One of the issues with young designers is that often they are excellent in design and in the sartorial arts, but that they are quite confused about where their inspiration for their beautiful creations may come from. Or perhaps that they know it very well, but that they do not always know how to express it in words precisely.
Thus Valentin and Florentin Glemarec – two young Parisian brothers who studied Fine Arts at the Ecole du Louvre – presented us with a formidable ICOSAE show with some real serious swag and some real serious quality, but which left us questioning the show press release as seriously confusing. But that is fine, as with time will come those words that fit the story you want to tell in arts. In any art.
A few clear signatures are nevertheless already visible within the work, and two of them are mentioned on the ICOSAE web page as inspiration. The two brothers believe in deconstruction, which of course is a very Parisian thing, but meanwhile they also believe that the original traditional look needs to be preserved so as continue the look, the brand, and the image – if not the style. And this is precisely what we see, when you notice on the runway the open and torn shoulders in the classic jackets and coats, the open cuts on different colors in the pants, the extra belts and strings, all set inside an original look that anyone would recognize, but deconstructive just the same.
The net effect, therefore, is very urban, very cosmopolitan, not precisely chic, but elegant nevertheless. We used to have rock chic, and this sells quite a bit to larger crowds who like streetwear – think Diesel or Philippe Plein, but the ICOSAE work is much more elegant and indeed much more URBAIN, in that you can wear it after a ballroom fight, and not before an ordinary fight in a bar. In fact, let’s take that back that it is not chic and call it chic-punk for gentlemen and not for boys who like to play; a sartorial art fit for an interview with the vampire or for some strictly urban pirate’s dream.
In short, this was a very satisfying show, despite the brutal heat – which was largely absorbed by the earth and the grass that had been laid into a 16th arrondissement loft in the form of an actual lawn fit & ready for lawn bowling, croquet, or perhaps even some tennis, but upon wish the models felt quite comfortable.
ICOSAE, so very Parisian pirate urban chic on a summer afternoon. In English just say swag!
Posted by Sandro and photos by ICOSAE press office.
