TLmag: You got here to add-ons quite past due. Tell us about your adventure?
Sarah Levy: I become at the beginning of an architect. It was a comfy preference, however, even back then, it didn’t truly resonate with me. The fashion colleges, especially La Cambre, made an effect on me. I didn’t experience at home. At the cease of my studies, I labored for a decade as an architect. I additionally began a thesis on city making plans. As part of this, I become invited to have a look at the Parsons School of Design in New York. There, wherein I changed into touch with two jewelers, I discovered accessories, as well as working with craftsmen. Back in Belgium, I enrolled at Arts et Métiers. I studied there for 2 years at the same time as finishing my thesis. But after a yr as an urban
planner, I felt stuck with the institutional aspect of the activity. The add-ons section of La Cambre had just opened. For me, it changed into a manner to start a change without transitioning from one job to every other. I jumped in.
TLmag: And this time, you belonged …
S.L.: We have been most effective four college students, consisting of a photographer and a clothier, overseen by means of splendid professors. That’s where I observed the universe of leatherwork. The first 12 months, I gave myself general freedom. At La Cambre, I changed into pushed to go beyond my obstacles, to comply with my intuition. The 2d 12 months, when I turned into running on my commencement series, I started out an actual reflection on the human body. My idea became to translate,
via accessories, our modern-day habits. I meditated on the ones everyday objects which have to end up our new fetishes: the telephone, the digital cigarette…Objects that have created new gestures. My aim isn’t always to criticize those manias, but as a substitute to imagine the accessories in tune with our lifestyles ‘rituals’.
TLmag: The collection is even known as Creatures of Habits…
S.L.: These add-ons have changed our posture and our morphology. So I created prostheses that, on the only hand, ease our everyday gestures and, however, spotlight the obsessive facet of these addictions. I worked with a prosthetist and orthopaedist.
In specific, my studies led me to transpose the prosthetics strategies into the domain of leatherwork: greater especially, glove making. For example, I imagined an extended leather glove stitched to a cellular phone case. My entire series plays on this ambiguity between self-belief and constraints. I had the possibility to collaborate with French glovemakers Lavabre Cadet, who helped me to create some of the seven pieces within the collection. Working on gloves, an item often is taken into consideration to be out of date, however, which calls for actual expertise, additionally interested me lots.
TLmag: This series inspired the jury at the Hyères festival, which, as we know, is an extraordinary
springboard for designers. Was it this that made you want to apply?
S.L.: Hyères is a wonderful region of expression for any young dressmaker. The humans I met at some point of the pageant consider fashion in a wise manner. When you are taking a method that isn’t always at all commercial enterprise-orientated, being a finalist inside the competition represents an immense possibility.
TLmag: You are based in Brussels. Do you declare Belgian roots?
S.L.: Even back once I changed into analyzing architecture, I felt very rooted in this country. I very plenty experience being a part of this Belgian dynamic, and being able
to work in Brussels. I am not claiming that I belong right here, however, I desire a good way to construct a project here without always having to move to Paris.
TLmag: Do you feel near any Belgian clothier especially?
S.L.: I work with Ester Manas, who became also a finalist at Hyères within the fashion section, remaining yr, and for whom I layout accessories. Having grown collectively and operated on a shared challenge could be very gratifying. For my subsequent section, I’m not retaining any doorways. I would really like to discover how a large style house operates. And also to collaborate with different creators whose vision I percentage. In any case, growing my emblem isn’t always a result in itself.
34th Hyères Festival for Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories, Villa Noailles, Hyères, France, from 25 to 29 April.
