French singer Yelle is considered at the moment as one of the hottest acts around. Born in Brittany, Yelle became popular three years ago for putting on her MySpace page ‘Short Dick Cuizi’ a track in which she answered back to Cuizinier, a member of the Parisian hip-hop band TTC, with lyrics that went more or less like “I wanna see you in a porn flick, getting busy with your potato or French fried shaped dick, so your body will have no more secrets for me…”.
The track became an instant hit and Yelle started receiving concert requests from all over the world while she also attracted the interest of major record labels. Her combination of half-sung half-rapped tracks won her many fans and the music press soon hailed her as the best thing to come out of France. Her single ‘Je Veux Te Voir’ (‘I wanna see you’, a sort of new version of ‘Short Dick Cuizi’) became popular in selected circles in Paris, London and New York with Andrea Crews (you can read my post on AC here) releasing a limited series of T-shirts dedicated to Yelle’s hit and available on her website.
Yelle’s cover of the 1987 song ‘À Cause des Garçons’ by the eponymous French duo formed by Laurence Heller and Hélène Bérard also turned into a popular hit and her album ”Pop-Up”, recorded with producer GrandMarnier, was proclaimed THE summer album in Europe thanks to its mix of French electronica, pop and rap combined to tonnes of humour and a refreshingly laidback attitude, with lyrics about men, dildos and sex.
I love Yelle’s colourful DIY style, but I love her even more for her latest video. Directed by Yoann Lemoine, the video for Yelle’s single “Ce Jeu” was indeed styled by Belgian designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard.
In April Lespagnard won with his “Ich will nen Cowboy als Mann” (I want a cowboy as a husband – a 1963 Europop anthem by Danish singer Gitte) collection the Public Award and the French label 1.2.3 Award at the 23rd Hyères Festival International de Mode et de Photographie. Lespagnard’s collection was based on a fictional character named Jacqueline, a statuesque woman who runs a renowned “fritkot”, a traditional Belgian chip van. Jacqueline is a genuine fan of Danish kitsch singer Gitte Hænning and adores Texas. Her longing for this faraway land is such that she is dreaming of falling madly in love with a cowboy. This is mainly why her dress code borrows from cowboy outfits and rodeo clown costumes, with just a hint of exuberant sexiness that she uses to react to the loneliness and insignificance of her routine-like job. “The clowns’ outfits intrigued me as these colourful characters seem to wear the same outfits of the cowboys, but with bigger and more exaggerated silhouettes,” the young designer explained me a few weeks ago during an interview.
Lespagnard has a predilection for bright colours, extravagant volumes and different materials. Sculpturally puffed sleeves create exaggerated shoulder lines in boleros and jackets, highlighting the slimness of the waist; cowboy chaps or chinks, rather than being designed to protect the legs while on horseback, sensually reveal erogenous zones clad in see-through black organza with a green polka-dot print; traditional denims are reinterpreted, transformed into outlandish flared trousers that 
emphasise a tall silhouette; short canvas trousers are paired with body stockings in red and white, a direct reference to the rodeo clowns’ outfits but also to the striped cardboard containers that hold French fries; low-cut floor-length dresses with prints of Indians and cowboys are cut out of children’s teepee while mini-skirts paired with boleros are embroidered with funny cowboy-ish cartoon-like characters.
Each outfit that Lespagnard presented at Hyères was complemented by accessories, such as sunglasses, bracelets, earrings and Perspex platform shoes and boots, decorated with the ubiquitous pommes frites. “When I’m designing my clothes I think about the whole show,” Lespagnard told me. “I try to think about a total look, that is clothes, accessories, make up and the hairdo, every single aspect of the catwalk. I see the outfits and accessories as parts of an entire universe of fashion.”
This “total look” approach is what led Lespagnard to work also as stylist, often under the “Hertenkamp” moniker. He has done styling jobs for many magazines, among them also the Belgian lifestyle publications Weekend Knack, Victoire and Nina, Weekend Le Vif/L’Express. “Everything is connected in my work,” he explained me. “Sometimes people ask me to do a styling job for a magazine or for advertising and they give me a general theme and I’m free to do anything I want with it. So my decision has an impact on what a model gets to wear, on the sets and all the rest. But there are also times when I happen to be working with people who are very specific about what they want and my job then is just to go out and find the clothes.”
From the Yelle video teaser posted on YouTube, it looks like the red and white striped outfits from the "Ich will nen Cowboy als Mann" collection were used a lot in the video together with the Lespagnard’s accessories decorated with French fries, a very apt reference also to the lyrics from Yelle’s first infamous hit.
All pics from Jean-Paul Lespagnard’s lookbook by Laetitia Bica. To read my complete interview with Jean-Paul Lespagnard, check out Zoot Magazine, Summer Issue.
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