Please introduce yourself to my readers: how long have you been studying at La Cambre, where are you from, what do you do / want to do?
EA: I come from a place called Saint Chamond, a small town near Lyon in France. I have been studying in Belgium for 4 years and in my 5th and final year I studied in La Cambre. Following on from the show at Stockholm Fashion Week I am working on my new collection that I will present in June, where I will try to propose a new silhouette, but I also want people to recognise my signature.
You just won the Design Award, how do you think it will effect your original career plan?
EA: Maybe because more people will see my work, on websites, blogs and other social media creating a spotlight on my collection. My capsule collection that will launch in H&M stores and online will help me a lot too and I hope that customers will want to see more after this!
There is a really intricate fabric work involved in your collection, could you tell me more about the concept behind it and how it came about?
EA: I wanted to work with flower patterns so I went to a lot of fabric stores to find the good ones. I visited upholstery fabric stores in Verviers, Belgium and knew that I wanted to use some of them. I wanted to create the idea of ikat weaving in my clothes so I began to cut all my floral fabrics and recompose the pattern with different stripe gaps. The result is a rough and colorful texture, and it’s exactly how I imagined the shapes. I considered the outfits as paintings.
What was the inspiration for this collection?
EA: The movie “I Am Love” with Tilda Swinton was the inspiration, all aspects of it: The main character and the passion with her lover, the luxurious Italian house and the sunny, green landscapes. I was also inspired by the French paintings of Ingres which show mature and aristocratic elegance. I started off by compiling large mood boards and then once it made sense to me I started with drawings and prototypes.
What’s your next step?
EA: To finish school and try to present a collection that people will like maybe even more! After that, just to think more about creating my own label or possibly work in a fashion house in Paris.