Looking back to move forward: If there were a mantra summarizing the creative approach in pandemic times, it could be this. The guys of design collective Études—Aurélien Arbet, Jérémie Egry, and José Lamali—share the sentiment. For spring they went down memory lane to reframe their decade-old best-ofs in a new perspective. They called it “an exercise in introspection.”
The trio hails from Grenoble, France; when your birthplace is nestled among glorious snowy peaks and lush valleys, reconnecting with your roots sounds more like a perk than a nuisance. The look book’s images and the collateral video were shot against an immersive scenic backdrop, which agreed with the collection’s freewheeling vibe. Reworking tropes from past collections through a more spontaneous filter seemed to loosen up the trio’s approach, relaxing their signature take on French tailoring meets American street style and introducing a feel of ease and updated pertinence.
“We engaged our archival collections in a circular conversation they never had,” said Egry on a Zoom call from their atelier in Paris. “There’s something a bit egocentric in this approach,” added Lamali. The remix exercise was a layered affair: Some looks were styled together differently; old pieces were dusted off and proposed in new incarnations; still-viable silhouettes were tweaked and adjusted; and leftover stocks were revitalized and upcycled. “It isn’t a reedition—they’re not replicas,” explained Arbet. “For us it was more about a process of deep digging in our 19 previous collections and transforming what we thought was important into something new.”
For Études, that means finding a new sentiment de vérité, with no superfluous, cumbersome strings attached. Staying true to their penchant for artistic collaborations, they asked the estate of Yves Klein to provide the famous iconography of their International Klein Blue. It was infused as a peripheral chromatic halo on flocked and weathered surfaces, gracing the roomy shirting, baggy workwear denim, and oversized outerwear the Études designers favor. The gesture felt honest, handled with pared-down poise and a side of French cool.
