager, Virgil Abloh and the whole Off White movement, along with the streetwear culture around Supreme and similar brands, were huge. It was extremely captivating, and there was a real culture around it, something you wanted to be part of. That has faded, especially since COVID, and since then there has not really been something equally fresh. Appointing someone like Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton was, in a way, a risky move, but it was also a real breath of fresh air. I know he often gets a bad reputation, especially within design circles, and is sometimes not regarded as a fashion designer. Still, the cultural shift he created and the door he opened for my generation into the luxury market were massive, and I do not think that can be disregarded.
I’ve seen you’ve got some launches and projects happening. Want to tell me more about what you’re working on?
I am currently working on several projects. The main one is my 3 BA collection for my graduation. It is a project strongly focused on marginalized communities, and the raw harshness of the city and heavily inspired by the book Paris Nord by Myr Muratet, among other references such as personal documentation of the area’s.
The collection is a blend of craftsmanship, tailoring, and fashion as we traditionally understand it, combined with street culture and streetwear. Streetwear was very much my point of entry into fashion, and in many ways it represents the origin of my creative journey, the genesis of my relationship with clothing and design.
Alongside this, I am also working on developing my brand further, including my online shop, with the goal of taking it to the next level. I am also preparing and working on upcoming events. So, stay tuned.