Manifesto
I design clothes for actual days. Days that move between work, walking, sitting, cycling somewhere, dinner, being at home and whatever happens in between.
I never really understood why clothes should divide those different parts of a life so neatly. Why a dress needs an occasion. Why a suit jacket has to work in one particular way. Or why we should change clothes just because the day keeps going after 5 PM.
I usually start with something familiar. A jacket. A shirt. A pair of trousers. A dress. Then I look at how it is normally made and ask whether it actually needs to work that way.
Sometimes I change the construction. Sometimes the proportion. Sometimes the fabric. Sometimes I remove something that annoys me. And sometimes I simply like the way a material moves, feels or sounds and start there.
A suit jacket does not need to hold the body in place to have structure. An oversized shirt does not have to be a normal shirt made bigger. A long dress does not need a special evening. And something that usually disappears underneath another layer can also be visible.
But not every piece needs a big idea behind it. Sometimes a dress is simply a really good dress.
Movement matters to me, but not because everything needs to be soft, wide or stretchy. I like structure. I also like space.
A waist can be defined and still leave room for the hips. A crisp fabric can stand away from the body without restricting it. A dress can have weight and still move easily. Those things do not cancel each other out.
The collection works in a similar way. It does not start again from zero every season. Pieces can stay, return and change over time. I think of it as a garderobe that grows.
Around the clothes there is another question that has been with me for a long time: femininity. Or more precisely, all the expectations that seem to come with it.
What looks feminine? What is appropriate? When is something too much? How much space should a woman take up? What should her life look like at a certain age? And who are we still dressing for?
I do not have a new definition of femininity to replace the old one. I am more interested in the fact that different things can be true at the same time.
Feminine and severe. Confident and unsure. Independent and still wanting closeness. Ambitious and tired. Elegant and completely ordinary.
We do not always have to choose one side. Clothes can hold those contradictions too.
And et amis is part of it too. Clothes eventually leave my hands. Other people make them, photograph them, wear them differently than I imagined and make them their own. I like that I do not control what happens next.
Maison Marron et amis is a fashion label. I make clothes. But the questions around them are part of it too.
