Trade fairs serving the fashion industry can be exciting events, as you always find intriguing products on display. Some attract you for their colours, others for their materials or for the techniques employed to make them. Xavier Brisoux's designs, recently on display in the Maison d'Exceptions section at Première Vision in Paris (the fair closed yesterday), make you stop and wonder.
Maison d’Exceptions offers the chance to outstanding craftsmen and ateliers to show their skills through their handmade creations and Xavier Brisoux started his career as a knitwear designer, but, as the years passed, he progressed onto textile art, and he is now focused on elevating knitwear to a new form of Haute Couture - Haute Maille. Moving from traditional fashion techniques including draping and pleating à la Madame Grès, and applying to knitwear an architectural vision, Brisoux developed an innovative technique that allows him to mould yarns into veritable sculptures. Some of his best examples were showcased at Maison d'Exceptions.
There were helmets, gauntlets, cuirasses and shoulder pieces on display, all made with his trademark knitted technique. All the designs look solid, yet they are soft, they are densely knitted, but they are also sensually revealing.
And that's when you want to stop and wonder not just how he made them, but if these are the sort of pieces Amazons on Themyscira wear. Or did Boudicca, ruler of the Iceni tribe, have a similar breastplate that perfectly highlighted her fierce blue warpaint? Or is that knitted alien cocoon-like bag what we will be carrying one day as we board a rocket to space?
The questions remain unanswered, but there's something that you can clearly see in these pieces: there's art and science and quite a bit of mathematics behind them. Besides, there's anatomy in the muscle-like configuration of some of Brisoux's armours and biology in those gauntlets with a structure reminiscent of the shell valves on chitons and, most certainly, there are impossibly fierce heroines from comic books behind all this. Last but not least, there is attention for the planet as Brisoux does not forget about sustainability, as proved by a piece made with recover jeans yarn from Hilaturas Ferre.
You can bet that, at some point, you will see some of these pieces featured in a sci-fi series, but also on the red carpet (you can definitely see that asymmetrical shoulder piece with a high collar donned on an impalpable tulle or organza evening gown, to create a juxtaposition of materials).
Often compared to Azzedine Alaïa for his technical prowess and his mastering of the knitting technique, Brisoux remains, for the time being, France's best kept secret. But that's not for long: Brisoux's innovative knitwear pieces have just won him a spot among the finalists of the prestigious Hyères Festival, so we will definitely hear more about him in the months to come.
Can you tell us more about Maison d'Exceptions at Première Vision?
Xavier Brisoux: Maison d'Exceptions is a dedicated area within the fabric fair Première Vision Paris showcasing the craftsmanship of the "métiers d'art". Very specific ateliers are presenting their unique techniques to a privileged and selected public coming from the highest fashion houses around the world. The variety of know-hows that are exhibited goes from feather work to mother-of-pearl to…knitwear of course!
Were you showcasing there a collection or a selection of your latest pieces?
Xavier Brisoux: More than a collection: I am promoting the technique I have developed over the last three years. This is shown through pieces of course, but the idea of a collection is not exactly relevant in the case of Maison d'Exceptions, because the public visiting are designers or creative decision makers, and the visit the show to try and find a technique to express their own creativity.
What inspired them?
Xavier Brisoux: The designs shown have a variety of inspirations all becoming one. In these pieces you will be able to read references that go from comic book aesthetics and underwater creatures to Japanese ancient armours, Greek mythology, geological stratas, African masks and H.R. Giger.
What kind of materials and techniques did you use to make them?
Xavier Brisoux: I have developed a very specific knitting technique that requires the human hand although it is made on a machine. It consists in creating a sort of pleating effect. Mixed with what we call partial knitting, which allows to knit certain stitches while the others are on hold, I create volumes. I really challenge myself into making these pieces in one panel only or to have the least possible number of panels. This technique has taken a long time to develop. The whole process is very time consuming. It is a matter of perfection, and perfection - although it will never be reached - requires patience. The number of hours spent on a piece is always important. This is Haute Couture. In actual fact, my concept is called "Maille Haute Sculpture" or "High Sculpture Knitwear". I have spent two whole years developing it before managing to obtain a result that I'm finally satisfied with.
So far you have taken your knitted techniques towards different directions, creating fashion pieces, but also art objects - in which other fields you would like to see your technique applied?
Xavier Brisoux: The idea when I started this project was to break down the walls in-between creative disciplines. I would not want my technique to be restricted to one field only. I consider myself a multi-disciplinary creator. An example of this is the work that I develop with artist Isabelle Soum. We create sculptures - I knit and she dips them into resin. So I'm already expanding into art. Given the right yarn, sky's the limit as this technique could become pieces of furniture, architecture, or god knows what else. I want to feel completely free and boundless.
How do you feel at being a finalist in the Fashion Category at the 35th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion accessories in Hyères?
Xavier Brisoux: I feel very privileged. It is an honour, and I feel also humbled by all the talent of other competitors. We had the opportunity to all spend three days together to launch our collection, visiting the best places in Paris, ateliers, sponsors like Première Vision, maisons des métiers d’Arts, Chloé and Atelier Aymeric Le Deun. So many doors are opening, it is unbelievable. I have access to fabrics and crafts that I would never had dreamt of. It is truly a thrilling experience so far, and I know that it will get even more intense in the months to come. I must thank all the team at Villa Noailles, Hyères - and in particular Jean Pierre, Laure and Thomas - for this intense experience. I'm also looking forward to visiting Robert Mallet-Stevens' villa in April. I am very fond of his work and had the opportunity in the past to shoot one of my collections at Villa Cavrois in the north of France, that was one of my dreams coming true! So it all bodes for a bright future.
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