They are called Mouyakabi, Carmen, Nicolas, Younes, David, Jude or Théophane.
They come from France, Spain, North Korea, China or the Philippines with their heads full of dreams and the desire to do battle with an environment that fascinates and excites them.
They are the students of the Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design of the Institut Français de la Mode, this building in the shape of an apple green snake which zigzags in front of the Seine, quai d'Austerlitz, and which inaugurated its new campus of 8000 square meters.
Among the courses offered, the Bachelor, created in 2019, and directed by Thierry Rondenet and Hervé Yvrenogeau, brings together a total of 250 students (including 44% foreigners) who follow, over three years, a unique fashion design program, offered in French and in English.
A show in front of Brigitte Macron
Out of 71 third-year students, 32 were selected on the basis of the consistency of their collection, their technical level and the quality of their creative proposal by a committee of designers, stylists and casting directors during a first parade presented at the IFM, at the beginning of June, in view of the big day.
That of the Bachelor of Arts Show, the very first parade of the IFM, which, at 7 p.m. last Monday evening, presented on a campus catwalk the 32 collections of these new graduate talents.
A forty-minute show, made up of 6 looks for each of the selected students, 174 models and nearly 450 guests.
They tell with a very strong visual impact the world of today in their collections
Thierry Rondenet, co-director of the Bachelor
Among them, Brigitte Macron, who spent a lot of time in the preamble with each of the students, and many big bosses in the sector, including Sidney Toledano (CEO of the LVMH Fashion Group and new chairman of the board of directors of the IFM), Bruno Pavlovsky (Chanel), Guillaume de Seynes (Hermès) or Séverine Merle (Celine).
Also in the front row, Xavier Romatet (Director General of the IFM) and fashion designers (Isabel Marant, Julie de Libran, Mossi Traoré, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant de Coperni...) came to support and applaud these young future beginners big.
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32 students out of 71 were selected on the basis of the consistency of their collection.
Guillaume Roujas
Diverse generation and metaverse
“These 32 students were unanimous during the selection, specifies Thierry Rondenet, co-director of the Bachelor.
Both because they bring something different in the research of constructions and volumes but also because they tell with a very strong visual impact the world of today in their collections”.
Namely diversity - on the podium, the castings mixed all skin colors -, the
no gender
spirit , sustainable development, virtual worlds like those of the metaverse but also dystopian like those sometimes announced in a not so distant future, in short, all these parameters have become those of youth.
For example, Paul Billot, whose clothes with a torn spirit and shoes with wooden heels, as if burned, question the way in which sewing can be done in alarmist times such as the health crisis.
Or David Zhao whose futuristic 3D silhouettes are counterbalanced by the use of recycled materials such as fish leather salvaged from sushi shops.
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A professional jury judged the technique and creativity of third-year students from the Institut Français de la Mode.
Guillaume Roujas
Unlimited creativity
Very noticed too, the handsome nomadic boys of Mouyakabi Diomande whose clothes draw on Ivorian culture reinterpreted in a very contemporary aesthetic or these powerful looks, signed Lucendo Libretto, which mix black culture and French royalty, jeans with insane volume and beaded afro hair .
We were also able to see the big night like draped sobriety, the deceptively wise bourgeois like the playful and a little lewd geek, boys in beaded dresses like girls in oversized hoodies.
But above all, a creativity without barriers or borders that may open up new careers for these young graduates.
We wish them all the best.
