MODE
DUEL x PFW MEN AW2019
LOUIS GABRIEL NOUCHI
DUEL met young parisian fashion brands in their backstage for their new shows during
A/W 2019 men fashion week
Founded in 2017 by Louis Gabriel Nouchi, LGN offers a contemporary wardrobe, a hybrid between the classic tailor and the sportswear, inspired by literature, art and Japanese culture. The brand imposes the vision of a new elegance, a point of balance between the movements of counter culture, the grunge and the know-how of luxury. Refusing to be coerced by the gender barrier, LGN violates conventions and encourages both its clothes and its customers to go beyond the male/female divide. Louis Gabriel Nouchi welcomed us in the backstage of his last fashion show during the Paris men fashion week and told us about «ancient evenings» his last autumn/winter collection.
“I started with Matthew Barney’s film “River of fundament”. The film is a performance from the work of Norman Miller «ancient Evenings» (which gave origin to the name of the collection ). I had read this book before I saw the film, and I was very struck by its very contemporary interpretation: Matthew Barney drew a parallel between the subject of the book (one follows a character in his various reincarnation routes under ancient Egypt) and the American automobile industry in Detroit. I loved comparing the whole process of making cars (from manufacture to scrapping), raising workers like pyramid makers (molten metal workmanship) and the fact that cars “tuned” in the film are pulled and featured in large processions, with costumes and songs mixing ancient Egypt and America today.
Like these cars are modern sarcophagus. And the idea of travel/reincarnation lies through these long journeys in cars.
From this premise of starting from workwear clothing, used on construction sites or in the forges, and the use of this reflective silver jersey such as fire protective clothing (welding gloves / large protective gowns / vests and parka with reflective stripes … ) The orange color comes from these garments as much as from the color of the molten metal in the forges.
The film also induced to start from a rather popular dressing room, American archetype: construction jumpsuits, logger shirts, oversized jackets, cargo pants, tartan.
The graphic elements come from ancient Egypt (beetles, starfish, diamonds, etc.).
I found them in books at the British Museum. These elements were reworked with contemporary colors but I liked the idea of starting from a print/graphic element that dates back 2000 years.
The use of many stitches was also linked to these ancient practices: the stitch is made up only of an association of nodes, and these nodes had a magical consonance, they were part of the talismans supposed to protect the soul in these different processes of reincarnation.
The leopard, a sign of power, becomes a synonym of power, as much as its
versatile side (for me this refers to the codes of the grunge).
The «skull» print, made only with cats (animal very present under ancient Egypt),
is also versatile: they refer to death as a warning, but also to more popular pieces in the contemporary wardrobe.
Even if these assumptions are very intellectual, with several levels of interpretation,
I wanted their translation into clothes to be simple, that the Egyptian influence comes by touch, by accessory.
The most important thing is that the garment is beautiful, that people want to approach it, touch it and wear it. And also that the show is just a proposal of how to wear these different pieces – all of these pieces are independent, I don’t think people dress up
in total look every day…”
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