It is certainly not new, but it seems that the excitement that reigns in Roubaix in terms of reinvention of fashion is gaining momentum in 2018. The proof with 2 major events that will be held at ENSAIT, the School of Textile Engineering of the city, before the summer : the meeting organized on March 24 by the Anti_Fashion movement and La Redoute, a company established locally for 180 years and, two months later, the first edition of FashionGreenDays, Circular Fashion Forum, on the initiative of the very active association Nordcréa.

Former flagship of the textile industry from mid-nineteenth century till end of the 70s, Roubaix is ​​still experiencing the full impact of post-deindustrialization effects. Nevertheless, the initiatives continue to multiply to reinvent the heritage of the city. According to Majdouline Sbaï, a sociologist specialized in the environment and pilot of the FashionGreenDays project, “everywhere in Roubaix we feel that textile deindustrialization, and therefore the decline of an unsustainable economy, has had a lot of negative effects … But the city is therefore inhabited by a real desire to gather, to federate, and by very strong citizens, associative and entrepreneurial dynamic to try to provide solutions to social and ecological difficulties. Stéphanie Calvino, founder of the Anti_Fashion Project in Marseille, has spent a lot of time in Roubaix latest months and makes a similar observation: “a bit like Marseille, Roubaix is ​​a city that faces significant economic and social difficulties, but which at once is full of energy and dynamism to make things happen. I noticed that we are often much more creative when we have few resources and we learn to mobilize the best resources.

On Saturday March 24th March in Roubaix, the Anti_Fashion Project movement, which she founded alongside Li Edelkoort, will be the guest of La Redoute for a day of exchanges on the theme “how to rethink the fashion system.” This first meeting will be an opportunity to present the mentoring program developed in Roubaix since October 2017, in partnership with La Redoute at the initiative of Sylvette Lepers. This project was initiated in Marseille in January 2017 under the leadership of Sébastien Kopp, co-founder of Veja, and Stéphanie Calvino. The creative accompanying program around upcycling was then thought by Pierre Violet. The principle is to allow young people between 18 and 25, from disadvantaged neighborhoods, to learn about textile creation and then find a job in the fashion industry. In Marseille, participants had worked on the basis of second-hand jeans. Young Roubaisians are working on creations from unsold stocks of La Redoute. On Saturday they will present the beginnings of their projects at ENSAIT. The event, free and open to all, will allow, through various talks, to collectively think about major challenges to make the world of fashion more responsible, from creation to media coverage, through training. Among the speakers, several members of the UAMEP Label will be present, including Monia Sbouaï of Super Marché who will host an upcycling workshop for the occasion (find the full program of the day here).

Driven by the same desire to conceive the fashion of tomorrow, the FashionGreenDays will be held on May 24 and 25. They complete the FashionTechDays, also organized in Roubaix by Nordcrea since 3 years. For Majdouline Sbaï, the objective of this new forum is clear : “It is a matter of valuing the companies and creators of the circular fashion – including both eco-design and end-of-life issues of products, which form the vanguard of fashion today. But also to inspire and encourage collaboration with companies that are not yet so advanced in this area. Over two days, with 40 eco-responsible fashion brands and 30 talks planned (more details  here), the FashionGreenDays will bring together experts, designers, professionals and textile companies, students and the general public, to show that “This fashion that is good for the Planet and for Men” requires a completely different approach, both from the point of view of creation and economic models.

Thanks to its history and its textile and citizen ecosystem turned towards social and digital innovation, Roubaix is right on the way to becoming a new capital of responsible and circular fashion. Majdouline Sbaï and Stéphanie Calvino are both convinced. “Today we would like Roubaix to become the capital of a new revolution, that of circular fashion, of the ecological transition, which refers to the” third industrial revolution “theorized by Jeremy Rifkin,” concludes the sociologist. A fantastic way of evolution for this northern city, already pioneering in the field of “zero citizen waste”, in order to create employment and perpetuate the historical know-how in a sustainable way.

Cover picture thanks to : Anne-Laure Eustache / P.O.P

Early 2018, our ambassador member WYLDE has moulted, assisted by Boyfriends Agency. The brand now presents its second skin on a new website, entirely thought around the sensory experience, in the trend of the event « Ce que tu portes te découvre » organized in the hotel Le Pigalle end of last year.

To bring out this new identity, the two pilots of the brand, Clarissa et Marylene, have chosen to let go and to discover themselves to better rediscover WILDE. A new mantra « Break down barriers » has naturally emerged from this intimate travel, as a call to focus on intimacy, to express ones emotions and creativity in a free way, in order to open oneself to others, to accept differences and to come closer: « We believe in those who give, those who liberate, those who marvel, those who reach out, and those who follow their instinct. It is for them that we create WYLDE ».

The « About » page immediately gives the new website the sensible and organic color : heart beats for the sound universe, WILDE’s W animated like an electrocardiogram, raw pictures of body parts and just some sentences that resonate like a prose poem. So many signs that evoke the (re) birth, the self discovery, the freedom of the body and the the senses to go to other ways of doing and being, more transparent.

The garment as language therefore takes more than ever a free interchangeable second skin dimension at WILDE. It reveals the identity, breaks down the barriers between internal and external worlds, between bodies and genders. The brand thus reaffirms the universal and unisex dimension of its creations, already introduced in several collections, namely the capsules of unique upcycled pieces « No Genre » and « Cut Up » end 2017. The clothe then becomes a « bond between oneself, the world and others, a bond that frees shackles, that « pulses », that unites », always strictly respecting Human and the planet.

The 2018 spring-summer collection « Beat Slowly », ready to buy on the new e-shop, is a perfect illustration of this bias. Under the sign of slow life,the fresh, minimalist and asymmetric pieces that compose it have been thought to fit all bodies and be worn in  many different ways, like the bicolor  top « Nat », reversible and modular thanks to an innovative system of removable panels.

A soft and decidedly contemporary chameleon universe, to discover in pictures below in the film-campaign directed by Axel J. Sannino from Boyfriends Agency that presents thez collection. Slow and beautiful.

www.wylde-paris.com

Founding member of the label UAMEP and ambassador member with her garments’ brand P.O.P., Anne-Laure Eustache has multiple talents at her creative bow : graduated designer from Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré, recently iconographer graduated from Lille University, she grew up between Vienna, where she spend 15 years in her childhood, and the North of France where she now lives and works.

Settled in Ateliers Jouret in Roubaix, she constantly experiments the boundaries between art and fashion, images and words, organic materials and textiles. Poetry, alternative cultures, know-how and savoir-vivre of the world inhabit her and are permanent sources of inspiration in her creative work. The P.O.P. collections, entirely made by Anne-Laure herself in her workshop with fabrics scrupulously sourced from long-standing French suppliers, are thus refined, easy to appropriate and at the same time loaded with dreams and sensitivity.

« Kim », « W(e)aves », « Pensées abstraites d’une grenade en hiver », « La Course », their names are an invitation to an imaginary and emotional travel, just like the chameleon clothes that compose them. In her approach, the designer is in constant search and tries to “make simplicity a discipline of life “while accepting the complexity of human feelings” as she explains in her Chinese portrait for Hummade magazine (to discover here). Exigency, thinking, respect, human and artistic commitment, minimalism … so many biases that found the essence of the label UAMEP of which Anne-Laure Eustache is a perfect embodiment.

Discover her whole universe on the new website collections P.O.P as well as her editorial « La simplicité est un long voyage », that explains her commitment for UAMEP.