COLLECTIONS

CATHARSIS

The Antoine Horlaville debut collection comes in the form of a creative destruction. A bonfire gathering humans around the uncomfortable yet joyful process of letting go of the old habits to reset, discarding gender norms to embrace a chosen identity, turning fears and emotional baggage into fuel, setting free from brain fog to focus your vision, burning the bridges that are not leading to yourself, setting a stop and a beginning. Ahead of that, the story often starts in a room full of friends, the fire is just a red carpet, and the clothes are just sketches.

Beyond its cathartic sense, the bonfire carries a cinematic imagery connecting the inspirations of this first collection, and makes a fertile soil for the next ones like ashes allow plants to re-grow, further exploring the idea of liberation that is rooting the brand in today’s landscape. Freedom is a subjective feeling that can only be experienced. It’s not a place, not a lifestyle, not something measured with money. It’s a conversation with society’s standards and with the voice inside your head. Do you feel free?

Embarking on this creative journey is my personal way to feel free, to let my imagination run wild on this ocean of possibilities. A collection is thought as a dreamed island you can’t see yet behind the horizon, mapping an archipelago of memories, emotions and references. The sensations of freedom we have when our feet are in the warm sand, the wind blowing in the hair, the sun reflecting on wet skins, is symbolized by pearls throughout the collection, as a souvenir you would bring home from vacation. The raw natural beauty of baroque pearls is tied around the neck like islanders. They blur the lines between clothes and jewelry, embellishing tailored jackets in grain de poudre wool, dry like grains of sand, and sensual silk shirts reminiscent of the undulating shiny surface of the water. Contrasting gloves are embroidered like hands casting a black shadow at the zenith, or leaving a white tan line. As if it had been exposed to the sun and salt, a bleached effect on pink lace recalls the colors of a sunset sky.

The summer fantasy goes on with cowboy hats and western details, completing the picture of a bonfire on the beach. The spirit of freedom is personified by the magnetic figure of the cowboy. A cinematic silhouette imbued with mystery for choosing his own destiny in the wilderness, that also stands as an ambiguous symbol at the pinnacle of conservatism and queer culture.

Old and new. Rawness and glamour. Nature and craftsmanship. Masculine and feminine. Duality brings balance, contrast, texture and depth to fashion. Gendered clothing is deconstructed and rebuilt into a fluid and elegant silhouette that provides the wearer with confidence, combining traditional tailoring codes with skirts, white pearls, upcycled couture lace and silk. The luxurious materials, gloves and monochromatic palette convey a feeling of opulence evoking the couture heritage in Paris and its liberating nightlife. The see-through lace gives a tempting glimpse of the body, a sultry comfort for the hot days. Every piece is versatile and can be easily worn by men and women in countless ways, to make it feel personal and true to one’s individual style, challenging the idea that a look is a finished design that shouldn’t be altered.

“Do what you will”. The seemingly licentious maxim from François Rabelais further captures the liberating message of the collection, meaning that freedom makes people virtuous. The Renaissance humanist inspired the Thelemites philosophy and the alternative artistic scene between the 30s and 80s. Notably with the Black Mountain college and the closing of the Bauhaus, prominent figures like poet Robert Duncan, and avant-garde experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, have both been exploring beauty beyond the boundaries of understanding. In an era where homosexuality was still illegal in the United States, he released the first gay representation in a movie with “Fireworks”, in 1947. His work had a major influence for its surrealism and eroticism. Anger’s famous chest tattoo inspired the typography on a shirt celebrating body embellishments as an expression of freedom in subcultures.

Paradoxically, oppression and pain can also be associated to pleasure and sexual freedom, or feel comforting to some. Clothes are questioning even more the complexity of sexuality and beauty. Belted waists in soft silk are drawing from the flattering New Look proportions and the tailoring codes of a traditional cummerbund. Ignited by the draping of the well-known liberty allegory painted by Delacroix, strips of fabric and gloves hug the body in a sugarcoated eroticism. They remind of the romanticism of vines or a cowboy’s lasso, and bondage photography like the mysterious never-claimed serie known as “Mr. Steinberg’s model”, depicting a woman in satin dress, also echoing the wrapping work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Liberating clothes from their reputation of negative environmental impact, this collection is entirely made from upcycled fabrics, mostly sourced from LVMH fashion houses. Each garment is therefore part of a very limited series, and sewed one by one upon order, in the atelier located at the heart of Paris. The pleating is made in collaboration with the ateliers Lognon, one of Chanel Métiers d’art; and jewelry accessories personnally made, using freshwater cultured pearls.

Antoine