At the same rate that the word coronavirus was becoming ubiquitous, in our conversations the term sustainability colonized the fashion lexicon.
From Armani to H&M, to Chloé, there is no firm whose communication does not revolve around the research of ecological fabrics or the saving of natural resources.
The phenomenon is not new, but it has been exacerbated during confinement.
The pandemic has forced a global reflection on the future of the planet and the textile industry - the second most polluting after aeronautics - has responded unevenly: some brands have accelerated a transformation in which they have been working for years, that is, they have put the batteries, while others have settled for introducing merely cosmetic changes.
The designer Marine SerreLéa Crespi / EPS
Only a third and small group of firms can boast of incorporating environmental awareness as standard, from the very beginning.
Among them, the French Marine Serre.
Created by the designer that gives it its name four years ago, it has become a benchmark in garment recycling, as well as the spoiled child of Paris Fashion Week.
An independent brand with a calculatedly risky aesthetic that has managed to gain a foothold in the international market thanks to stars like Beyoncé, Dua Lipa and Rosalía.
And that exemplifies the contemporary signature model: committed, nonconformist and based on community creative work.
At the helm, a designer of only 30 years, trained at the Higher National School of Visual Arts of La Cambre in Brussels -
alma mater
of the creative director of Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello - and who, after passing through the Alexander McQueen teams, Dior —during the time of Raf Simons— and Balenciaga, are well aware of the system they intend to question, starting with their specialty.
“Sustainability has become a marketing tool.
Now everyone says that it is green, and that generates mistrust, the doubt of whether or not it really is.
It is very frustrating that they put us all in the same bag, ”he argues on the other side of the screen.
He still remembers the disappointing reviews of his first collection, in which 30% of the garments were already made from discarded materials and clothing.
“They told us that
upcycling
was very complex and hard to sell.
Nobody supported us ”.
One of Marine Serre's designs with her famous crescent print Arnel dela Gente / EPS
Four years have passed and it is still difficult to modify a production process that has been established for decades, which consists of buying fabrics from a supplier, sending them to a supplier together with the patterns, receiving the garment and selling it.
Going off the beaten path is not only complex, but expensive.
It will be part of something that already exists - "scraps, scraps of
jeans
, old shawls" - and that you must clean and undergo a quality control to ensure that the part you are going to build from these elements is durable.
"In addition, we work with factories that are used to receiving a cylinder of fabric, putting it in their machines and making a garment with a traditional pattern."
The problem is not only the extra economic cost;
To complete this process and for their collections to reach the stores at the beginning of each season, they have the same time as the firms that produce in a classic way.
Serre could have chosen an easier path —and also more saturated—, but he says that the only reason for creating a brand instead of continuing to work for someone else was to try to offer a new approach within a luxury industry that, in its In his opinion, it had been "turned into something that did not make sense" for some time.
Its sustainable approach is beginning to be appreciated.
Serre feels that more and more people share his philosophy, partly thanks to the fact that the pandemic has accelerated a change that had been brewing in public opinion for years: “During confinement, many people have stopped to think about what makes them happy, what is it? important, what you need.
You want to know what you are consuming.
It is not just about how the clothing is produced, but who sews it, under what conditions and how it is sold.
People no longer want a dream, but to know what is behind it;
wants a story.
Fashion is no longer just magic, and I think that is very good ”.
Serre works on the inspiration wall for his designs.
Léa Crespi / EPS
The data confirm this discourse.
During the second half of 2020, his shirt printed with half moons (around 310 euros) became the most sought after garment of the season, according to data from Lyst, one of the online fashion platforms with the greatest reach and whose reports analyze the buying habits of more than nine million consumers.
The demand for this piece grew 426% after it was worn by Beyoncé in her video Black is King, as well as by Dua Lipa, Kylie Jenner or Rosalía.
According to Serre, there is no contract or agreement with these
celebrities
.
“It is something organic.
It always comes from them to ask us for the clothes ”.
It is undeniably commendable that an independent brand manages to sneak one of its designs among the most iconic of the year, competing with firms 100 times the size that can - and are experts at - pay for each mention on Instagram.
But the system has always trusted its vision of fashion.
In 2017, Serre won the LVMH award, endowed with 300,000 euros and whose jury was made up of leading figures from the sector such as Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo and Nicolas Ghesquière.
This prestigious recognition opened the doors to Paris Fashion Week, where critics, buyers and
celebrities
anointed her as the great hope of French design.
But the parades that contributed so much to boost it do not satisfy Serre today.
“I wonder if it is still interesting to see a woman walking down the runway.
Does it give you something?
Does it make you dream?
Also, only an elite can enjoy the full experience live - feel the tension, the lights, the people - but we make clothes for everyone [prices for their clothes range from 150 euros for a T-shirt to models of haute couture made to order] ”.
A Red Line necklace, Marine Serre's most exclusive line.Léa Crespi / EPS
Serre believes that the solution is not to broadcast a show behind closed doors.
In his opinion, this formula fails to reproduce analogue sensations.
The right medium, in his case, has ended up being a short.
Conceptual and loaded with a sense of humor, the video shows a spring-summer collection that "seeks to reflect on what we are experiencing and, at the same time, be consistent with the fact that we have been in tracksuits for six months."
The result is a selection of soft garments, made “with regenerated products” and that work like a second skin, such as the kung-fu jumpsuit, which aims to “make it easy for us to run away”.
Of course, this proposal does not lack its
best seller
: the half moons print, which also appears on the shoes and boots that make up its collaboration with the nothing alternative Jimmy Choo, one of the three most important luxury footwear firms in the world. world.
The sales figures and critical acclaim inevitably raise a question: will Serre bring his understanding of contemporary luxury to some old brand in need of fresh air?
“I have received several offers.
But, for the moment, the firm that is doing the most interesting things in the sector is the one I am with;
and as long as that doesn't change, neither will I ”.
An answer as hackneyed as the term sustainability, but one that, like this one, sounds authentic in Serre's mouth.
