TLmag: You got here to add-ons quite past due. Tell us about your adventure. Sarah Levy: I became an architect at the beginning. It was a comfy preference; however, even back then, it didn’t truly resonate with me. The fashion colleges, especially La Cambre, affected me. I didn’t experience it at home. At the end 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 was invited to have a look at the Parsons School of Design in New York. There, I changed in touch with two jewelers, discovered accessories, and worked with artisans. Back in Belgium, I enrolled at Arts et Métiers. I studied there for two years at the same time as finishing my thesis. But after a year as an urban
As a 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 another. 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 using splendid professors. That’s where I observed the universe of leatherwork. For the first 12 months, I gave myself general freedom. At La Cambre, I changed and pushed myself to go beyond my obstacles to comply with my intuition. In the 2nd 12 months, when I turned into running on my commencement series, I started an actual reflection on the human body. My idea became to translate,
via accessories, our modern-day habits. I meditated on the everyday objects that have to end up in our new fetishes: the telephone, the digital cigarette, etc.… Things 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 other hand, ease our everyday gestures and spotlight the obsessive facet of these addictions. I worked with a prosthetist and orthopaedist.
Specifically, my studies led me to transpose the prosthetics strategies into the domain of leatherwork, more 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 could French glovemaker Lavabre Cadet, who helped me to create some of the seven pieces within the collection. Working on gloves, an item often considered outdated, which calls for actual expertise, also interested me a lot.
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 in the pageant wisely consider fashion. When taking a method that isn’t always commercial enterprise-orientated, being a finalist in the competition represents an immense possibility.
TLmag: You are based in Brussels. Do you declare Belgian roots?
S.L.: Even once I changed to analyzing architecture, I felt rooted in this country. I have plenty of experience being a part of this Belgian dynamic and working 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 clothiers, especially?
S.L.: I work with Ester Manas, who also became a finalist at Hyères within the fashion section remaining year, and for whom I layout accessories. Having grown collectively and operated on a shared challenge could be very gratifying. For my subsequent area, I’m not retaining any doorways. I want 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.