“Everyone is obsessed with ‘storytelling’, and, I must say, I’m really bad at that,” Chloé’s creative director Natacha Ramsay-Levi tells Vogue, her apathy for modern-day marketing speak collapsing into self-deprecating laughter. In an industry where we’ve grown to expect designers to reel off media-trained soundbites, the formidable Parisian designer is set to throw a triumphant fashion week curveball on 27 February by doing something which, for generations, women at the top of their game have been condescendingly warned never ever to do: she’s putting her emotions first.
“This show marks my third anniversary at Chloé — I now have the maturity and the confidence to show my sensitivity and be more true to myself. To be able to reveal that, and share it, is beautiful,” she says on the phone from her Paris studio. “There’s always a pragmatism to Chloé which I like, but [for AW20] I wanted to show my fragility.”
With this newfound openness comes a very personal glimpse into Natacha Ramsay-Levi's process. Back in December 2019, the designer began talking with her friend, French sculptor Marion Verboom, about constructing the AW20 catwalk set using the voluptuous jesmonite columns — titled Tectonies — that were shown as part of the ‘Infinite Sculpture’ exhibition at Beaux-Arts de Paris, which closed mid-February. In their earliest conversations, the two exchanged references on everything from Art Nouveau craftsmen René Lalique and François Décorchemont, to cryptogramming and the writings of Blaise Cendrars and Jorge Luis Borges, but it was ultimately friendship itself that won out. “You have to be tough to run a house like Chloé, but I’m also someone who needs creative spirits, like Marion, around,” says Natacha Ramsay-Levi.\
Here, the designer and sculptor lead a conversation on their relationship with the past and how their work came together for the AW20 show.
A mutual discovery
Natacha Ramsay-Levi (NRL): “One of my closest friends showed me Marion’s work back when I was working on my first collection for Chloé [for SS18], knowing instinctively that I would connect with it. She creates with her hands, so you can feel the sensuality to it. I’m a bit the same. At the time, I thought about what we could do [together], [however] as it was my first show for Chloé, I wasn’t very comfortable about doing a collaboration. But we were [also] opening Maison Chloé in Paris and we needed to give life to the building, so the first thing I asked was, ‘Can we buy some of Marion’s sculptures?’ I loved the idea that the first thing people saw of the building would be the sculptures. We will be holding the AW20 show in that same space.”
Marion Verboom (MV): “I was surprised when Natacha first got in touch. I’d never been contacted by the fashion world and here was this very impressive, very cool, very clever woman. It’s her spirit as an explorer and her freedom that inspires me — she embodies the idea that everything is possible as long as you stay excited and curious.”
A creative connection with the past
MV: “My immediate connection with Natacha’s work is that she likes to recreate a new sense of time by incorporating concepts from other periods in history. We also share an interest in things that are seen as a little bit ‘outcast’.”
NRL: “Yes, it’s exactly that. Beyond the visual, the moment that I connected with Marion’s work was when I discovered that she uses traces of the past to have a dialogue with the present. This is something that I am very sensitive to. History is ancestral and infiltrates our subconscious. I love the way that Marion recalls the past into a super-sharp modernity.
“When I arrived at Chloé, it was a house that I’d loved forever, since day one. I like to have a glimpse of the past, to refer to Phoebe [Philo]’s, to Stella [McCartney]’s, [Chloé founder] Gaby Aghion’s and Karl [Lagerfeld]’s work, because I think history compels you to add layers and complexities. [This was why] I called my first show, ‘Traces alone engender dreams’. History is also a part of my education; I wanted to be a historian for years. The more you know your context, the brighter you will be. This is something I find in Marion’s work as well.”
MV: “Natacha is very grounded in history of fashion, art, literature, cinema. I think through fashion, she expresses how culture can be a real treat, a food for life. My art has dense roots, too. I fuel my work by keeping my eyes very open across different fields.”
The meaning behind the sculptures in the AW20 show
MV: “The sculptures themselves are called Tectonies, they are each an assemblage of 10 different casts, which create columns or sequences, inspired by Graeco-Roman architecture and Roman style churches. I was influenced, in particular, by Chryselephantine sculptures (the most famous one is the disappeared monumental Athena, which was originally installed into the Parthenon). [At the AW20 show, the gilded totems will be soundtracked by the voice of Marianne Faithfull, reading classical poetry.] It felt very natural to show this body of work, and make them ‘dance’, alongside Natacha’s designs.”
NRL: “We knew from the start that we didn’t need to create something new. Marion’s existing work is already a part of Chloé because it was a part of my inspiration and my thinking. I’m not a designer who works alone and it’s part of the joy of my work that there is a community of creative spirits around me. Of course, there are moments when I need solitude, emptiness and silence to clear my head, but my inspiration really comes from building a team. That’s why I asked Marion to be a part of the AW20 show — having the models walk through Marion’s sculptures is ultimately also about how I think of a Chloé woman. She’s not an object, she’s living and she has secret complexities. All the inspirational people around me are a reminder that I’m not alone. This is why I love to show this work as a part of Chloé’s story and this is why I chose Marion.”
Tectonies by Marion Verboom will be exhibited at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, from 24 April to 7 September 2020
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